Thank you, Madam Chair.
It's interesting to me that my colleague raises this question of right and wrong. He is saying to you, as chair.... I believe he was saying through you, perhaps to me, that I know what is right.
It's interesting to me, because what I know to be right is to defend Canadians. What I know to be right is to insist on truth. What I know to be right is to fight for justice, which means that we should be pursuing clarity with regard to Bill C-11 and insisting on a revised charter statement, so that we can in fact make sure that user-generated content is kept out of the scope of this bill and that it is clarified to the nth degree by the justice minister.
That is what I know to be right, in case Mr. Julian cares to understand my moral compass and what I am contending.
With regard to Bill C-11 and the charter statement that has been put in front of us, as of April 1, 2022.... I've lost my train of thought, so I'll just start from the beginning with regard to the explanatory note.
It states, “Section 4.2 of the Department of Justice Act requires the Minister of Justice to prepare a Charter Statement for every government bill to help inform public and Parliamentary debate on government bills.” In other words, this statement exists to inform the conversation that takes place here. If the charter statement is in fact misinterpreted or not clear, then it is actually not informing us correctly, but rather misinforming us in terms of how we move forward on Bill C-11.
This explanatory note goes on to state, “One of the Minister of Justice’s most important responsibilities is to examine legislation for inconsistency with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [“the Charter”]. By tabling a Charter Statement, the Minister is sharing...”.
I'm sorry, Madam Chair, but there are a number of members here in the room who are speaking, and it's a bit distracting.
I'll just let you speak to that.