Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 29th, 2020

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

I'd like to move a motion and I'll explain it in a second.

I move that the committee invite the International Association of Conference Interpreters, Canadian division, and the Canadian Association of Professional Employees to appear at the first meeting of the committee in the week of May 4.

The reason for the motion is that we've received letters and a request to appear from both of those organizations, which represent some of the interpreters that are used in our proceedings. The information that is in those letters seems to differ somewhat from the things that we heard today. I think it would be incumbent upon us as a committee to hear from them just to get that perspective. I think there would be time to do so in the first meeting we have scheduled next week.

Madam Chair, it could be agreed by unanimous consent of the committee, or I would be happy to set the vote aside until the rest of the people with questions have a chance to do that. We can do the vote on this motion at the end of the meeting, if that is helpful.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Mr. Richards, can you repeat the second witness that you would like to have called? I believe we did receive emails, but your sound was breaking up.

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

Sure. The other organization was the Canadian Association of Professional Employees.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay.

We have received these requests. I think they were just received yesterday, and some came today, so we are trying to figure out how to incorporate them into our study.

I don't know if we need to go to a vote. Are all members in agreement that we can try to incorporate them into our future panels?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay.

Mr. Richards, is that okay, as long as they are here before May 5?

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

I'm certainly satisfied with that if there's agreement that we would hear from them. My suggestion would strongly be that that it looks like we have room that first time next week if that can be accommodated. Certainly, I would be good to have them maybe come for the first half of that meeting and then the second half of that meeting could be with the officials [Technical difficulty--Editor] and then come back to [Technical difficulty--Editor]. That would be my suggestion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you for that, certainly.

Now we will start with Dr. Duncan, for four minutes, please.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Good evening, everyone.

First of all, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you all for being part of this. We appreciate your time and expertise.

I'm going to go to Mr. Weigelt first. Do you think remote voting is possible, and under what circumstances, please?

[John Weigelt]

Do you mean in the context of a virtual Parliament?

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Yes, in a virtual Parliament.

[John Weigelt]

Microsoft is a very strong partner-driven organization. We have over 1,200 partners in Canada that help deliver solutions on top of our Teams platform. We do have partners that support virtual voting for communities, so we do believe that it's possible on our platform.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you so much.

Mr. Moseley, do you believe that remote voting is possible? Do you think it's possible to adopt a secure remote voting system?

[Harry Moseley]

Yes, I do. As part of our Zoom platform, we have an ability to ask impromptu questions of the participants and get their responses in real time during the meeting.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Do both of you think there are ways to authenticate or safeguard a remote vote?

[Harry Moseley]

I'd have to think about that. I would like to come back with an answer. I believe we could authenticate the vote, but I'd have to confirm that.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Weigelt, do you think it's possible to authenticate a remote vote?

[John Weigelt]

Absolutely. Based upon our enterprise heritage, we leverage those credentials, that identification that you harness for your day-to-day work within Parliament. Being able to recognize that throughout the voting process, I think, is critically important.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Mr. Weigelt, what measures would you suggest to protect the integrity of the vote?

[John Weigelt]

There are a number of cryptographic measures that can be put in place to protect the integrity of the voting materials so they don't get tampered with along the way or after they've been cast.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Would it be possible to table with the committee what those measures would be?

[John Weigelt]

Absolutely.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you.

Mr. Moseley, do you think an MP should have to authenticate their identity after casting a remote vote?

[Harry Moseley]

Well, they authenticated into the meeting. Therefore, we know who they are and as the vote is being cast by the MP, it's connected to the authenticated individual. So I don't think they'd need to further authenticate for the vote.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Can I ask professor de Clercy from Western a question. I don't see her.

Can you tell us which countries are using remote voting at this point?