Committee
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Consult the user guide
For assistance, please contact us
Add search criteria
Results: 106 - 120 of 120
View Marc Garneau Profile
Lib. (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
It is a pleasure to be with you today, Mr. Chair.
China’s increasing authoritarianism and coercive diplomacy are challenges for democracies around the world. All countries are reassessing and realigning their engagement with China, and Canada is no exception.
We are all trying to decide how we can reconcile our trade objectives, our security objectives and our human rights objectives. Given the circumstances, our approach to China is constantly evolving. It is firmly guided by our principles, values and interests, while acknowledging the complexity of our relationship.
China is rapidly becoming a global influence with which all countries must learn to coexist. That means that we must recognize situations in which it is necessary to cooperate with China, for example on global problems like climate change. However, it also means that we are competing with China when it comes to trade and to promoting our values.
It also implies challenging China when human rights are violated or Canadian citizens and interests are jeopardized.
We must continue to work with our partners around the world to protect the rules-based international order and defend human rights and freedoms. Those are fundamental Canadian values that underpin our foreign policy.
Let me be clear. A path to any kind of long-term relationship with China implies the safe return of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor to Canada. Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor have been unlawfully detained for more than 900 days. Bringing them home is and must remain our top priority in our dealings with China, period. Both men received regular visits two weeks ago from consular officials, who remarked on their impressive strength and resilience. We continue to call for their release while pressing China to allow consular access to other Canadian citizens held in that country, namely Mr. Huseyin Celil, so that we can confirm his well-being. We also seek clemency for Robert Schellenberg and for all Canadians facing the death penalty.
Alongside international partners, we continue to call out China for its bad behaviour. We have called on China to put an end to the systematic campaign of repression against Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in light of mounting evidence of forced labour, political re-education, torture and forced sterilization. We announced sanctions against four officials and one entity for their involvement.
We are also working with allies at the G7 Quad and Five Eyes to condemn China's growing militarization in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, where China claims vast areas, which fuels regional tensions.
China's economic might has emboldened its ambitions and interests beyond the Asia-Pacific region, where it has enjoyed enormous clout for centuries, to span the entire globe, including here in Canada. Growing competition with China and the pervasive use of digital technology forces us to work with other governments, businesses and universities to protect intellectual property and digital infrastructure and even to shield our democratic institutions from foreign interference and election meddling.
Hostile activities by state actors pose strategic long-term threats to Canada. They can undermine our nation's economic, industrial, military and technological advantages. Researchers and innovators, for example, are vulnerable to espionage and hacking.
Last September, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry launched the new portal called Safeguarding Your Research, which provides tools and advice to Canadians on how best to protect their intellectual property.
In March, the ministers of Public Safety and Innovation, Science and Industry announced the development of specific risk guidelines to integrate national security considerations into the evaluation and funding of research partnerships.
We are also working with other G7 countries to counter foreign interference, notably through the Canadian initiative called “rapid response mechanism”, which strengthens coordination across the G7 in identifying, preventing and responding to threats to G7 democracies through disinformation.
Unfortunately, we are currently seeing a resurgence in anti-Asian hate, since the beginning of the pandemic, in Canada and around the world.
Canadians of Chinese and Asian heritage are our neighbours, our colleagues, our friends and our family members. They should never feel that they are in danger or threatened because of their origin.
View Francesco Sorbara Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Chair, and good morning to everybody. It's nice to be here this Monday morning, and again, welcome, Minister. It's great to see you here today. Thank you for all the hard work that you and your team are undertaking for all Canadians.
Minister, the first thing I would like to inquire about is the following. In mid-January, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation conducted a survey on Canadians' perceptions and recommendations on the spread of hate speech and racism on social media platforms. The survey shows that racialized groups are three times more likely to be exposed to or targeted by violence on social media. The proliferation of such content can result in hate crimes, which have gone up seven per cent this year across the country. These numbers have resonated painfully with our own recent history. Just four years ago, six people were murdered as they gathered for the evening prayer at the Grand Mosque in Quebec City. Islamophobia and xenophobia motivated this act. We learned shortly after that the perpetrator was radicalized through social media.
People here in Canada are harmed and victimized by hateful, violent, extremist, terrorist and radicalizing content. The online environment amplifies and spreads hateful messages against minority communities and the disenfranchised in ways we have never seen before. It's actually quite terrifying, to be honest.
Given that creating new regulations for social media platforms is in your mandate letter, and you mentioned you would bring legislation forward soon, could you provide us with an update on the essential work you are doing to protect Canadians online?
Thank you, Minister.
View Steven Guilbeault Profile
Lib. (QC)
As I said, we have been hard at work for more than a year to prepare this legislation. We've held consultations with, as I said, in my case, more than 140 organizations. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice also held some consultations on some of the more legal aspects of the legislation and issues pertaining to the Criminal Code.
It is a complex issue. There are only a handful of countries in the world that have introduced legislation to do that, namely France and Germany; I spoke earlier about Australia, and the United Kingdom tabled a white paper on this just this past December. I was on the phone recently with the heritage minister in the U.K. to discuss that.
It is a complex issue, but nonetheless an issue we want to tackle. You referred to the 24-hour takedown notion, which is, in fact, in the mandate letter the Prime Minister gave to me at the beginning of the mandate. It's a more novel element; very few countries are doing that. The Australians are just introducing this in their legislation. We want to ensure that we find this right balance, and that's what we're working towards. It is still my intention to introduce the legislation in the very near future, but let me give you, perhaps, one other example of how online hate affects Canadians, and more specifically, indigenous people in this country.
I want to give you two quick examples, if I may. In 2018, two women in Flin Flon, Manitoba were charged with uttering threats and inciting hatred after posting a photo of a vandalized car, saying that indigenous people would be killed and calling for a “shoot an Indian day”. In 2020, two known nationalist groups called the Proud Boys and the Sons of Odin used social media to threaten and attack members of the Wet'suwet'en community during the pipeline protest. In fact, data from Statistics Canada show that police-reported hate crimes against indigenous people are on the rise. Between 2016 and 2018, incidents targeting first nations, Métis and Inuit communities rose by 17% during those two years alone.
View John Williamson Profile
CPC (NB)
Thank you.
That was very strong testimony.
Professor Ong, you've been very patient. I, for one, would love to hear your recommendations, because I liked how you opened up your remarks about the balance between civil rights in this country versus the security threat.
I have five minutes. I'll give you a couple of minutes and then I'm hoping for a little dialogue.
I'd love to hear your recommendations. I will cut you off after three and a half or four minutes, but it's over to you until then.
Lynette H. Ong
View Lynette H. Ong Profile
Lynette H. Ong
2021-05-03 19:07
Thank you for that opportunity and the question.
For number one, I would recommend that we boost our immunity by educating relevant government agencies on the risk of foreign interference and espionage. As someone who knows and understands China, I am also quite alarmed by some of the very basic things that we could have avoided, such as working with Chinese police agencies. I think the chain may be very long, but if someone had done the work of investigating who actually owns VFS, I think we could avoided that problem earlier.
My number two recommendation is that official discussion on espionage and foreign interference should adopt country-agnostic language. That is in light of the skyrocketing anti-Asian hate crimes that have been going on since the onset of the pandemic.
For number three, I would recommend an increase in funding of Chinese language media and outreach programs to grassroots Chinese communities in order to reduce their reliance, as I mentioned, on foreign media sources for news and information coming from China.
Number four is to recognize the enormous diversity of the Asian or Chinese community in Canada. Their allegiance to either the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party should not be presumed.
View Colin Carrie Profile
CPC (ON)
View Colin Carrie Profile
2021-04-12 12:02
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and ministers.
Throughout this study, we've been talking about the privacy and reputations of those who have had their private sexual images uploaded to adult websites without their consent. We've heard from many of these victims, and many of them are children. They're also victims of sexual violence and human trafficking.
Minister Blair, you called these crimes heinous acts. Do you believe that perpetrators of human trafficking deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law, yes or no?
View Colin Carrie Profile
CPC (ON)
View Colin Carrie Profile
2021-04-12 12:02
Thank you.
Minister Lametti, do you believe perpetrators of human trafficking deserve to be punished to the fullest extent of the law—yes or no?
View Kamal Khera Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Minister.
On the same topic, in the main estimates you were seeking increased funding for the security infrastructure program, and I believe we have quadrupled the funding since forming the office. What role does this program play in protecting communities at risk, including the ones I just mentioned?
View Bill Blair Profile
Lib. (ON)
I'll try to be brief, but it's such a great program. It provides resources to religious institutions and community organizations that are at risk, that are vulnerable and that are too often the target of hatred and intolerance.
We have quadrupled the funding for the security infrastructure program, but I will tell you, it's always oversubscribed. We work very closely with all of the organizations that seek this funding. We encourage them to participate. It has proven to be a valuable asset to them, and it helps them improve their security infrastructure. It's a part of society's response and we're going to continue to support those organizations. We also know that our departments and agencies, law enforcement and national security have a responsibility as well, and we're going to step up on every front.
View Randall Garrison Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I know the minister is aware that during the pandemic we've seen a rise in hate crimes directed against Asian, Black and other racialized Canadians. We've seen the ongoing scourge of anti-Semitism at very high levels including in my own community. We [Technical Difficulty—Editor] very public graffiti, which the police dealt with very well, as did the volunteers who cleaned it up and the media, by not showing the images during that incident.
One of the things we lost under the previous Conservative government was section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which allowed the Canadian Human Rights Commission to take action on complaints about hate crimes. I'm wondering if the government has any plans to bring forward legislation to restore that section or a similar kind of section to the Canadian human rights code.
View David Lametti Profile
Lib. (QC)
The best source for that question is around you all the time. It's my parliamentary secretary, Arif Virani, whom I have tasked to work with Minister Steven Guilbeault and Minister Bill Blair with respect to the question of hate generally, whether it's online or not, and also with respect to the question of whether we reintroduce section 13 or some revised version of section 13.
Those studies and discussions are ongoing. I will leave it to my counterpart ministers and my parliamentary secretary to make an announcement at the appropriate moment. I can say that those discussions are very much ongoing and hopefully will lead to positive fruit. You've heard Minister Guilbeault already say that we plan to make some announcements with respect to hate and hate online. I will leave this to him.
View Jenny Kwan Profile
NDP (BC)
All right.
I'm going to move on to Ms. Watts. On the issue of racism, in my own riding, in and around Chinatown, we've had some horrible incidents where the Chinese cultural centre's window have been smashed and the centre defaced. There's been a whole variety of activities happening. One issue that people have raised is that people are often not comfortable going to the police and reporting this. In particular, suggestions were made that people could perhaps go to an NGO in the riding and perhaps in the community so that they could do the reporting that way.
I wonder what your thoughts are on this and whether or not the government should make it easier for people to report those kinds of hate crimes.
Jennifer Watts
View Jennifer Watts Profile
Jennifer Watts
2020-12-07 16:32
Yes, absolutely. One of the programs that we did, particularly after the killing of George Floyd and the emergence of Black Lives Matter.... In Halifax, we have quite a strong and historic African Nova Scotian community that was also impacted by this. We set up opportunities for people to gather, particularly mothers and parents who were very concerned about their children. I think it's incumbent on us as settlement agencies to offer safe spaces so people can come together, and we did mobilize that. It was difficult because we were doing that virtually, but we did do it. I also think it about discussing it and engaging with your local police authority and officials on a regular basis, and understanding the reporting of racism. Sometimes what we found is that people say, “This incident happened to me” and the response was, “Did you work with a police officer?”, to which the person replied, “I did, but I don't really know what happened”—
Results: 106 - 120 of 120 | Page: 8 of 8

|<
<
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Export As: XML CSV RSS

For more data options, please see Open Data