Evidence of meeting #95 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was tiktok.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Is everything fine on your end, Mr. Villemure? Do you want to keep going for 30 seconds?
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Very well.
Mr. Villemure is having technical issues. Sorry.
Mr. Green, I'm sorry. Go ahead, sir, for two and a half minutes.
5:50 p.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I want to give all the witnesses the opportunity, within 30 to 45 seconds or a minute each, to share anything that they want to discuss or highlight that wasn't asked. Obviously, these interventions are directed by our line of questioning.
I'll begin with you, Mr. Andrey or Mr. Masoodi, if you want to share for a minute what you want us to leave with here today.
5:50 p.m.
Senior Policy Analyst, The Dais
Thank you for the question.
There was a question on surveillance capitalism, which is a concept that was introduced by Shoshana Zuboff. It was introduced a couple of times during the hearings. The previous question was on what we can do to try to at least mitigate the impacts of surveillance capitalism, which was really initiated, if we look back, by Google. It was Google, through its machine-learning techniques, that facilitated that process. It was the inadequate regulatory and legal regimes that were in place that allowed that to happen.
If I were to provide some key recommendations or suggestions in terms of takeaways, I would say we need robust privacy laws. We've heard that over and over again. I'd like to emphasize that again. We need to have robust privacy measures in place, specifically in areas with regard to cross-border data transfers. I think Bill C-27 could use an area that specifically identifies cross-border data transfers as an area for robust protections.
5:50 p.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Okay. I'm now going to go over to Mr. Malone.
Mr. Malone, you have the close-out here. Is there anything at all, for the good and welfare of this committee, that you think might have been missed?
5:50 p.m.
Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University, As an Individual
My understanding is that folks are very concerned about back doors that China might potentially have to get the type of data that's being collected by TikTok and the opportunities for China to operate as a threat actor that those would provide.
I would say that Canada needs to show rather than tell in this area. By that I mean that we need to hold our own government to account to make sure that it is transparent and accountable and that it protects human rights and democracy online.
You earlier had the Communications Security Establishment and the head of CCCS speak at this committee on this study. CSE will neither confirm nor deny that it's using spyware against foreign adversaries as part of its work. You're not going to get an answer about whether China is doing that when Canadian authorities won't provide a clear answer either.
I would also just say that I would really like to see whatever information CSE gave to PCO or TBS in the lead-up to banning TikTok, because it's really strange that this social media app was selectively banned. The timing is notable, because it was obviously 10 days after an explosive report came out.
5:55 p.m.
Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University, As an Individual
I have no opinion.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Mr. Villemure, you're not frozen anymore. Do you want your 30 seconds to ask another question?
5:55 p.m.
Assistant Professor, Thompson Rivers University, As an Individual
I don't have anything else to say.
5:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Mr. Villemure.
First of all, I want to thank all of our witnesses—Mr. Malone, Mr. Andrey, and Mr. Masoodi—for being here today.
If you have any written documents you'd like to provide to the clerk and the committee, please do so by Friday at 5 p.m. You've provided some pretty valuable information today, and I really appreciate it. I also appreciate your patience as we went through votes, and your patience for coming back this week.
I'm going to dismiss the witnesses, as I have a couple of things for the committee. It's just an update.
I am in receipt of an emergency meeting request. We are going to do that on Wednesday. The notice should be out shortly.
I will tell you, as well, that we have received confirmation from Google and Meta that they will appear before the committee as part of this study on Wednesday, December 13. We will have both those entities here next week.
There being no other business, I am going to adjourn the meeting.
Thank you all for being here. Thank you to our analysts, our clerk, and our technicians.
The meeting is adjourned.
