Michel Boudrias

[Business of Supply, June 17th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, having also served our country, I too want to thank my colleague for his service in the Canadian Armed Forces, and the minister. We are more or less on the same wavelength when it comes to understanding the issues raised in today's motion.

I would like to ask my colleague about Vice-Admiral Norman, who, as we all know, was tasked by the Conservative government, specifically Minister MacKay, at the time, to manage the Davie project. That matter was the subject of an investigation. The mandate was given in 2015, and the Norman affair blew up in 2017. It took the Conservatives about two years to react because they themselves knew that they had given him a legitimate mandate through Parliament, where we now sit. I would like to know the reason behind the two years of silence on the matter.

Regarding sexual misconduct, the Deschamps report was tabled in 2015, and various committees, including the Standing Committee on National Defence, studied it.

Why did the government not institute mechanisms to bring about positive change and transformation, instead of imputing motives?

That could have fixed the problem.

The other issue was the withdrawal of the CF-18s. The Canadian Armed Forced succeeded in liberating Mosul anyway. I knew that, and so did the Conservatives, so which is it? A success or a failure?

[Business of Supply, May 4th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I will ask my question.

We are talking about the top ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces. Perhaps it is time to make a decision instead of dithering and getting nowhere. My question—

[Business of Supply, May 4th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, over the past few weeks I have been very saddened by the debates on this critical issue, for a variety reasons. Among these reasons, there is the seriousness of the subject itself and the fact that the military institution has been brought into total disrepute, even though it is a strong symbol for society in general. The crisis has contributed to a complete loss of confidence on the part of the military in their chain of command and on the part of the general public in the institution.

The Bloc Québécois will never form government. Therefore, it will never launch a war of accusations to find out who is guilty, whether it be the previous Conservative government, the present Liberal government or the next government to be elected. It is more important that we resolve this situation once and for all. Given the current context of a minority government, we will not have much time to debate.

My colleague, the parliamentary secretary, listed all the mechanisms that currently exist, as well as the various elements of the Deschamps Report, which proposed some fairly specific corrections that need to be swiftly implemented. I must also remind our colleagues—

[United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, April 15th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, the House has a responsibility to recognize the legitimacy of the declaration we are discussing today in our debate on Bill C-15.

Since the time of New France, Quebeckers have historically been partners and supporters of indigenous nations. I would even say that our history and our nation are bound up with the well-being of all of North America's indigenous nations. This declaration comes at the right time, as does some of Bill C-15. However, a declaration means nothing without measures to back it up.

Since the 1960s, Quebec has signed various agreements on its land regarding the self-government for indigenous nations. Under these agreements, these nations must be provided with as many resources and tools as possible so they can govern themselves. Could my colleague tell us whether her government foresees any major actions to put an end to the vassalage of indigenous nations and allow them greater self-government?

[Business of Supply, March 25th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, today's motion contains several elements expressing an intention to do some investigating and shine a light on any corners that are still dark, dubious and questionable from a parliamentary point of view. This motion and everything that is going on right now are concealing political trials and partisan intentions. That is obvious.

Nevertheless, allegations of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces have been known for a long time. Does my colleague think it would be appropriate for Parliament and its committees to address this issue once and for all? There have been a number of damning reports in recent years on the independence of courts martial and complaints processes in the Canadian Armed Forces relating to the military hierarchy. These military entities and institutions and the many shortcomings they reveal must be addressed.

Partisanship aside, we parliamentarians have an obligation to examine this issue and find solutions, rather than engaging in endless speculation. I would like to know if my colleague is interested in finding solutions to correct these shortcomings.

[Business of Supply, February 4th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is very interesting to be able to explore new avenues to improve and strengthen Quebec's and Canada's positions regarding our economic relationship with the United States. In the midst of a pandemic, we are experiencing a huge protectionist backlash from other countries. We have seen that from the United States in recent months.

I have had the opportunity to share various thoughts on free trade and other things with the House. I suggested invoking the national security clause several times. Other countries do that when the economic situation worsens in certain sectors.

Would my colleague like to look into that possibility, which does not seem to be in the nature of Canadian institutions?

[François Dupéré, February 1st, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, Corporal François Dupéré passed away at the age of 40 on January 20. He enlisted in 1997 and served in the 4th Battalion of the Royal 22nd Regiment until his release in 2015.

Corporal Dupéré was a man of purpose and action. He was deployed to the former Yugoslavia and did two tours in Afghanistan. During his second mission to Afghanistan in 2011, he was the victim of a suicide bombing when out on patrol. After a long recovery, he rejoined his unit. Very few men can claim to be both a war hero and a life hero. Franck had an extraordinarily strong character and was incredibly resilient. He served as a role model for hundreds of soldiers and veterans across the country.

I want to express my deepest condolences to the members of the 4th Battalion and to Franck's family, relatives and friends, particularly his two children, Noémie and Anthony.

Franck, you will live on forever in our memories. We miss you. Rest in peace, my friend. Lest we forget.

[Digital Charter Implementation Act, 2020, November 24th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, it is a great pleasure to speak to Bill C-11 today.

This is an extremely important subject that concerns the security and protection of all citizens' personal information. As my colleague already clearly stated, over the past 10 years and during the current pandemic, there have been a multitude of phishing scams via telephone, the Internet and online shopping platforms, which are increasingly popular.

I believe that Bill C-11 is timely and will correct major problems that we have been seeing for some time in different areas. For example, there have been cases of bank fraud, notably at Desjardins, and the federal government has also been affected. I know that the bill does not apply to the federal government, but this issue remains a very serious concern.

Take, for example, a situation that has occurred in my riding of Terrebonne. For the past month or so, we have been seeing a whole host of complaints related to the Canada Revenue Agency, from people whose identities were stolen by fraudsters who claimed CERB cheques in their name. This shows that there is a gap at the government level, which is very interesting.

I understand that we need to look at what requirements should be established for banks and e-commerce, but I think that there may be some aspects of the bill that we could rework. We are only at debate at second reading for this bill, which means that the bill could be amended and improved to give it more teeth, make it more robust and ensure that it is more responsive to the various threats that could arise in the future. Since we are essentially talking about technology here, the new law should be able to adapt its mechanisms to the changes in technology that will occur in the coming years.

However, there are a number of troubling issues that the bill does not address. For instance, metadata is not included in the bill. I am not an IT expert, but metadata is something that we see regularly. For example, if we spend a few minutes on the Internet searching for a camp chair, it is not unusual to then see ads for various types of camping equipment.

That is worrisome because metadata can be used to target specific individuals. When a group of individuals is targeted, there is a risk of more targeted threats or cyber-attacks. That is why I think it would be a good idea to improve the bill by addressing the issue of metadata.

The federal government, and the Canada Revenue Agency in particular, has quite a lot of work to do on matters of identity theft. The CRA's mandate is to manage revenues on behalf of the Canadian government.

However, what happens in the case of computer fraud as a result of identity theft? In that case, it becomes more a matter of public safety and national security. In many cases, fraud and identity theft, particularly in the banking sector, are committed from abroad using fairly sophisticated electronic means.

Once again, I am not familiar with the mechanisms used to investigate these predominantly computer-based threats or to protect us from them.

I am also referring to the recent debate we had—and I do think this is related—on 5G networks in Canada, in terms of the technological means that will be deployed over the next few years to protect the IT infrastructure itself from all threats and foreign influences.

In some cases, the threat might involve political or public influence. In other cases, it could literally be individual hackers from around the world who use technology, including 5G networks, to circumvent security mechanisms and break into various systems to steal identities and the personal data of the various citizens that we are meant to protect.

It seems to me that the general intent behind Bill C-11 is a worthwhile one, crucial even, as I said in my opening remarks. However, we also need to tackle the technical side. I get the sense that some issues were not considered from all angles so as to ensure that the bill reinforces the back door as much as it does the front door.

Once again, protecting online identity is the most tenuous aspect, and we are trying to rectify that here. I am concerned about a number of aspects of the authentication mechanisms, because that is really what this is about. Currently, many banks, institutions and businesses use a variety of platforms to secure and protect the identity of online customers and consumers.

As a few minutes on the Internet will show, private online commerce companies use many different authentication platforms and mechanisms. It might be a good idea to consider using the bill to standardize those online transaction authentication mechanisms, but the government seems unwilling to do that in the current version of Bill C-11.

The government wants to have companies and financial institutions take on more of the control, responsibility and obligations of protecting personal information. The government should, however, set out some very specific measures in the bill to ensure that all companies can shoulder this responsibility. Not every company has the financial means to set up robust data protection mechanisms. I therefore think that the government needs to set some statutory requirements.

As my colleague from Abitibi—Témiscamingue pointed out earlier, a lot of small merchants and businesses do not have the financial means to improve or modernize their technology infrastructure. This issue may also need to be addressed in the comprehensive approach we are advocating today.

There is the whole issue of jurisdictions. Quebec's jurisdiction over civil law and consumer protection plays an extremely important role. We know that the laws are confined to the jurisdictions for which they were written. This is not just a Quebec and Canadian problem, but also an international one. By the way, I think it will be necessary for the government to define very clearly these famous control mechanisms and make solid political and governmental choices in connection with the new information technologies that will crop up here at home.

That is essentially where this will play out. We cannot give a foreign government control over telecommunications and computer infrastructure. It is extremely important. We are wading into another field, but to be able to protect our constituents we have to ensure that our infrastructure is not threatened by other countries or by foreign nationals, such as the hackers I mentioned earlier.

Then we have to find some form of standardization to help ensure that clients or consumers are protected during online transactions. Let's not forget the entire issue of metadata, which are a formidable tool for any bad actor wanting to target and attack groups that are more privileged or more vulnerable.

In conclusion, the federal government must ensure that Canadians can be guaranteed, in all circumstances, that a consistent international standard will be rigorously applied, and that it will be possible to efficiently identify any and all fraudsters. Identifying fraudsters has always been a problem, and the Canada Revenue Agency could speak at length about this in committee.

[Business of Supply, November 17th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, it is really interesting that the House is finally dealing with this national security issue, which is a major concern in the world in which we live.

One thing is for certain, our society today does not have enough technical and technological resources to counter any type of foreign influence, whatever it may be. Here we are talking about competition and international markets again when, in the circumstances, Canada should act on national security grounds.

As I said earlier in the House, I think that our society could quickly come up with a design and construction plan to keep our aerospace industry going and produce everything we need. We are talking here about satellites and relay antennas for telecommunications.

I do not understand why our government does not take the bull by the horns and force an existing industry to remedy a technical situation that is threatening national security. I would like to hear what my colleague has to say about that because her party moved this very worthwhile motion this morning.

[Business of Supply, November 17th, 2020]

Madam Speaker, in this matter, which is a major national security concern for both Quebec and Canada, there is the issue of industrial and commercial competition in the deployment of the 5G network in Canada.

I understand that there are significant inherent technical, scientific and industrial challenges, but, when it is a matter of national security, why does Canada not invoke the national security clause to foster greater development in high tech, aerospace and telecommunications right here in Quebec and Canada? After all, we are already a major international player in these fields.

I do not understand why we are still at this stage, two years later, when the chief of staff of the armed forces said in January that Canada was behind in finding solutions and in engaging enormous resources here in Quebec and Canada.