Thank you very much, Chair. I believe that it was circulated earlier. Thank you.
As I was saying, through the study we initiated on social media and their practices with respect to privacy and to online safety and security, and then moving on to the misinformation and disinformation study—knowing and understanding how technologies can impact and sway public opinion and having watched it in real time, whether it was in 2016 through the Trump election or currently with Timbit Trump—we're really trying very hard to ensure that Canada and Canadian democracy are protected. I think the overall study is very important for us to understand what the dangers are and to outline what our government can do to ensure we are protecting and safeguarding not only Canadians individually but our entire democratic institutions.
Quite frankly, I have seen over the summer, as I outlined earlier, too many people making all kinds of outrageous claims that are absolute lies, and with the public influence they're able to wield, it has negative connotations. With respect to these media reports, whether it is fake Russian bots being bought out by the Conservatives or other parties, misinformation campaigns being paid for by the Government of India, for example, as is alleged in news articles, or Russian misinformation sites that are being seized because of their disinformation being spread about Canadian politics, our democracy is under attack.
If we keep on squabbling amongst each other, we are going to lose the very essence of who we are as Canadians—that is, a democratic state. I think it is of the utmost importance for our committee to pick up this very important issue and say, “You know what? Let's put all our partisan politics aside. Let's see how we can work together to ensure that disinformation does not become a tool for toppling our beautiful democracy that is Canada.”
Chair, I'll park my comments there, and I'm hoping that members all across the aisle can support this, because of the gravity of it and the importance of it with respect to maintaining our democratic values here in Canada.
Thanks, Chair.