Canadian Heritage Committee on May 6th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Mr. Rayes, I am loath to interrupt you, because I have this funny feeling you're on a roll.

Just to clarify one thing, from here on in, in the future, if you want to ask a question of our officials, I am assuming that, once the question has been answered by the department, we're going to move on to the next person. I allowed you to do that because we never really clarified that rule to put what you want to say up front.

Folks, that being said, we have now reached what we consider to be the end time of this meeting, but we have a little bit of grace.

Mr. Rayes, if it's okay with you, we have two more speakers.

[Alain Rayes, Conservative, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Chair, you've brought me back to order and I respect your decision. I wanted to make a point, but I'll stop here.

I just wish Ms. Dabrusin had told me what she thinks of Michael Geist so that we would know whether he was credible or not. It would have allowed us to make a judgment afterwards. However, I have the impression that I won't get an answer to my question, as is usually the case during question period.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

The reason may be that Mr. Waugh is up next.

We'll have Mr. Waugh. I had Ms. McPherson, but not any longer.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'll withdraw. I'm just trying to make us go ahead.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

You have probably just become a champion of many.

Mr. Waugh, go ahead, but we are running short on time.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

I will be short. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank Mr. Ripley and the staff. It's been a difficult time. I think this bill is even more of an issue, because—let's face it—it has been three decades since it's been looked at.

As a member of Parliament, I am so proud of our youth in this country. It was a week ago today that all the papers in this country flagged proposed section 4.1. Within the last seven days I have never seen the outburst that I have seen from our youth in our country. I am so proud of those who use social media. A lot of them, as we know, are the younger generation.

As politicians we sometimes forget that we are going to leave the broadcasting bill eventually in their hands. They are going to be the ones who own this. I am so proud of all the young people in this country who have phoned, emailed and written—some of them here even in Saskatoon—to the minister about their concerns on this bill.

It wasn't until last Thursday that it hit the fan. Yes, we've had our experts and Ms. Dabrusin, you had yours. We've talked about Dr. Geist. The experts, though, are the citizens—especially the young ones in this country. For the first time that I can remember in decades, they have stood up and said that's enough. They want free expression. They want to have social media and use it the way they've been using it today. They do not want big government looking over their shoulder.

I was concerned when I asked the question to the current chair of the CRTC, Ian Scott, and he replied back that he needed to go to Treasury Board. Now we're giving them more powers and I know he said at our committee that he can't do anything until he gets a lot more money from the Treasury Board.

I know we are going over time here, but I just wanted to make the point that I am so proud of our youth in this country. Sometimes, as politicians, we forget who we serve. They reminded us in the last 10 days that they are out there, they are watching us and they don't like what they see in this bill. That is evident with the feedback that the current government and all opposition members have received on this bill.

Remember, we have one mouth and two ears. The ears are ringing because the youth in this country have signalled to us, as politicians, that they don't like this bill. They do not like what is going on. We have an obligation to the youth of this country, because they are going to be leading it very shortly.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

Folks, we normally adjourn at the designated time through implied consent.

Mr. Shields, I'm assuming that you're not consenting to that. Would you like to have a few remarks?

[Martin Shields, Conservative, Bow River, AB]

I'm moving to adjourn.

[The Chair, Liberal, Scott Simms]

We have a motion to adjourn.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

We will see everyone tomorrow at one o'clock eastern time.

Thanks, everyone.