Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I really do appreciate this opportunity. Over the past couple of weeks, I've been quite alarmed. I grew up in this country. I was not born here. I came here and got to realize the importance of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms because my front door neighbours don't look like my side door neighbours. We don't practise the same religion. We wear different shells and we have different ideologies, yet we are still one of the most peaceful countries in the world. When I see rhetoric around the implications of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and what our Constitution is in the future, it really makes me very alarmed.
In the context of social media impacts—digital IDs, for example, and the proposition thereof—in terms of what political parties and the Leader of the Opposition are saying, it really alarms me. I think it is important for our committee to have a commitment in Parliament as to how we're going to move forward on making sure our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and our Constitution are maintained, and that we continue to abide by that.
Now I'll quote articles that have stated, quoting the Leader of the Opposition, that he will pass criminal laws using whatever means. He says: “We will make them constitutional, using whatever tools the Constitution allows.... I think you know exactly what I mean.”
Now, from my perspective, given that this is a person who was part of a team that tried to pass the barbaric cultural practices act and a snitch line on people like me—my mother wears a hijab, for example—and given how diverse our neighbours are, it really alarms me as to where this is coming from.
It also alarms me, Chair, when we talk about a woman's right to choose and see Conservative antics in the House right now, questioning whether a woman can choose what she does with her body and whether we're going to criminalize that, using whatever tools necessary to control what a woman's body is. The implications are very severe for me, and, you know, the Leader of the Opposition continues to say that even if his proposals don't meet the constitutional standards, he'll “make them constitutional, using whatever tools”.
Chair, that is extremely alarming. When you pair that with concerns of privacy within our social media, the framework that we have right now and the fact that we are already really testing the limits of how we make sure we protect the rights of individual Canadians in our country—including the right to privacy, including minority rights, whether it be LGBT, whether it be different religious groups, whether it be a woman's right to choose—it is really very alarming. I think it is incumbent on our committee to pass this motion and get this through the House.
Now, in the ethics committee, we've studied the collection of data, etc., and I'm talking specifically about the right to privacy piece and specifically the digital ID on collecting information from Canadians.
Now the Leader of the Opposition is proposing to leave data, the sensitive data of Canadians, in the hands of a company like Pornhub, for example, and that is, again, a slippery slope as to how far that goes. How are we maintaining and protecting that data? Should that data be there? When we talk about the right to privacy, we really need to ensure that we are maintaining that right to privacy within industry and within our government and in how Canadians' rights are protected. I mean, we've seen what happened with Ashley Madison, with a hack, for example. We've seen MPs with top secret security clearance being blackmailed over their use of the Internet and the photos they have circulated.
Chair, I will reiterate the importance of ensuring that we have the ability as a federal government to ensure our Constitution is maintained and is protected. It is important for all parliamentarians.
Chair, when somebody tells you something, you believe them, and we effectively have been told that our Constitution has a workaround for the Leader of the Opposition. We need to ensure that we protect the rights of Canadians and our Constitution in how we operate here as parliamentarians. I'm hoping that we can pass this motion very quickly.
Thank you.