John Carmichael

[Digital Privacy Act, May 12th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Bill S-4, the digital privacy act, which was recently reviewed by the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.

Bill S-4 introduces a number of important improvements to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act that will increase the level of privacy protection for Canadians.

PIPEDA is privacy legislation that has been in place for more than a decade now. Under the law, organizations are expected to apply stronger protection in situations that are privacy-sensitive. As an overriding rule, businesses must limit what they do when it comes to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information to activities that one would consider reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

Not all individuals have the same capacity to understand what is reasonable and appropriate, nor can they necessarily appreciate the immediate or long-term consequences of providing information about themselves to a commercial enterprise. This is particularly true of minors. The range of online activities today's kids engage in is astounding. They take part in multi-player games with people from all over the world. They explore virtual worlds. They join chat rooms and post comments, photos, and videos about themselves and their friends.

Today's kids have grown up with the Internet and digital technologies. Social networks, gaming consoles, and smart phones have always been a part of their lives. When kids interact with their friends and when they play games, more often than not it is through technology.

According to a survey conducted in 2013, more than 30% of grades 4 to 6 students have Facebook accounts. By grade 11, 95% of students have such an account.

Digital technology offers tremendous benefits to children's education, development, and social lives. In today's digital economy, children must be able to safety and securely use network technologies and access the online world if they are to develop the skills they will later need to find jobs in the digital marketplace.

What children may not be aware of is that the information they share in the context of online play or learning can actually have unintended consequences. Online personal information has become an enormous source of revenue for companies. Kids are able to play online games, download and use apps, and talk to their friends at no cost because companies offering these services generate revenue by harvesting and using personal information for profiling and marketing purposes.

This government does not wish to prevent today's youth from fully realizing the benefits of the digital world. The skills they develop through these many online activities will provide them with significant advantages when they enter the job market as young adults. This government fundamentally believes that digital literacy and skills are at the core of what is needed for individuals to succeed in today's digital economy.

However, with an increased online presence comes added risk. Strong protections for children's online privacy are needed.

PIPEDA already contains defences that safeguard the personal information of minors. For example, the act prohibits organizations from using deceptive means to obtain consent. Most importantly, it requires companies to limit the purposes for which they collect, use, or disclose personal information to reasons that individuals would consider reasonable and appropriate in the circumstances.

Bill S-4 enhances these protections by clearly setting out requirements that organizations must meet when obtaining consent. These new provisions will have a positive impact, especially when it comes to the protection and the privacy of children.

The new measure will require organizations to clearly explain why they are collecting information, what they will do with it once they have it, and what the consequences of providing it will be.

What is more, they must provide this explanation in a way that can be understood by the audience they are targeting with their product or service. This means that any business targeting children must pay very close attention.

The amendments in Bill S-4 mean from a legal perspective that when a company is seeking permission to collect, use, or disclose personal information from a group of individuals such as children, it must take steps to ensure that these individuals are able to fully understand what would happen to that information.

In practice, this would mean that the organization's request for information can be easily understood by the target audience. This includes making sure that the wording and language used in the request are age-appropriate. For example, a video game designed and marketed to preteens would clearly need to take a different approach to obtaining the consent of players to collect personal information than a video game marketed to adults.

We heard from a number of witnesses during the committee's consideration of the bill, and the majority were supportive of our government's proposed amendments in Bill S-4 to enhance consent.

The Privacy Commissioner of Canada repeatedly expressed his support for the amendment. This is what the Privacy Commissioner told the committee:

Consent is a big part of PIPEDA, and I think it's useful to have this clarification of what actually is consent. We obviously know that it is a huge challenge for organizations to properly advise individuals of the reasons they collect information and they use it, so any tool that enhances, that provides an incentive for organizations to be clearer, and to take into account the context of the individual or consumer I think helps Canadians.

The commissioner further emphasized:

So, when the individual is a child, if your product is addressed to children, you should think about what is reasonable to expect of a child in understanding the consent being sought. Overall, I think, again, the definition of consent in Bill S-4 will assist generally and will assist particularly groups that are more vulnerable, like children.

Privacy information must be clear to the user. The privacy policy should be specific to whatever service the child is using and not be a one-fits-all privacy policy.

The standing committee also heard support for this amendment from a number of other witnesses, including from business. For example, the Marketing Research Intelligence Association, a national self-regulatory body that represents Canada's survey research industry, wrote in a submission to the committee that it fully supports the enhanced consent requirements of the bill.

The association noted in particular that the amendment provides “added clarity for organizations when they seek the valid consent of an individual” when collecting, sharing, and disclosing their personal information. It went on to say:

We believe that specifying the elements of valid consent will go a long way to protecting the most vulnerable Canadians, such as seniors and children.

Our government has already taken significant action when it comes to protecting children online. We have made important progress to shield our children from online intimidation, cyberbullying, and other similar threats and abuse through amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada that were passed under the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act.

The amendments put forward under the digital privacy act build on those actions taken to address cyberbullying and represent additional real and tangible measures to protect Canadians and their families from online threats.

PIPEDA has been in force since 2001. Concerns about the protection of children's online privacy were raised with Parliament in 2007 during the first statutory review of this act. There was general consensus among witnesses that children warrant extra privacy protection, given their particular vulnerability to deceptive and privacy-invasive practices. Indeed, at the conclusion of its review of the act, Parliament recommended that the government examine the issue of consent by minors to determine if PIPEDA should be amended.

Our government heard stakeholder concerns and is responding to the recommendations of committee by introducing enhanced protection for the privacy of minors that is now before the House. This is an important amendment, and along with all other measures in this bill, it should be passed quickly.

The digital privacy act takes real and tangible steps to protect society's most vulnerable individuals. I hope hon. members will join me in supporting this bill so that these new protections can come into force quickly.

[Digital Privacy Act, May 12th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, in committee, one of the issues that was discussed at length is elder financial abuse. I would like to ask the member how Bill S-4 would work to combat this serious problem in our society today.

[Digital Privacy Act, May 12th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his presentation today on this important legislation. I would like to ask him, with regard to Bill S-4, if he could elaborate on how our government is working to protect and help vulnerable Canadians, especially children.

[Taxation, May 12th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, it should come as no surprise that our Conservative government is the only one that stands up for middle-class Canadian families. We have doubled the children's fitness tax credit, enhanced the universal child care benefit, and now have implemented the family tax cut. All families with children, including single-parent families, would benefit from our family tax cut and enhanced universal child care benefit. That is more than four million families and more than seven million parents.

The Liberal leader has admitted that he would take away the universal child care benefit, he would take away income splitting, and he would take away the tax-free savings account. Only one thing is absolutely certain: our Conservative government is the only one that stands for and with hard-working Canadian families.

[McHappy Day, May 11th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, last week, Canadians celebrated the 22nd annual McHappy Day. Each year, more than 1,400 McDonald's restaurants across Canada celebrate this day, raising money for the good work of their charity.

Ronald McDonald House Charities helps give sick children the one thing they need most: their families. It provides families with a home away from home or a place of peace and calm within a hospital. Since its inception, 300,000 families have been served by the Ronald McDonald houses, family rooms, and care mobiles.

The McHappy Day 2015 and the happy meal program this year raised more than $9 million for Ronald McDonald House Charities and local children's charities across Canada.

My riding of Don Valley West is home to McDonald's Canada's head office. I want to congratulate and thank them for giving back to the communities in which they operate.

[Telecommunications, May 6th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians know that our government is providing more choice, lower prices and better services for their cellphone plans. Unlike the opposition parties who want higher taxes and thus higher prices, we will continue to support policies that lead to more competition, lower prices and lower taxes.

Could the Minister of Industry please give the House an update on our government's reaction to yesterday's decision by the CRTC?

[Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, May 5th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, international jihadi terrorists recognize no border. If frustrated in their will to travel overseas to join their so-called caliphate, they will seek to commit acts of terrorism here in Canada.

We do not believe in exporting terrorism. Can the member expand on the tools this legislation would provide our law enforcement agencies to help them get the job done?

[Anti-terrorism Act, 2015, May 5th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, I am delighted that I will be sharing my time today with the member for York Centre.

There is no liberty without security. This is a principle that is fundamental to accept when we discuss the important bill before us today. I want to bring this debate back to principles. We must ensure that Canadians are protected from terrorism. The security of a country is the first responsibility of any government.

Let us not beat around the bush. The international jihadi movement has declared war on Canada and its allies. We have seen it in Paris, we have seen it in Copenhagen, we have seen it in Sydney, we have seen it in Quebec and we have seen it right here in Ottawa. In fact, just as recently as Sunday night, two jihadi terrorists tried to attack a free speech convention in Dallas.

These jihadi terrorists want to kill every westerner. Every Canadian is on their hit list. They hate us for our freedom, our tolerance and our prosperity. We need not go any further than the source to know that this is true. A spokesman for the so-called Islamic State said:

If you can kill a disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be.

That should send chills down the spine of every member of the House. What is more, spreading this type of jihadist propaganda in Canada is not illegal under the current law. That is why we brought forward changes in this legislation to more effectively target the material that is used to recruit Canadians to go to join terrorist groups like the so-called Islamic State.

The talking point for opposition members in the House today seems to be that there are no examples of things that would be crimes under this bill that are not crimes now. I would note that this type of hateful propaganda is exactly what is meant to be targeted.

Let us listen to the experts. Here is what Salim Mansur, a professor at the University of Western Ontario, had to say:

Bill C-51 in my reading is not designed to turn Canada into some version of Hobbes’ Leviathan or Orwell’s 1984, despite at times the fevered imagination of its critics.

Let us take a look at the five key measures that this bill would take.

It would allow Passport Canada to share information on potential terrorist travellers with the RCMP. It would stop known radicalized individuals from boarding a plane bound for a terrorist conflict zone. It would criminalize the promotion of terrorism in general. For example, statements like “kill all the infidels, wherever they are” would become illegal, as I have already discussed. It would allow CSIS agents to speak with parents of radicalized youth in order to disrupt terrorist travel plans. It would also give the government an appeal mechanism to stop information from being released in security certificate proceedings if it could harm a source.

If we put aside the heated rhetoric and the misinformation that is out there, and focus purely on the facts, we can see that this is a common sense bill that protects Canadians. I fail to see the reasons why members on the other side of the House would fail to support the bill.

Let us take a minute to examine the ideology.

We have seen before that the NDP has taken every possible step to stop our Conservative government from improving our national security. It voted against making it a crime to travel abroad to engage in terrorism. It voted against stripping citizenship from those convicted of terrorism. It also voted against any new resources for our front-line law enforcement and national security officers. It seems as though it is fundamentally opposed to any measure that would add to the protection of Canadians. This is the same party that as part of its election platform promised to repeal all national security legislation.

The Liberal Party simply does not take these discussions seriously. Its position on the bill is unintelligible. It will repeal it, it supports it; no one really knows for certain, although we just heard from the last speaker that it planned to support the bill.

Clearly, only our government is able to make the tough decisions that are necessary in this very uncertain world. We will never waiver from our commitment to take strong actions to keep Canadians safe, particularly from jihadi terrorists. We will do so through legislation, such as we are discussing today. We will also do so through financial resources, like the nearly $300 million that we have invested in the fight against terrorism through economic action plan 2015.

As I said at the beginning of my comments, we must bring this back to the first principle: the desire to keep Canadians safe. The international jihadist movement has declared war on Canada. Canadians are being targeted by jihadi terrorists simply because these terrorists hate our society and the values it represents.

Jihadi terrorism is not a human right; it is an act of war. That is why our government has put forward measures that protect Canadians against jihadi terrorists who seek to destroy the very principles that make Canada the best country in the world in which to live. That is also why Canada is not sitting on the sidelines, as some would have us do. We are instead joining our allies in supporting the international coalition in the fight against ISIS.

I urge all of my colleagues, on both sides of the House, to support the bill. It is an important bill and we need to see this legislation enacted.

[Taxation, May 4th, 2015]

Mr. Speaker, our government's low-tax plan is helping middle-class Canadian families balance their budgets while we balance ours. That is why we have introduced the family tax cut and enhanced universal child care benefit.

Would the Minister of Employment and Social Development please tell this House about the important announcement he made Friday on keeping more money in the pockets of hard-working Canadian families?

[Taxation, April 21st, 2015]

Mr Speaker, our government increased the amount Canadians can earn tax free and removed over one million Canadians from the tax rolls. We cut the GST, introduced pension income splitting, and created the family tax cut with benefits to help 100% of families with children.

We created important tax credits, like the credit for first time home buyers and the credit for family caregivers. Our government's tax relief will save the typical family of four in Don Valley West nearly $6,600 this year.

However, the Liberals and NDP would raise taxes. According to media, the Liberal leader has claimed he can convince Canadians to accept a tax hike. Meanwhile the NDP would raise the cost of gas, groceries, and everything else with its carbon tax.

Stay tuned. Despite the opposition's high-tax plans, our government will table a budget today that will continue to make life more affordable for Canadians.