Charlie Angus

[The Budget, April 18th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, Joe Biden has just announced a dramatic shift in EV investment, that they will have 67% of American cars running electrical within nine years. That is extraordinary, but what that is also going to mean is that if Canada does not keep up, we will be left behind.

However, this government continues to put massive investments into the Trans Mountain pipeline, over $30 billion. If we are looking at 67% of vehicles in the United States going to electric within nine years, we are going to have a lot of stranded assets.

I want to ask my colleague why the government continues to subsidize Trans Mountain when it has been proven to be a money loser. This is taxpayers' money that we are not going to get back and we are now $30 billion-plus and rising on Trans Mountain.

[Indigenous Affairs, April 17th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, there was a devastating fire in Webequie First Nation last week, and now eight people are homeless. Like in the tragic fire and death last month in Peawanuck, the community had no fire truck, no fire hall and no equipment.

Now, Webequie just happens to be in the heart of the Ring of Fire, and Doug Ford has promised to personally drive a bulldozer across their lands to dig up their wealth for investors. Meanwhile, people in Webequie have no safe drinking water, they live in substandard homes and they have no fire protection to keep their children safe.

Will the minister commit today to a proper fire hall, life-saving equipment and proper homes for people in Webequie First Nation?

[The Budget, April 17th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, one of the real issues we are dealing with is the climate catastrophe that is looming, and we certainly see that the Conservatives do not even believe there is a climate crisis. The Liberals have been sitting and doing nothing. New Democrats have pushed them to action to invest in clean energy, as Biden is doing. We now have $85 billion committed, and it is tied to ensuring that there are good union jobs and good wages. These are not McJobs; these are good jobs. This is the support that we have gotten from Alberta energy workers who called on this.

Will my colleague stand with us and keep pushing the current government to make sure that these jobs are there, in the clean-tech sector that is taking a revolutionary approach around the world?

[Natural Resources, March 31st, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I have been speaking with energy workers, miners, auto workers and innovators who are more than ready to make Canada a world leader in clean energy, but to get cheap and renewable energy to market requires massive investments in the national energy grid.

Now, New Democrats worked with this government and we have pushed this government to get serious about sustainable jobs that are tied to obligations for good union wages and apprenticeships. What kind of funding will the government put in place to build the electricity grid that Canadians need for a sustainable 21st century?

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, March 28th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I had the great honour of working across party lines in 2018 on issues of privacy. The idea that citizens somehow opt in through terms and conditions has to be debunked.

I never gave Gmail the right to read my mail. I never gave Google the right to listen in on my phone. The terms and conditions are a fundamental problem.

The question is whether we limit the power of surveillance capitalism to gather data. What data should they be allowed to gather and what should they not be? It really has to come down to dealing with superpowerful corporations. It is not like my data is in the cloud in this little box. Their ability to take everything we do and track us needs to be limited.

To my colleague: Would the Conservatives support putting limits on the amount of data that is collected by the tech giants?

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, March 28th, 2023]

It was 2004.

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2022, March 28th, 2023]

Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for my colleague and great interest in the issue of making privacy a fundamental human right.

One of the shocking things we found with the last bill was from the Privacy Commissioner. He ruled that the company Clearview AI had broken Canadian law by allowing all manner of photographs of Canadian families, individuals and children to be sold on a market with facial recognition technology. He called that out as illegal but told us that under the new law, it would be almost impossible for him to go after Clearview AI because his rulings could be overturned by a board the Liberals will appoint above him.

We trust our Privacy Commissioner and we need to protect privacy. I want to ask my hon. colleague why he thinks the Liberals are undermining privacy at this time.

[Online Streaming Act, March 27th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, they really are special snowflakes, are they not? The only problem is they have to throw in some threats like they are going to get people and they are going to die because they are a friend of Klaus Schwab. We have to be better than that. We have to be speaking about truth, and what they have been talking about is not truthful.

[Online Streaming Act, March 27th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, I certainly think that Bill C-11 could have been better. Moreover, I think the CRTC is an extremely cumbersome instrument to deal with this. However, the Conservatives decided to take this absolutely extreme, paranoid position as opposed to saying, “What do we actually need to do to make sure this works?”

There were probably better ways to do this, but we were not given those options, given the realm. I have been an artist, and I know many people in the arts community. I certainly want to reassure the artists I know.

I do not know those who are concerned that if they post a YouTube video, the CRTC is somehow going to watch it. We can imagine if it did. Would that not be fascinating? That is not what this bill is about. It is about making sure that the tech giants pay their share.

I think there were better ways of dealing with this legislation and making sure that these tech giants are held to account. I certainly believe that, out of Bill C-11, we still need to deal with the issue of accountability in the algorithms. Certainly, there are issues with the tech giants in their refusal to deal with online harm for children and the vulnerable, the exploitation of people that has happened and the proliferation of hate and violence that we have seen in jurisdictions like Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Brazil. There have to be legal consequences. I think we need to look at those issues beyond where we are tonight with Bill C-11.

[Online Streaming Act, March 27th, 2023]

Madam Speaker, the idea that the Conservatives are floating, that there is somehow a free market when one is dealing with YouTube and Facebook, is ridiculous. These are the largest broadcasters in the world because their algorithms decide what one sees. The idea that this is all some kind of free market is a falsehood.

Maybe the Conservatives just discovered the Internet a few years ago, but there is no longer a free Internet. It is a very controlled Internet. It is the algorithms.

One of the fundamental principles we fought for in Canada is the need to promote, preserve and ensure that Canadian, francophone and indigenous voices have a place in Canada to have their stories told. We can sell that to the world. In fact, our greatest export from Canada is not our oil and gas. It is our artists, and we need to support them.