Charlie Angus

[Budget Implementation Act, 2022, No. 1, May 6th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, to me, some of the fundamentals of Parliament are accountability and transparency. My hon. colleague was on the committee with me when we studied the government grant to the WE Charity. This was an opportunity for this children's charity to answer some straightforward questions, such as how many companies it owned, what the separation was between its for-profits and those with charitable status, and who owned the companies, yet we never did get those answers. It took four legal summonses to try and get answers, but still the man who handled all its finances, Mr. Victor Li, never did come before Parliament. We never got the kind of documentation we asked for.

I have a straightforward question. I would like to ask my hon. colleague this: Does he feel we still do not have the answers Canadians deserve about this international organization, the WE Charity?

[Online Streaming Act, May 5th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, it is a simple question. The member's picture is on the front page of Le Journal de Montréal, with 38 other Conservatives who are against abortion. Is it a real picture or did they make a mistake and is that disinformation?

[Online Streaming Act, May 5th, 2022]

I did not finish my question, Madam Speaker.

[Online Streaming Act, May 5th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, it has been very entertaining this afternoon. The Conservatives are saying that Canada is going to be turned into North Korea, and now my friend is saying that the Liberals are going to stop people from watching deck renovation videos.

I did agree with the hon. member about the need to fight for the fundamental rights of every Canadian and how governments control what people can do. I noticed that the cover of Le Journal de Montréal today had a picture of 39 Conservatives who are against the rights of women to make choices, and the member's picture is in there. I would like to ask him if that is disinformation, or if his—

[Online Streaming Act, May 5th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, I listened with great interest to my hon. colleague. I felt like I was stepping back in time, because when I first came here I was a digital idealist. I believed that we should not be picking winners and losers. I believed that we had all this innovation out there, and what we got were Facebook and YouTube, who have an economic power that is so powerful it is unprecedented. In fact, economists are calling it the kill zone of innovation, saying that they are so powerful they are actually stifling the development of other forces that could compete against them.

We have to deal with issues like antitrust. We have to deal with actually making them pay taxes in areas where they have not paid any taxes at all. We have to deal with the algorithms that have distorted content and conversation. They are culpable because they are serving our media services, and they are telling us what we are seeing.

I would like to ask my hon. colleague about holding the big companies, like Facebook and YouTube, accountable for the power that they are yielding—

[Online Streaming Act, May 5th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, making sure that the tech giants properly pay their share is a fundamental issue, because the tech giants are not just letting people make their own choices as they claim. They are actually the deciders: They are the arbiters of what we see. That means they play an editorial role. They promote certain content and demote other content. We have a right in our country to make sure that the content that is created here is remunerated, by these massive profits that they make, to create and build.

I would like to say to my colleague that this is not about protecting a regional culture or a local culture. This is about our international potential, because the artists from Quebec and Canada have an international ability. What we need is a system that pays into the artists and the creators so that we can build that system and create a vital, international arts community.

[Hon. John William Bosley, May 4th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, yes, I heard the exchange. I thought he referenced her in terms of disinformation, which is different from misinformation. I would like you to check the Hansard, because, truly, if they are using their position to spread disinformation, I think that is a legitimate question, but I could have been wrong.

[Natural Resources, May 3rd, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, as Canadians get hosed at the pumps, Imperial Oil has tripled its profits. RBC says four Canadian oil giants are on track to getting $47 billion in revenue. Do we think they would spend any of that mitigating the damage they are doing to the planet? Not a chance when they can mooch off of the Liberal government, which gives them billions in subsidies. In the face of a burning planet, the government has turned itself into an open bar for the oil lobby.

My question is for the carbon capture and environment minister. When is he going to do the right thing and stop giving Canadian taxpayers' money to big oil?

[Climate Change, April 26th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, God help our planet with answers like that from the minister, because the environment commissioner today warned that energy workers are facing a potential economic upheaval as devastating as the collapse of the cod fisheries in the 1990s. Slogans and promises about a so-called “just transition” just will not cut it. The commissioner reminds us that the government has broken every environmental promise it has made, and now it is breaking faith with energy workers and their families.

It is simple. The climate crisis is here. How can the minister stand in the House and continue to show such a dismal record of failure?

[Climate Change, April 26th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, God help our little planet with a minister like that in charge, because if he read the environment commissioner's report, he would point out that energy workers are facing a potential economic upheaval as devastating as the collapse of the cod fishery in the 1990s.