Industry and Technology Committee on June 11th, 2026

[Chris Lynam]

Unfortunately, I'm not well placed to give civil legal advice on whether there is a civil liability matter between a person using a platform and what have you. As I said today, the digital platforms absolutely have a role in making sure that they receive information from us quickly, that they send us information and that they look for stuff on their platforms. I think there's still a lot to do on that front.

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette—Manawan, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Mr. Ste-Marie.

Ms. Kronis, the floor is yours for two and a half minutes.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thank you so much.

We're going to try to do this at the speed of cyber.

You talked about the need for prevention and described telecoms, banks and financial institutions as.... Is it fair to say that they're supportive and responsive but largely reactive?

[Chris Lynam]

Is that on the prevention side?

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

No, I'm sorry. It's on the responding side when a scam is happening.

[Chris Lynam]

I'm not sure I fully—

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Let me ask this.

Is there anything that stops a scam or a text call from getting through?

[Chris Lynam]

There absolutely is, both on the telecommunication side and in finding other ways to interrupt it based on who owns that sort of chain. That is happening every day. We need to do more of that. We need to figure out the frameworks to increase that.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Is it happening through voluntary action, or is happening through regulation?

[Chris Lynam]

I'm not well placed to say if it's a question on the telecommunication side of how that's being regulated or if it's voluntary. I know from the interactions we have with those sectors, they absolutely want to do more to reduce cybercrime and fraud.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Do you know of anything that actually requires telecom companies to report how much scam traffic either is going on in real time or is moving through their networks?

[Chris Lynam]

None of that, but I know they have protocols like the STIR/SHAKEN protocol to verify calls and to make sure they are legitimate calls coming through there. I don't know the broader answer to the first part of your question.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Are there gaps?

[Chris Lynam]

There is absolutely more work to be done to prevent that solicitation scam from getting to Canadians.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Do you have any recommendations on what the federal government can do, using our telecommunications power, to take positive and concrete action that we're not already currently doing?

[Chris Lynam]

I have some decent visibility on how the telcos operate and their frameworks, but unfortunately, I'm not an expert in telecommunications regulations so as to give you an informed answer.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

In that case, could you use just the last few seconds that we have together to give some advice to the folks in my riding who are scared about this happening? What are the warning signs and what should they do first?

[Chris Lynam]

I will make it really easy. We use the “take five”. Take five minutes to think and reflect before doing anything. We break it down into three Rs: recognize, reject and report. It's like from my generation of stop, drop and roll. We have to have that mentality of very simple terminology to encourage people. Just take five minutes and that will avoid most of the scams.

[Tamara Kronis, Conservative, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Thanks so much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you, Ms. Kronis.

Ms. Begum, you have two and a half minutes.

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Thank you so much, DG Lynam, for being here. I will also try my best to go at the speed of light or cyber light.

One of the things that we heard about over the last decade, especially from seniors, was the door-to-door scams that took place. Whether it was to inspect their water heater or something else in their house, they ended up with a $15,000 or $20,000 lien on their home. To this day, I know there are seniors who haven't really recovered from that, have had to pay or couldn't sell their properties because of that.

First, are there mechanisms or is there something we can do in terms of supporting those who have been victims of that?

I want to ask my second question, because I have little time. In reflection of that, I feel that youth are now coming across similar types of crime, which is not door-to-door but, rather, on their phones. For example, they get a message from Starbucks where they're offered a free coffee, and they click, “I agree”.

I was listening to a data scientist named Booshra Ahmed, who spoke recently at a talk about the hidden cost of clicking “I agree”. It's basically the future of AI, understanding what's happening, how your data is widely shared and what that means for you.

Could you speak to what we can do to support youth over the coming decades, and how we can avoid ending up in a similar situation?

Thank you very much.

[Chris Lynam]

I'll come at it from two angles. I'll come at it from the first part of your question.

Many seniors sometimes fall victim to these door-to-door scams. Guess who's really good at encouraging or educating senior citizens about fraud and cybercrime: other seniors. We operate a program with volunteer senior citizens whom we train. They go out and give in-person presentations. Sometimes we actually get the victims on the phone and talk to them to say how they shouldn't fall victim again. In some cases, they're in a scam and they should cease and desist. I go back to tailoring the prevention campaigns for the audience.

On the youth question, it has to be a societal approach. It has to be in schools. We have to engage them online. That's where they are to a certain extent. Parents, absolutely, have to have conversations with their children about how to recognize a scam or know the dangers if they send intimate photos. They should be told, “Please do not engage in this type of activity; it will ruin your life.” I use that example, but there's not going to be only one way on the prevention side. It has to be tailored to specific audiences.

[Doly Begum, Liberal, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ben Carr]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lynam, I really appreciate your being here today. Thank you for the ongoing work of you and the RCMP in doing everything that you can to assist in putting an end to and mitigating the risks associated with all of this. We certainly look forward to any further input that the agency may have in terms of public policy development on the part of the federal government.

Colleagues, I'm going to suspend briefly as we turn over. I will just let you know—so that the parties can discuss this in advance—we will not have time for the third questioner in the next hour. That means there will be be two from the Conservative side and two from the Liberal side. Mr. Ste-Marie's time will be reduced. I will let you spend the next few minutes deciding how you want to order your affairs.

Again, Mr. Lynam, thank you very much, and enjoy the rest of your day.

We're briefly suspended.