Good evening, Madam Chair and committee members.
I had intended to speak a bit in French, but given the time and the technical issues, I think I will just continue in English for the translators' ease.
Thank you for your invitation. I understand that in this panel session the committee is focusing on possible video conferencing platforms and their feasibility as it relates to establishing a virtual Parliament.
In terms of the feasibility of the technology, I expect others on this panel will discuss virtual and interactive teleconferencing in light of the capacities of different mediated platforms, albeit with some inherent limitations, security considerations and the risk of malfunction.
In terms of the feasibility of the House's capacity to amend its internal rules to facilitate members' virtual presence in lieu of their physical presence, it is clear that this can be achieved constitutionally. From J.G. Bourinot, writing in 1901, to David E. Smith, writing in 2017, in our system “legislative bodies alone are masters of their proceedings”.
As someone who studies government in Canada, my interpretation of feasibility today revolves around what sort of costs and benefits the adoption of virtual legislative meetings implies for democracy within Canada and beyond the walls of the House of Commons, so I engage this question: Is virtual assembly democratically feasible? Below are five points that may be helpful to you in your deliberations.
First, technology is intrinsically disruptive. The first taxi drivers to use cellphones to plot their courses could not imagine how this technology would alter their industry within a very short time. Plus, the law of unintended consequences warns us that intervention in complex systems tends to produce unanticipated consequences. Taken together, technology plus systemic intervention equals deep change marked by unpredictable outcomes. We cannot know the consequences of such change, but they will not all be positive for our democracy.
Second, the Canadian Parliament is unique. It is sui generis. We have a complex, diverse, finely balanced political system. In the rush to address the pandemic, it is tempting to examine how other parliamentary systems are moving towards virtual sessions, but it is a profound mistake to simply assume that what works in other systems necessarily will work the same way here. Because technology is disruptive, we need to carefully study technological adoptions and adaptations before asserting that we can estimate the effects of such change. In the history of legislatures to this point, no advanced democratic legislature deliberates and votes virtually as a method of normal business. Especially because of our complexity, Canada should not be among the first to do so.
Third, the state of democracy in Canada is not static. It has changed and evolved and continues to do so. It is dynamic and responsive to the factors and pressures that bear upon it. This is to say that the change can diminish it, as well as enhance it. Indeed, the quality of democracy can be easily damaged and insulted, as we have seen recently in some of the world's leading democracies. Any diminution in the legislature's task of holding the executive to account, or the media's key role, lessens democracy.
Fourth, considering a move to virtual House of Commons sessions and committee meetings uncovers many complex issues. Of these, one of the more perturbing concerns the deliberative function. As Valere Gaspard and I have written elsewhere, “The opportunities for formal and informal exchanges during debate, in committee work, and at work-related social activities provide crucial interactions among the members. These interactions allow MPs to be exposed to different ideas and perspectives. Such encounters are a key part of our democratic politics.... By reducing parliamentary debate, interaction and exchange to the click of a button, we risk losing what makes our democracy work.” Smith observes, “deliberation is more than an aggregation of individual constituency demands”. One of the challenges in the move to virtual assembly is to ensure that e-deliberation is more than just an episodic, half-hearted online opinion poll.
Fifth, other witnesses have commented on the importance of member privilege, so I will not repeat that information here. I find it difficult to accept, at this point, that virtual sittings and sessions can fully facilitate all the aspects of privilege that members enjoy when meeting in normal conditions. In particular, I expect that the privileges around political speech will be difficult to ensure and safeguard in a virtual context. The capacity of members of the House of Commons to express dissent—such as by voting against their party leadership, absenting themselves from controversial debates, challenging a ruling of the Speaker or even being removed from the House—to have that dissent understood, and to be sanctioned in known ways in accordance with the legislature's rules and the rule of law is fundamental to democracy. All manifestations of dissent demonstrate that democracy is present. It's not at all clear to me how one dissents effectively in a virtual session when those who are not speaking are literally muted. If dissent is not present and not demonstrated, then is their legislature really free?
These five points illustrate some of the costs to consider in moving to some form of a virtual assembly. Against these costs is stacked a weighty benefit: minimizing the risk of infection for MPs, staff, security, administrators, technicians and all their families. The benefit of good health is inarguable.
Therefore, the committee may well decide that meeting virtually is the best among few viable options. In this case, my view is that virtual meetings should be held very sparingly and with the understanding that these are short-term measures taken during an extraordinary period. Certainly going forward there's merit to ensuring that the House can meet virtually as a default or a backup option for future crises, and much more careful research should be undertaken as to how best to effect this. Creating this sort of institutional e-infrastructure will require a large, careful effort to fully understand the implications of such change. This period of crisis, in other words, should not serve as an accidental gateway to bringing in a permanent method of virtual assembly that is not well understood and that carries large democratic implications for Canada.
Is virtual assembly democratically feasible? Perhaps it is, but in small doses and with the intention to return to normalcy as quickly as possible.
Thank you.