Evidence of meeting #19 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was site.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
No, they reported on that.
My second question is that Kaplan Hecker & Fink—
2:50 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
I just want to answer the rest of your question because you're alluding to our not being responsible and—
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
No, no, I want to get there. You have updated your practices and I do appreciate that and I want to get there.
2:50 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
We actually identified two years ago that, potentially, this wasn't working to the level we wanted, so we started a massive engineering undertaking to create this, where we could actually do—
2:50 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
Yes, which is a framework and analysis.
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I appreciate that. When it comes to Kaplan Hecker & Fink and the independent review that began in April 2020, will you provide this committee a copy of that independent review?
2:50 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
No, that is a document that.... I'll take a step back. When we reached out to them, once again it was an effort on our part to become best in class and to try to be leaders in the space, both on—
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You're saying no.
It's a simple question: Will you provide it? The answer is no.
This is my last question. On a going-forward basis, you've actually taken a number of steps as of December, and I know it began prior to that, to upgrade your platform to protect individuals. You have kids, as you've said repeatedly today.
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
So for the kids, for young women who have been victimized because of your platform, on a going-forward basis, are you going to commit today to compensating those victims?
2:50 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
We will continue to invest in what we believe is the best way to invest our money, to essentially make the platform as safe as humanly possible, to make a safe place for Canadians and everywhere around the world to consume adult entertainment in a safe environment. If part of that would involve—
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thanks very much. You find an interesting way each time to say no, but I appreciate that.
2:50 p.m.
Chief Operating Officer, Entreprise MindGeek Canada
We've actually donated money to several organizations and will continue to do a mixed bucket of things between investing in software and investing in personnel to make the adult platform the safest it can be. I truly believe in my heart of hearts that we are the safest adult platform in the world right now, and if we weren't there, it would be a much worse place for people trying to consume this content.
2:50 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
And yet when you're making millions of dollars, one would think you would also commit to compensating victims where your platform fails—where it does its best, but fails.
Thank you.
2:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you, Mr. Erskine-Smith.
Colleagues, I don't want to run out of time and be unable to discuss the documents that have been requested. A significant number were requested and I think it's important that we go through that list now. Of course, committee members do know that our ability to request documents is absolute and that we can abide by the protections that we believe are warranted. We do have the right to request documents. I'm just going to run through a number of different documents that have been requested.
Mr. Erskine-Smith, in his last round of questioning, asked for the independent review to be supplied to our committee. We ask that it be submitted to the committee.
Mr. Sorbara asked for the corporate structures of your business and the subsidiaries. If you could provide those documents to our committee, they would be very helpful.
Mr. Gourde asked for the budget that your company provides for protections, including the budgets for legal services and the budgets for staff who are dedicated to the area of protection of individuals who are being depicted on your platform. We would ask for those documents.
Mr. Dong asked for information with regard to the gross profits and audited financial statements of your company. We would ask for those.
Mr. Angus asked for the training manuals that are used by your monitors, so we would ask for that document as well.
Ms. Lattanzio asked for the amount in Canadian dollars in legal settlements that you have paid out to the victims, so we would ask for that information.
There were two additional documents requested, but I missed writing them down. Mr. Angus and Madame Gaudreau had asked for separate documents.
I will turn now to Mr. Angus to clarify what those initial documents he asked for are.
Mr. Angus.
2:55 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Thank you. I'm still trying to come to terms with everything I heard. For some of those documents, I think I'm going to have to come back to you.
While we're on this, I would like to know, with this study or with another study, if we could give a clear message to witnesses who have information that could help us that they can write to us offering that testimony. If they opt to provide testimony, can we write back and say they can present it to us in documented form and that it will be privileged and protect them from any legal threat from these witnesses, or in another study? Therefore, if we're receiving these requests from people who want to provide information, we will contact them and say, yes, we will ask for your documentation and decide whether or not it's relevant. We will look at it, of course, and then make a decision. I think we should send that clear message that if people have information, they can contact our committee, and if it's germane to our study, we can use it.
Does that make sense, Mr. Chair?
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Yes, I can confirm, Mr. Angus, that parliamentary protection will be provided to any documents that are supplied to our committee.
I guess as the chairman I will now indicate to anybody listening that if they would like to supply this committee with information with regard to the studies that we are currently undertaking, they have the right to supply us with that documentation, and that documentation will be treated under the same provisions as if they were to come as a witness to our committee. They will be provided with full parliamentary protection for any documentation that they supply to our committee for the studies that we're currently undertaking.
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
2:55 p.m.
Bloc
Marie-Hélène Gaudreau Bloc Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My request was to receive the conditions of use as they were before the last changes. Earlier, when I talked about our bill on the protection of privacy, which was much talked about during this meeting, we were not able to shed light on the process and the specific rules. This information would assist the committee in looking into the protection of privacy. You may be putting things in place that might help us pass legislation to protect the public.
Can you explain the process and tell us specifically how the information is being used?
2:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Chris Warkentin
Thank you. We'll request that information as well.
We'll turn now to Ms. Shanahan.
2:55 p.m.
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Thank you, Chair.
I would like to have the personal tax returns of the executive for the past five years and the tax returns for MindGeek for the past five years.
3 p.m.
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Thanks, Chair.
Yes. I want to ensure that we're prescriptive and thorough in the requests that we make. I think what we definitely have to have in the documents supplied will be a comprehensive breakdown of all the revenue streams, the equity in the company and explicitly who owns it, what the value is, and if there is any debt leveraging, who owns that debt.
I think it would be beneficial to know how much revenue has been generated in the last five years and if there's enough money to make the case that they could be holding themselves to a higher standard, or ought to be. We'll also want to see any off-balance sheet entities for which fees and costs associated with revenue are deducted as costs for tax purposes, and, I think, probably tax payments, at least in Canada but ideally in all locations where there are subsidiaries of MindGeek.