Mr. Chair and members of the committee, good afternoon.
My name is Jennifer McGuire. I'm the general manager and editor-in-chief for CBC News. I wish to thank all of you for this opportunity to address this important topic once again.
I'd like to stress right up front how important we feel Bill S-231 is. I can say on behalf of our coalition of media organizations that speedy passage and implementation of Bill S-231 would be a great service to the country.
Why do I say this? Because investigative journalism is a vital component of a healthy democracy. It shines light on issues that matter, whether those are sexual assaults on Canadian campuses, questionable offshore tax havens, or unethical real estate practices—the sorts of stories that pave the way for legislators to make better public policy.
This journalism frequently relies on people who are brave enough to tell their stories and to share stories that would otherwise be untold: sources, especially confidential sources. It also relies on a journalist's ability to protect these sources. Today in Canada that ability is undermined because it is too easy for police to obtain a warrant allowing them to conduct surveillance missions on reporters.
Late last year, we learned that some of Radio-Canada's top investigative journalists were being spied upon by the Sûreté du Québec. Five years of their phone records were asked for; some of the journalists had their locations tracked, and all of them had their freedom infringed upon, all because police wanted to know who their sources were.
It's bad enough that these journalists were spied upon by the authorities, but consider the impact this news had on their ability to do their jobs. What confidential source would share information knowing they could not rely on any protection a journalist might offer? What whistle-blower might decide that it's better to stay quiet rather than risk being swept up in a police investigation? By scaring confidential sources into silence, we will never know how many cases of wrongdoing remained secret and how many cover-ups were made possible.
Right now, the bar for obtaining warrants to conduct this type of surveillance is far too low. As just one example, dramatic testimony in recent weeks at the Chamberland commission in Quebec has shown us that even baseless sexual innuendo can be enough.
Last Thursday, Radio-Canada's Marie-Maude Denis testified that one of the justifications made by police for spying on her was that she had an intimate relationship with another police officer who was one of the targets of the investigation. I want to point out that this was completely false and based on no credible information. That police made this allegation before a justice of the peace was shameful. That it was persuasive is frankly depressing.
The clear implication was that successful women in journalism use sex as a way to get information. If you need proof that the bar for obtaining a warrant needs to be higher, look no further.
Let me be clear: we realize that there must be exceptions. When a journalist is legitimately suspected of a crime, police may well have a good reason to track their activities. If it can be shown that there is no link between the investigation and the journalistic activities, then the suspect should not be able to invoke their profession as a shield, but as soon as the nature of the investigation has a link with the practice of journalism, then the protections of Bill S-231 should apply in full force, and this decision rests properly with a superior court judge.
Thank you for your time. I will pass this on to my colleague, Michel Cormier.