Evidence of meeting #124 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was elections.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Mr. Hutton, under the Broadcasting Act, broadcasters are subject to some level of quality control of content. Is that right?
Executive Director, Broadcasting, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
According to broadcasting policy, the Broadcasting Act requires that all broadcasting in Canada be of high standard. We take our guidance from that part of the policy. With respect to content, we essentially work in a co-regulatory regime. We enforce a variety of codes that have been developed through public processes with Canadians and with broadcasters to essentially maintain that high standard.
We address issues with respect to portrayal, with respect to news, and so on and so forth. There are also other provisions in our regulations with respect to ensuring that broadcasting of matters that contravene the law, that are abusive, or that are false or misleading news is also addressed through that means.
Liberal
Executive Director, Broadcasting, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
We regulate through various means. Sometimes we license. Sometimes we do it through exemptions. Some of our smallest broadcasters would be through exemptions. They would be, for example, community broadcasters or indigenous broadcasters in rural and remote areas. You'd probably have companies that have maybe $20,000 to $30,000 in revenue, and maybe a few hundred to a few thousand listeners or viewers.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
So a broadcaster that can reach a few hundred or a few thousand people is subject to that regulatory oversight, yet if I have one million followers on my Facebook page, I'm subject to no oversight at all. Isn't that crazy?
Executive Director, Broadcasting, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Well, one of the recommendations we've made with respect to the review of the Broadcasting Act and the Telecommunications Act is essentially to recognize that all parties that benefit from operating in Canada live up to the social responsibilities.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thanks very much.
Mr. Perrault, you mentioned political parties but not third party political activities.
I have just one example. Ontario Proud has 400,000 followers on Facebook. They say they knocked out Kathleen Wynne in the last election and they're fundraising to knock out Trudeau in the next election. They're not subject to any privacy rules whatsoever. Is that of concern?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
I want to make sure that this is clear. The Privacy Commissioner will be coming, and you may ask him the question. Third parties in Canada are subject to privacy rules if they are—
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
They're not subject to PIPEDA. It's a non-commercial actor, so they're not subject to PIPEDA.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
They're non-commercial. Yes, that's the nuance.
That's not an uninteresting question, but the Elections Act does not regulate what everybody does at all times. I'm just concerned about expanding here the scope of the Elections Act.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
That's fair, but as someone concerned with public policy, I have greater trust in the Conservative Party of Canada or the Liberal Party of Canada than fly-by-night third parties that can close down operations tomorrow, start up under a different name, and have all that same data to use. Wouldn't you agree?
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You talked about minimum standards in regulating political activities. I'll just throw out some minimum standards, and you can answer with yes or no.
Would you support real-time ad disclosure, including engagement metrics, the number of ad dollars spent, and the source of those ad dollars?
Bill C-76 goes part of the way, but this would go a little bit further.
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
It would go further, and I would welcome that, yes.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
What about the ability of citizens to request access to personal, identifiable information that third party political actors or political parties hold about them?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Certainly, for regulated entities that participate in the election, that's something worth considering.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay. What about penalties for selling information or sharing information improperly?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
Certainly, penalties for sharing the information obtained from Elections Canada exist in the Canada Elections Act as we speak.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Last, you mentioned the short time period between now and the next election. Bill C-76 requires political parties to have privacy policies. Should the Office of the Privacy Commissioner have oversight of those privacy policies?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
My view is that he is the right person to have that oversight, and there should be oversight.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bob Zimmer
Thanks, everybody. We're out of time.
I just have one question for both witnesses. I've been doing a lot of media responses, just about Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and our joint investigation. We're actually going to go over to London and try to hear from Facebook, especially Mr. Zuckerberg.
My biggest concern is the timely response to pull down, let's say, a third party ad that's going to negatively impact a campaign. We all know that the last week in the campaign is crucial, and it can be affected by the littlest of ads.
In terms of a timely response to groups like Facebook and other social media platforms, what do you suggest we do with that to have a quick response that really mutes that immediately?
Chief Electoral Officer, Elections Canada
My suggestion is to do as we've done with the commissioner, which is to establish a communication network with them ahead of the election, so that we can alert them to problems during the campaign. That is the most effective way to deal with that.