Thank you, Mr. Chair. I certainly will bring it back to how it applies to this legislation and this particular amendment. This amendment will put parameters around who will be affected by the legislation.
As I was pointing out, with the cannabis legislation that was put through, there were no parameters put in place. That legislation could have been modified. It could have been amended so that it didn't have the unintended consequences that it is having now for individuals in their homes, for constituents and for people. They are who we have to consider when we're drafting legislation. We need to consider not just the big corporations but every individual, every constituent, who may be affected, intentionally or unintentionally, by legislation. This piece of legislation needs to be amended so that we don't have those unintended consequences. That is why I brought this issue forward.
We've also seen how interpretations can be changed or reinterpreted on very short notice, even though the interpretation or the regulation has been in place for years. I refer to a recent reinterpretation of fisheries regulations that basically risked putting the entire spot prawn fleet—or a large portion of the spot prawn fleet—out of work this summer in British Columbia, simply because someone reinterpreted how the regulation should apply.
It's just another example of how the legislation needs to be fully thought through. There need to be parameters put in place to ensure that we don't have those unintended consequences. Ms. Rempel Garner said it best. When people back at this legislation in 10 years' time, we want them to say that we got it right. We don't want them to look back and say, “Boy, they really messed up on this: they should have had parameters; they should have had guidelines; they should have made sure this legislation affected those it really was aimed at.”
That's where this legislation started out. We understood months ago, in November 2020, that this legislation was to make those media giants, online giants, pay their fair share towards Canadian content. Now we have changes to it in the final hours that really make Canadians concerned for their freedom of expression. I've never had as much correspondence to my office, to me individually and to me on the street—about anything—as I have had about this piece of legislation. People are concerned that they may have their personal content censored online by the CRTC, by the powers that are in this bill, if we can't modify it, if we can't amend it through these sensible amendments that my colleagues have put forward.
Mr. Rayes, I commend you for recognizing a flawed piece of legislation and how to correct it so that it could be moved forward. These are the actions that we need to take as individual legislators and as a committee: to point out the flaws, to make the corrections, to make the amendments and to make a bill that works for every Canadian, not just the ones who we think are going to support this mass move towards censorship of Canadian content.
Mr. Chair, I'll wrap up fairly shortly here. As you can see by what I've put forward, I've pointed out how the rushed legislation of the past has caused unintended consequences. We certainly don't want—and I don't want—to be responsible. As my first opportunity to have any input into this committee or this legislation, I don't want people to look back at what I did on this committee and say that it was a mistake.
Mr. Chair, we can do better than this, and I certainly hope we do.
I would now turn it back to one of my colleagues, who I'm sure has more to say.