Public Safety Committee on March 3rd, 2022

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

Yes. Thank you.

I certainly appreciate the collaborative spirit here and welcome it. I will certainly support the motion and the amendments.

I have a question about process. I wasn't clear on whether the changes Ms. Damoff had proposed were in a single amendment or if there was a series of amendments to come.

Perhaps Ms. Damoff could clarify that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

My understanding is that there are two amendments, but, Ms. Damoff, you can answer that for Mr. McKinnon.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I'm not proposing any additional ones beyond what I spoke about. I'm hoping that we could vote for both of the changes in one fell swoop.

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

As a matter of process, we can deal with only one amendment at a time, so either it's one amendment—a motion to amend—and it all changes at once, or we need to take them, in my view, one at a time.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Yes. That was my intention: to have all those changes made in one amendment.

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

Thank you. I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

If we can combine those two thoughts in one amendment, then we can proceed that way.

To facilitate that, I'll ask Ms. Damoff to repeat for members of the committee the amendment that she is proposing.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It is, after the word “cyber” adding the words “to the prevalence and impact of Russian misinformation and disinformation”, and, at the very end of the motion, adding the words “and that pursuant to Standing Order 109, the government table a comprehensive response to the report”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

The clerk tells me that, as Mr. McKinnon has suggested, we have to deal with these amendments individually.

Let's start with the first amendment.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

The first amendment is adding “to the prevalence and impact of Russian misinformation and disinformation”.

Maybe we could vote by a show of hands?

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Let's vote on that amendment.

Mr. Clerk, do we have unanimous consent?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Excellent. We have unanimous consent.

Let's now move, Ms. Damoff, to the second amendment.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

The second amendment is “and that pursuant to Standing Order 109, the government table a comprehensive response to the report”.

Maybe we can see if we get unanimous consent for that as well, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

I would ask for unanimous consent. I see thumbs and hands. Any contrary...?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Both amendments have passed by unanimous consent, which means that we go back to the original motion as amended.

Clerk, do we want to do a roll call on that, unless there are further amendments or there is further commentary?

I have Ms. Dancho.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I just wanted to mention that I do think the significance of this motion is quite high, so I would ask for a recorded vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Yes, we will have a recorded vote.

Clerk, call the roll, please.

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

Thank you very much, colleagues. The motion passes as amended, and it's another really clear and important example of how this kind of cooperation and collaboration can lead us to a spot where everybody is comfortable. I hope that it is a template not only for this committee but for others as well.

Let's go right back to the questioning of our witnesses, please.

I have next on my list, Mr. Zuberi, who will have five minutes that we're going to have to recalibrate. I'll do that given how much time we might have left.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Because I moved the motion, I don't believe that took my time, but do you want to correct me if I'm wrong? I am correct?

Oh, it did take my time. My apologies. My mistake.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Wassim Bouanani]

I need to take your time for that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Jim Carr]

I'm sure that you can find a way to express yourself through colleagues before it's all over.

Mr. Zuberi, you have the floor. You have five minutes.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I'd like to thank the witnesses from GiveSendGo for being here and for taking the time.

Just to preface my comments, I found it interesting that you didn't have any substantive opening remarks similar to the other witness who came here from GoFundMe and from PayPal and from Stripe. Each had five minutes, and you did also. We weren't able to benefit from prepared remarks from you. I found that really interesting.

That said, I would like to get to an article that was published by The Guardian on April 10 about the data breach. It said that your organization has been involved in supporting fundraising efforts for the Proud Boys. Are you aware that the Proud Boys is a listed terror organization in Canada?

I'm not sure if the witnesses heard the question. Chair, my time is still running, and there are no responses.

Ms. Wilson, you're welcome to comment. Are you aware that Proud Boys is a terror group in Canada?

[Heather Wilson]

We are at this time. We are.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

At this time. So when were you aware that Proud Boys is a terrorist organization?

[Heather Wilson]

Actually, when did you label them as a terrorist organization? I'm not sure.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

In 2019. So it's been quite a while. We appreciate that you now are aware that Proud Boys is a terror group in Canada. My understanding is that your organization helped support $375,000 in crowdfunding for at least 11 members of the Proud Boys. Is that accurate?

[Heather Wilson]

That sounds about right, that we did have some members of the Proud Boys raise funds on GiveSendGo.