Evidence of meeting #90 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 arts.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:05 a.m.
Conservative
Marilyn Gladu Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Champoux.
I will support your motion.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
Lisa Hepfner Liberal Hamilton Mountain, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm just wondering if maybe we could talk a little bit more about what this motion is about. It's quite a broad motion, and frankly, I don't remember talking about it at the time. It was a while ago. I think we need a refresher to understand what the parameters are. I think the new members of our committee would also appreciate a little bit more insight. We have some new members on our side. I don't think it's quite clear right now. Maybe you could give us a little bit more insight into exactly what you're hoping to accomplish and the context in which you're raising this.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thank you.
Martin, before you begin, I think we should thank Mr. Aldag and the Senator so that we can move on to deal with this issue.
Thank you very much, Senator.
Thank you, Mr. Aldag, for bringing forward this Bill S-202. We will be dealing with it further, in terms of amendments, later on.
Thank you very much.
10:10 a.m.
Some hon. members
Hear, hear!
September 28th, 2023 / 10:10 a.m.
Bloc
Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for the question, Ms. Hepfner.
Earlier, I briefly outlined the intent of the motion. The concept of freedom of expression is obviously not clear to everyone. With regard to the measures put in place during the pandemic, some people felt that their freedom of expression was being curtailed or that they were being censored. Those are comments that have been made.
We dealt with the broadcasting bill, Bill C‑10, which became Bill C‑11. It was passed in 2022. This bill also seriously challenged the concept of freedom of expression. People accuse the government, rightly or wrongly, of intending to curtail freedom of expression.
I think it must be clearly established that, when a bill is passed in the House of Commons, it must comply with the rule concerning respect for freedom of expression, as set out in paragraph 2(b) of the Charter—that's one of the intentions.
We need to have discussions about this. Our responsibility as parliamentarians is not only to ensure that people understand what we're doing here, but also to provide a framework for decisions that are sometimes made in a very questionable way. I'm thinking here of what has happened in the education sector in recent years. There has been censorship of works, which were often rather playful books, if we're talking about comic books, or works of a cultural nature, that might offend certain beliefs but were entirely faithful to others. We need to have this discussion, but we didn't have it while the debate was raging.
I think it's up to the committee to talk about this and to welcome people who have questions about the concept of freedom of expression. Some people may say they don't agree with certain criteria or definitions of what freedom of expression is—and that's what I'd like to see.
I think this is going to be a very relevant, very interesting and very constructive discussion. The perceptions of the Liberals, Conservatives, Bloc and NDP are different. Everyone has a vision of what is acceptable and what is not. However, within what is acceptable and what is not, depending on a person's perception, there is a core that is the right to freedom of expression, which can take many forms. I think that's what's going to be interesting in the discussion.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm sorry. We are now at 10:15, so we may have to adjourn and come back to this at another meeting.
I will note that Peter and Marilyn had their hands up, and also Michael and Mr. Noormohamed.
Everybody wants to speak to this, obviously. It's a motion.