Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being with us.
I wanted to talk a bit and hear from all of you about the topic of the consequences of freedom of expression, because we've heard a couple of comments to this effect. I want to focus specifically on when political leaders lie to cause people to believe something that is untrue or to the detriment of not necessarily the government or the opposition, but of Canadian society.
Recently we had an example of a member of Parliament from the Conservative Party using her freedom of expression to say the cost of living crisis had driven parents to traffic their own children. We then had the Leader of the Opposition make a very public statement that prayer had been banned from Remembrance Day services.
These were proven to be out-and-out lies. I'm using that word specifically because a lie is something that is not true, and both of those things were proven to not be true.
What are the consequences of those types of freedom of expression?