Evidence of meeting #26 for Public Safety and National Security in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
This isn't me saying this, Minister. These are national security experts who are saying that these people are acting with impunity because they don't believe that your government is going after them.
What is your government going to do to ensure that these extremists know that they will face the consequences?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
We'll call it out. We'll support law enforcement so that they can bring those criminals to justice.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Did you make a statement about the churches that were burnt down last year?
Did you call it out, Minister?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Mr. Lloyd, if you were listening carefully to my testimony, I just condemned that form of violence right now.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Last year, when it happened, did you call it out at the time?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Mr. Lloyd, we'll always condemn that form of violence.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Okay, but you can't say whether you called it out at that time.
In my community, indigenous, Cree and Métis, along with Franco-Albertans and Catholics, were devastated by the destruction of the iconic St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville, and we hope that you will work harder to bring justice to these committees.
I have one final question. Numerous witnesses and studies have indicated that foreign interference played a significant role in several constituencies and led to the defeat of incumbent candidates in the 2021 election. CSIS's 2021 reports cites numerous examples of foreign interference in Canada and how it is a risk to our elections, but it makes no mention of the 2021 election.
Do you believe that foreign interference had an impact on the election results in some ridings in the last election?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Again, I will leave it to the service to comment on foreign interference with respect to their expertise, but I will tell you that we, together, need to be very much on high alert against foreign interference, including—
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
When you received briefings, Minister, did they tell you that there was foreign interference in the election?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Mr. Lloyd, if I could just be permitted to finish my response....
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
What I was saying was that I think we collectively need to be very vigilant and on high alert against foreign interference, including as it relates to our democratic institutions, which obviously includes elections. We need to be sure that as we are on alert we are having very rigorous discussions with our international security partners to make sure they have the tools that are necessary to protect against that threat to our national security.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Jim Carr
Thank you, Minister.
Now I will call upon Mr. Noormohamed to begin his six minutes of questioning.
12:15 p.m.
Taleeb Noormohamed Vancouver Granville, Lib.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you for joining us. I want to begin by thanking you for the work you do in helping to keep Canadians safe and, in particular, for your unwavering commitment to ensuring that all forms of hate and extremism are condemned. I commend you and the government for that.
Minister, we've heard from many witnesses from different walks of life, including our security services, that the greatest threat we currently face in the country—
12:20 p.m.
Vancouver Granville, Lib.
Mr. Chair, I'm assuming that my time has stopped.
12:20 p.m.
Vancouver Granville, Lib.
Minister, we've heard from a number of witnesses, from our security forces, from law enforcement and from academics, that the greatest threat Canada faces from an ideologically motivated violent extremism perspective is from the far right and from white nationalists. Would you agree with this assessment?
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
I would.
Just yesterday, I made a number of statements condemning the recent act in Buffalo as being an act of white supremacy and anti-Black racism, but the point I would just highlight, Mr. Noormohamed, as I think your question strongly implies, is that we are not immune in Canada to either racism or hate. Together we have work to do, which I hope will be advanced by the good work of this committee.
12:20 p.m.
Vancouver Granville, Lib.
Thank you, Minister.
With that in mind, then, can you talk to us a bit about the investments the government is making to respond to the rising IMVE threat, about what more you think we need to do about it and about whether you feel that the estimates informed here allow the agency to do that work?
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
I've highlighted the year over year increases, particularly to law enforcement branches like the RCMP and other partners within the national security sphere, so that they can address the increasingly complex threat landscape that includes ideological extremism, which can lead to the proliferation of hatred, fear and racism and which can then lead to violence, including as it relates to gun violence.
I would also just highlight that it is important that we develop the appropriate laws and policies to call out and condemn all forms of racism. The work we have done as a government—for example, listing entities like Proud Boys, which is a self-declared white supremacist group—is part of the ongoing effort that we together as parliamentarians should be advancing to address and reduce as much as possible racism in our society.
12:20 p.m.
Vancouver Granville, Lib.
Thank you, Minister.
I would like to switch gears a bit. As a British Columbian, as you well know, there is a significant concern related to money laundering, particularly as it relates to the real estate market in British Columbia. I know that budget 2022 provides funding to Public Safety to undertake work to develop, design and, hopefully, implement the Canada financial crimes agency.
Can you speak to your view on the timeline around this and, in particular, some of the areas in which you believe this agency will be able to address some of the issues that we are really concerned about in British Columbia?
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
Mr. Noormohamed, I'm happy to take that question and the creation of this new financial agency as work that has already begun, work that I'm doing in collaboration with the Deputy Prime Minister and the finance minister, with whom I share responsibility in the creation of this agency. In addition to giving it the seed money that is required, I would say again that we need to continue to make the investments in our law enforcement at the RCMP and with FINTRAC to make sure that we are routing out money laundering.
I would also just highlight a growing concern that I think we all share on the exploitation of Canadians online, particularly vulnerable Canadians. Through various new platforms, it's important that we put into place the necessary education, prevention and technological protections that are necessary to safeguard Canadians' investments. Certainly the creation of this financial agency will lead to that additional rigour within our financial sector to achieve that goal.
12:20 p.m.
Vancouver Granville, Lib.
Thank you, Minister.
There has also been a lot of conversation and a lot of concern about oversight for the RCMP and CBSA, and I think rightly so.
The government committed in the last budget to advance this work. Can you share a little bit about whether those investments are, indeed, being made and what, in fact, that investment will do in terms of addressing oversight with respect to the RCMP and CBSA?
12:25 p.m.
Liberal
Marco Mendicino Liberal Eglinton—Lawrence, ON
It's a very timely question given that just this morning I tabled legislation that would further strengthen civilian review of the RCMP and the CBSA. More broadly speaking, this is a government that believes very much that we need both oversight and review to engender transparency and accountability so that Canadians can trust in our institutions, including enforcement.
I want to again commend the work of a number of officials that are on this call, including President Ossowski as well as Commissioner Lucki, with whom we work very closely to make sure that there is transparency and accountability. I know they are committed to working very closely with the government to make sure that those mechanisms are in place so that Canadians can have trust in their institutions.