Thank you.
I believe notice of this motion has been given to the committee. I move:
That the Committee study ways to further protect Canada’s democratic and electoral institutions from cyber and non-cyber interference. This includes studying how new domestic and international stakeholders, as well as other orders of government, can work together to strengthen Canada’s whole-of-society preparedness, resilience and civic engagement in the face of evolving threats to democracy.
The reason I want to move this motion is that we all believe that free and fair elections are the backbone of our country. Advancements in technology, especially online technology and technology to collect information and build a database, pose a serious concern and threat. I heard Mr. Angus speak about this early on today. I believe there are a lot of concerns and risks to Canadians' personal information. We've seen how in political campaigns, there is microtargeting of online advertising based on big data, but who's securing this data?
We've seen investigations out of B.C. into AggregateIQ. There was an article about it. Just to refresh the memory of members of this committee, the investigation was into how AggregateIQ failed to meet its obligation under Canadian privacy laws when it used and disclosed the personal information of millions of voters in British Columbia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It was conducted by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.