Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to start by thanking all of the witnesses. They have all been great today. I want to thank them so much for their testimony.
I'm hearing some things that I'm really not okay with. I've heard things throughout this meeting, and actually other meetings for this study, that I haven't been okay with. It kind of just reinforces the idea of using scapegoats when things are not going well. I've heard it said today that newer immigrants, new populations, might be the cause for the rise in hate. I heard the same thing said at a previous meeting by another member.
I just want to say that this is not okay. In my experience, people who used to have a mentality of “live and let live” are actually the ones who have changed their mentality over the last few years. It's not necessarily new people to Canada. It's Canadians who have been here for a long time and who have access to disinformation and misinformation online and to what they're being shown. Honestly, I think the Conservative Party does use scapegoats, unfortunately, and does use certain minority communities against each other, trying to use this as a reason for increased hate.
I don't think that's the case. I think it's very dangerous to go down that path.