Thank you, panellists, for being here today.
One of the challenges in online space is that people see articles and published material and believe them to be true. They don't often look at the source. I think there is a general distrust in mainstream media in our country and there is such a significant need for media literacy for people.
Mr. Cameron, you were talking a bit about education. I think a core piece of what we're looking at here is people understanding how to identify what is a legitimate piece of media and what is something that shares perhaps hateful messages and things on the Internet, and how to distinguish between those things and determine that.
I don't think that people generally have those types of analytical skills. The members of Parliament who sit at this table receive many emails from constituents who send us a link to something and ask what it is about. We're often able to debunk it or say that it isn't a credible source, but it's a very significant challenge.
I wonder if you could each speak to the role you think our education systems in Canada should play in combatting hate in general, but certainly online hate. I have two teenage sons, and I don't believe that our education system is keeping pace with the culture, specifically, the online activity and technology. Our kids are on platforms that we don't even know about. There are these corners of the Internet where they are sharing information, and there probably aren't many parents or adults who are even in those spaces.
I wonder if you can talk about how our education system could address that, and how we can address that gap for adults as well. Most of us in this room saw the Internet come and we got onto Facebook and all these different platforms and used it for whichever purposes—sharing things with family and friends—but it certainly has grown to a place where even our understanding of what's there and what's happening there is very limited.
I wonder if you can speak to the role you think education should play in this.