Evidence of meeting #69 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was google.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
I do not report to the board.
Liberal
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
Sean Downey.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Did you have a conversation with Sean about this intentional blocking of news?
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
This is a test. News is available to Canadians, good news—
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
No. I'm asking you a very simple question. Did you have a conversation with Sean, yes or no?
I would assume, if you report to Sean, that you would actually say that you're about to go testify at Parliament about this issue and, by the way, it's the issue around news being blocked.
Did you not have that conversation?
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
Madam Chair, the leadership was aware. I think I've answered that—
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
We have had a conversation about—
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Did you have a conversation with Sean, yes or no, about this issue of news being blocked?
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
Sean is aware. The leadership is aware in the normal course of business in Canada.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
Your boss, you and the folks you report to were all aware that Canadians, who rely on the news and who rely on good content, were intentionally being targeted—4% of them—with some algorithm that I'm sure you won't share with us, and they were intentionally being blocked from certain content.
What does the term “don't be evil” mean to you as a Google employee?
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
You're right to point out the importance of our role as Google employees in Canada—
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
What does that term “don't be evil” mean? Where does that come from? As a Google employee, do you know the history of that term?
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
The history of that term was in our founder's letter, and we have an impact in Canada of $37 billion. We work with 1.9 million businesses.
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
I wasn't asking for that.
“Don't be evil” came from one of your founders. The reason they actually put that out there—it was one of the founding mottos, and it was a bit of a jab to their competitors—was that they thought their competitors were exploiting users.
I would say that—
Liberal
Liberal
Michael Coteau Liberal Don Valley East, ON
If you, as an organization, actually intentionally block Canadians from getting good news content, that is not aligned with that original model—those guiding principles the company was founded on.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you very much, Mr. Coteau.
I think we are looking at 10 minutes left. I would like to get a sense. How much time do we have left for this room?
Three p.m. is the deadline. We have 10 minutes.
Can I do a quick round with everybody? You could each do, maybe, three minutes.
Is that good? That will take us to maybe five minutes after.
The next person on would be from the Conservatives.
Do you have anybody who wants to go?
Kevin, I'm sure you would.
Conservative
Kevin Waugh Conservative Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK
Yes.
I'm going to start it, and then I'm going to share with Ms. Gladu, and then she is going to share with Mr. Zimmer, each of us for one minute.
When is this product testing going to end in Canada for the 4% who have been affected in the last two weeks or so? Of course, that's the 1.2 million Canadians.
Ms. Geremia, when will the product testing end for this round?
Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada
Jason is the expert on the tests and can answer that.
Conservative