Mr. Chair, thank you for being so gracious with Ms. Dabrusin and helping her understand the credibility of my argument.
This has to do with charter rights. This has to do with discoverability. This has to do with algorithms. This has to do with regulations. I'm talking about creators, and I understand that the members of this committee seem to be uncomfortable, for whatever reason, talking about the greatness that exists within the Canadian people who have determined to be creators on these digital first platforms.
I'm unsure as to why that discomfort exists. I'm unsure as to why the members of this committee have refused to hear their voices. I'm unsure as to why the members of the government would like to force this piece of legislation through without first considering those who are going to be impacted by it in negative ways.
I can only assume that there is some alternative agenda at play here, because I don't know why else a government would wish to punish a good section of our population who, again, have invested the time, talent, money and energy into being productive citizens, into being able to promote material that Canadians are accessing freely and enjoying.
I'll also mention that they're creating an income for themselves, many of them a full-time income. More than 25,000 of those individuals who are Canadian are producing an income of over $100,000 a year. It's amazing. I'm just so baffled by the fact that we're not actually celebrating that as a committee. I'm baffled by a government that started out by saying they were all for seeing the expansion of e-commerce, yet this bill is a direct attack on that. It's a mystery to me.
Here we are, with a few minutes left before the five hours are up, before the gag order takes full effect, before my voice and the voices of my Conservative colleagues on this committee are quelched, but most importantly, we have a few minutes left before the voices of these tens of thousands of creators are wiped out, silenced, put into a black hole, before the government implements regulatory measures that are either going to move them up in the queue or down in the queue, show them favouritism or punish them for their success, determine who gets to succeed and who doesn't. It's a sad day. I'll end there.