Thank you, Chair, and thank you to all three of our witnesses for being here today.
Mr. White, I'll start with you. Ms. Hill mentioned “trusted sources”. I would argue that most Canadians would think that political parties are trusted sources, but there are conspiracy theories that are being actively promoted by the Conservative Party: that the pandemic was a plot by global financial elites trying to re-engineer our economy; that our climate policies are an attempt to limit movement and create 15-minute cities to limit personal freedom, even though 15-minute cities are a legitimate urban planning concept that's been twisted around; and even that the World Economic Forum is an elitist global conspiracy controlling governments around the world.
Just a few minutes ago at the finance committee, Yvan Baker asked “who the most dangerous dictator in the world” is. One after another, three Conservatives members said it was Justin Trudeau, to which Mr. Baker responded, “It's actually Vladimir Putin.”
When we have legitimate parties promoting this kind of discourse among the Canadian public, it leads to mistrust in our democratic institutions. I'm wondering if you could speak to how dangerous it is when we have trusted sources, or what should be trusted sources, spreading this kind of information.