Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 5th, 2018

[Scott Jones]

It depends on the nature of the system. If it's the Government of Canada, we take immediate action to block, to defend, and to stop that threat from having any impact. At the same time, we would also be releasing that information publicly, right now through the Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre at Public Safety Canada. Indicators of compromise are something that we would provide to the general security community.

Also, depending on the nature of the threat, it might be more effective for us to engage with some of our industry partners. That could be anti-virus vendors. The real goal is to get whatever we're seeing hit us into a sphere where it can defend all of us. It's about sharing that information widely, sharing the approach, and sharing what we've learned. It would be along those lines.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Were you going to add something, Mr. Besner?

[Jason Besner]

No. I think Mr. Jones has covered it.

The idea is to deal with the volume that is coming at us and to make sure that our defences are working 24 hours a day. The primary purpose is to deal with the threat, then automate and have those defences running 24 hours a day, and then share with others to use as force multipliers to defend all Canadians.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

Recently we were advised to reboot our routers. Is that something you were involved in at all?

[Scott Jones]

That would be an example of something that we would have contributed to. The public advice would have come through Public Safety Canada at this time, as they're the lead, but certainly we would work with our international partners as we see malicious activity—something that looks like it's systemic. We try to give simple approaches for people to actually make themselves more cyber-secure. That's an example of something that would be important.

[Ted Falk, Conservative, Provencher, MB]

In your presentation, you identified that sophistication levels were fairly low in the last election. How about in terms of intensity levels?

[Scott Jones]

From our observation point, we could see that it was also fairly low, but it continued. We would expect to see that ramping up as we approach the next election. The fact is that these tools are in the reach of pretty much anybody. The issue with cybersecurity and cyber-tools is that they are quite cheap and easy to access, so for us it's really about having to raise that resilience bar faster than the adversaries are able to engage new tools and new techniques against us.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you very much.

We'll go to Ms. Tassi.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Thank you for your presence here today.

My question is directed to the Canadian Federation of Students and whoever feels more comfortable with it.

First, I want to thank you for your advocacy and great work. I am very committed to engaging youth not only in the electoral process but in everything in life, because I think they are one of the greatest untapped resources.

Let me begin by asking whether in your advocacy you see anything that's unique to students, that's different for youth generally. Are there concerns you have with respect to students that you would raise as obstacles or other things, and that don't relate to other youth, or do you think the group is combined?

[Justine De Jaegher]

Do you mean pertaining to elections specifically?

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Yes.

[Justine De Jaegher]

Yes, there are a few different things. One major thing is the proportion of students who live in on-campus residences. Proving one's address can be a bit trickier for students living on campus, we've found when we've spoken to those students, given the frequency with which they will move on and off campus. Oftentimes, they have to seek out a formal letter of residence confirmation in order to take that to the polls. A lot of students aren't aware that's available, and some residence offices aren't aware that they should issue them. There's kind of an extra layer of bureaucracy created there, so I think on-campus students would definitely be one example.

I also think we have a growing population of international students in Canada, which is great, but having people trying to determine at what point they're eligible to vote in a Canadian election, what residence status they require, and things like that pertaining to their student visa sometimes adds layers of confusion as well.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Okay. That's excellent.

I have three post-secondary institutions in my riding as well, and so this issue comes up over and over again.

The response we have heard, potentially—it's out there—is that there are over 80 pieces of identification that can be accepted. You don't really need the VIC card, because there are 80 plus pieces of other identification.

So, other than a driver's licence, which has an address on it, or the confirmation from—what department gives it in universities?—the registrar's office or whatever—

[Justine De Jaegher]

It's from housing or residence—

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

It's housing. Okay.

Other than those two pieces of identification that specifically have addresses, is there anything else that a student in residence is going to have that could suffice for ID?

[Justine De Jaegher]

There could be some examples, but not generally speaking.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

They're few and far between.

[Justine De Jaegher]

That's right.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

So, that's the problem.

[Justine De Jaegher]

That's the issue, yes.

If students have those pieces of ID at all, they would be very inconsistent. They're not going to have utility bills in the same way. They might have a phone bill but it's quite unlikely that that's going to be addressed to their temporary residence in housing.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Exactly. Okay.

Mr. Cullen asked the question, but I wasn't clear on the answer. With regard to the increase in the last election—there was an amazing increase, and we're very happy about that—other than crediting yourselves, perhaps, with the work, what would you say were the contributing factors to that increase?

[Justine De Jaegher]

I do think that students felt particularly mobilized in the last election. I do think that our advocacy work had a big part in that, but also students just identified a number of issues on which they wanted to see political action, and made that known.

We definitely did redouble our efforts to ensure that students were heading to the polls, and we'll be doing that again in 2019.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

That's excellent. That's awesome.

A previous witness here today talked about the importance of student engagement at a very young age,. The idea was that the research showed that if you engage students at a younger age, it's habit-forming and they will be more likely to vote in the future, and if you don't engage them in the process, then they will perhaps be less likely.

Does your experience, with the advocacy you've carried out, support that finding?

[Coty Zachariah]

Yes. I would say so.

We believe that people who are informed at a younger age are more likely to get involved at a younger age. People who have voted in their first year tend to vote throughout their provincial and federal elections as well. We just really believe that informed voters tend to take part in the process.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

There are a number of initiatives included in Bill C-76, including the CEO's mandate to educate, the national voter's registration, and the dropping of the age to hire students. I take it that you are very supportive of all of those initiatives.

With respect to the court case, if in fact Bill C-76 were to become law tomorrow, would you be dropping that court case? Is everything that you are fighting for in your court case contained in Bill C-76?