Justice Committee on May 30th, 2019

[Michele Austin]

Yes.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

To some degree, automated responses should be expected, but it can get carried away. I've heard complaints of bots out there that rummage through the whole Twitterverse and respond in nasty ways and in a very massive fashion.

Are bots allowed on Twitter and do you have standards of behaviour for them?

[Michele Austin]

Yes. Automation is permitted on the platform.

I'll give you two positive examples. If you lose your luggage and you DM Air Canada, a bot will help triage where you are and what your flight number was. In Australia, they have a bot for self-harm, wherein you can text Lifeline Australia for help. Whether you're in a crisis or whether you are a parent who is looking for advice, that is also triaged through a bot. I desperately wish we could bring it to Canada. We're working on that.

Malicious automation is not permitted on the platform. It is something we work on daily to ensure it doesn't happen. However, there are cases where bots are doing a really good job and helping.

[Ron McKinnon, Liberal, Coquitlam—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Great. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Thank you very much.

Before we finish, the clerk has one date to report. It's just to let members know about dates on the dissenting report issue.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

I was looking at the calendar for the upcoming weeks and I discovered that the appropriate deadline for submitting supplementary or dissenting opinions is June 6, rather than June 13.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

That's for the HIV report.

[The Clerk]

That's for HIV.

For online hate, it would remain June 13.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

For online hate, it's June 13, and for HIV, it's June 6.

[The Clerk]

Exactly.

If you want the reason for that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Yes, please.

[The Clerk]

In the current calendar, the target tabling date in the House for the HIV report is June 10, so having you submit your dissenting or supplementary opinions on June 13 would not make any sense.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Does it have to be translated by June 6, or not?

[The Clerk]

No. Actually, you submit it in English and in French, and we just insert it at the end of the report.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

No, my issue is—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

He is asking, does he have to translate it? Could it be submitted only in English at that point and then get translated afterwards? I think that's what he's asking.

[The Clerk]

No. Such opinions need to be submitted to us in English and in French—

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Well, it's an impossibility, then.

[The Clerk]

—on June 6, no later than June 6, which is Thursday of next week.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

It would have been a possibility but being notified on Thursday afternoon—

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

I understand. What we'll do, because that obviously is not possible, is that because we're sitting that entire week, instead of tabling it on Monday, June 10, we can push the tabling back to, let's say, Wednesday, June 12. Then that will give a couple of extra days to get it translated, perhaps.

[The Clerk]

Yes, absolutely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

We'll work on it. That week, we're sitting—

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Can we allow the witness to leave?

[The Chair, Liberal, Anthony Housefather]

Yes. I was going to thank the witness. There's going to be a very brief discussion.