I'm happy to do so.
Support of C-51 is plummeting, as we see from recent polls. The more Canadians know about C-51, the less they like it. They're coming to know a lot about it.
Canadians believe that C-51 is reckless and dangerous. That is going to be the main part of the start of my talk, in part because it exhibits a blatant disrespect for our right to privacy. C-51 provides spy agency CSE with an offensive domestic mandate, thereby setting loose the eavesdropping agency on Canadians. By empowering CSE to take disruptive measures, the bill provides the agency with open-ended powers to act against Canadians on our own soil. CSE will now be able to make false attributions to individuals, take down legitimate websites, and implant malware on individual devices. Considering C-51 also facilitates the distribution of information of Canadians without their knowledge or consent to no fewer than 17 agencies and institutions, along with foreign governments, I think Canadians agree with Allen Ramenberg who wrote on Facebook that if we “surrender our privacy and liberties to unaccountable central authorities, the terrorists have won”.
I've heard a representative from the government claim that our sensitive data will not be stored in one big database, but I wonder why the legislation then explicitly states that the data will be “collated”. That said, even if the data is flowing between multiple databases, that might leave Canadians even more open to victimization of data breaches and cybercriminals. I'd like to add that more than 200 Canadians have come forward in recent months to say that their personal or professional lives have been ruined due to information disclosure. Privacy is security in its most basic and individual sense.
I'd like to note that not only is C-51 reckless and dangerous, it's also, frankly, ineffective in achieving its own stated aim.
As Professor Roach pointed out to this committee, C-51 will drown the government in information rather than providing actionable data points. Furthermore, with zero added oversight or accountability, there's no way to even know if these powers are working as intended. Experts agree that we need targeted tools for the digital age, not mass disclosure of personal data. Additionally as a concern, many elements of the bill are not even focused on terrorist threats, but rather apply broad security-oriented powers to a range of other less serious contexts.
Careless drafting of this legislation will muddy the waters of investigations, taint the work of security officials, and make Canadians less safe. Sadly, for a bill that purports to take on terrorism, it also lacks any measures to address the root cause of radicalization.
Bill C-51 is reckless, dangerous, and ineffective both in content and process. The bill is deeply flawed and must not be made law.
I'll close with this comment submitted to me by a young Canadian on reddit. He said:
As a Canadian citizen I feel that our country fosters and promotes values that encourage upcoming generations to voice their opinions and outlook without fear of repercussion or consequence. This is a Canadian value that, in my view, should be perpetuated....
Thank you. I'll turn it over to my colleague now.