Evidence of meeting #111 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was identification.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Clerk of the Committee  Mr. Andrew Lauzon
Scott Jones  Deputy Chief, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment
Coty Zachariah  National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students
Justine De Jaegher  Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Students
Jason Besner  Director, Cyber Threat Evaluation Centre, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment
Daniel Therrien  Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Vihar Joshi  Deputy Judge Advocate General, Administrative Law, Canadian Forces
Regan Morris  Legal Counsel, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Barbara Bucknell  Director, Policy, Parliamentary Affairs and Research, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
Ian Lee  Associate Professor, Carleton University, As an Individual
Arthur Hamilton  Lawyer, Conservative Party of Canada

June 5th, 2018 / 4 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Students

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.

4 p.m.

Conservative

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?

4 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Students

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.

4 p.m.

Conservative

Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB

Fair enough. I appreciate your time.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell

Thank you.

Now we'll go on to Mr. Cullen.

4 p.m.

NDP

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?

4 p.m.

National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students

Coty Zachariah

It was 18.3%.

4 p.m.

NDP

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?

4 p.m.

National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students

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.

4 p.m.

NDP

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.

4 p.m.

National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students

Coty Zachariah

It's the biggest jump.

4 p.m.

NDP

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...?

4 p.m.

National Chairperson, Canadian Federation of Students

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.

4 p.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Anything else?

4 p.m.

Executive Director, Canadian Federation of Students

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.

4 p.m.

NDP

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...?

4 p.m.

Deputy Chief, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment

Scott Jones

Low-sophistication activity.

4 p.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

A low-sophistication threat: what does that mean?

4 p.m.

Deputy Chief, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment

Scott Jones

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

4 p.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

On party websites, or...?

4 p.m.

Deputy Chief, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment

Scott Jones

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

4 p.m.

NDP

Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

Were any countries or national governments identified?

4 p.m.

Deputy Chief, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment

Scott Jones

No, not that we had seen.

4 p.m.

NDP

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.

4 p.m.

Deputy Chief, Information Technology Security, Communications Security Establishment

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.