Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 5th, 2018

[Justine De Jaegher]

We're generally supportive of the legislation, including those changes. The one area in which we really can't proclaim to be any kind of expert is more on the cybersecurity pieces. Obviously we're glad that you're speaking to experts in that area.

However, other than that, we're quite happy with this legislation. Again, our concern is primarily with the timing. We feel it's a bit late, unfortunately. We were hoping to see Bill C-33 passed much earlier to make sure that it came into effect before the next election.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay. I have one minute left. I guess that will leave just enough time for the last question, or for this question anyway.

On the legislation itself, obviously it's a large piece of legislation, with I think 401 different clauses, so it touches on a lot of different areas. You've mentioned a couple of things that you're supportive of, and I wish there were time to get into some of those things, but could you give me any sense of any concerns you have? I assume that there must be one or two things that you might have some concerns about or that you think are missing. Outside of the timing, what would you want to share with us in that regard?

[Justine De Jaegher]

Again, we really wanted to emphasize that the elements featured in Bill C-33 are again featured in this bill. We're leaving some of the other areas up to other experts that you'll be speaking to.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Fair enough. I appreciate your time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you.

Now we'll go on to Mr. Cullen.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you to our witnesses for being here today.

The student vote went up by how much?

[Coty Zachariah]

It was 18.3%.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

By 18.3%: do you think it was because of the unfair election act, in part? Was it an unintentional motivator, an unintentional gift, to young people to get out and vote when someone said that maybe they shouldn't have the right to vote?

[Coty Zachariah]

I think there's long been this kind of theory that young people are apathetic or don't really care to take part in the democratic process, but what we found is that sometimes people are just really confused about the process. That's why we emphasized more information and more access, and we had a lot of success with our on-campus polling stations.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Just as a parenthetical thing, what kinds of issues do you think drove people? Eighteen per cent is a huge jump under any demographic.

[Coty Zachariah]

It's the biggest jump.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

What kinds of issues were students and young people coming back to you folks with and saying “this is why I'm voting this time”? Were there certain issues that presented themselves? One or two or three...?

[Coty Zachariah]

Yes. I believe tuition was a huge one. It seems to be going up every year. Young people needed to have their voices heard. We heard that from almost every province.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Anything else?

[Justine De Jaegher]

Youth unemployment was a major issue that was also identified. Among our student parent demographic, child care was identified as a major concern. Then there was our advocacy around the post-secondary student support program. The funding for indigenous learners was also major, I would say.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thanks. That's helpful.

To our security friends—I don't get to say that very often—what did you say about the 2015 election? Was it that there was a low-skill threat...?

[Scott Jones]

Low-sophistication activity.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

A low-sophistication threat: what does that mean?

[Scott Jones]

That would mean the normal use of things, such as low-level denial of service attacks and things like that.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

On party websites, or...?

[Scott Jones]

On things like that; they're attempts to deface, usually hacktivist-type activity.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Were any countries or national governments identified?

[Scott Jones]

No, not that we had seen.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

The Government of Canada kicked out four Russian diplomats earlier this year for using their diplomatic status to undermine Canada's security or interfere in our democracy in the 2015 election.

[Scott Jones]

There were some pieces outside of the cyber realm. In terms of any further details on that, I'm probably not the right person to talk about it from the cyber perspective.