Michelle Ferreri

[Questions on the Order Paper, September 20th, 2022]

With regard to the daily Changing of the Guard Ceremony on Parliament Hill during the summer: (a) why did the government cancel the event for the summer of 2022; (b) which minister is responsible for the decision to cancel the event, and on what date did the minister either make or sign off on the decision; (c) what are the government's estimates on the amount of economic activity and benefits that the event brings to Ottawa each year; and (d) on what dates will the ceremony take place in 2023?

[Online Streaming Act, June 20th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, it is unfortunate that my colleague does not love one of the best authors of all time.

To his points, I actually agree 100% that we need to be harsh on people who are taking advantage of others. We put these amendments forward.

To his point about the witnesses, 40% of the witnesses did not agree with this bill. I would put it back to him and ask him if he thinks this bill is ready. Does he think this bill is ready for legislation when 40% of the witnesses have said it was not?

In my opinion, we have something significant that has not been touched in 31 years. The Liberals are ready to ram it through without more careful consideration. It is going to change how we consume and create everyday media. I would like to be a little more thorough than that.

[Online Streaming Act, June 20th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, it is always a pleasure to engage with this member, who lives in the House of Commons.

I am a little surprised that the member does not care about all of the witnesses who have been on the record to say how this bill is going to impact them. Has he not listened to the witnesses? This is 100% how a content creator is created. Justin Bieber started his first video by uploading himself playing music. That is a fact.

[Online Streaming Act, June 20th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, as always, it is an honour to rise in the House of Commons to represent the constituents of Peterborough—Kawartha.

Today, I am speaking to one of the most important bills that will come before this Parliament: Bill C-11, also known as the online streaming act. Bill C-11 would impact anyone who uses the Internet. Bill C-11, or the online streaming act, is a significant piece of legislation. It is long and convoluted in how it is written, but in a nutshell it would mean that the CRTC would have significant governing powers over content creators and what is uploaded to the Internet.

For those who do not know, the CRTC is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. According to its website, it is an administrative tribunal that operates at arm's length from the federal government. This bill appears to make it even closer to the government, meaning more government overreach. As we have all experienced, more bureaucracy never equals more efficiency or equity.

In this speech, I am going to outline three key reasons why Canadians should be deeply disappointed and concerned with this bill. Number one is the lack of transparency. Number two is logistics and the fallout from not foreseeing the consequences of this poorly written bill. Number three is unnecessary urgency.

If someone Google searches Bill C-11, they will read the following: “The online streaming act does not apply to individual Canadians, whether they are users, creators, digital influencers or workers.” Just for the record, in case people at home do not know, an online content creator could perhaps be a child who has uploaded their performance at their talent show, Justin Bieber, perhaps one's favourite cook, an athlete or a musician. All of these people are considered to be online content creators. This is the biggest area of mistrust and lack of transparency when we go back and read that “the online streaming act does not apply to individual Canadians, whether they are users, creators, digital influencers or workers.”

We have heard multiple times from the heritage minister that this bill would not target content creators, but rather the platforms, which means Facebook, TikTok, Netflix, etc. However, Ian Scott, the chair of the CRTC, the entity that would be responsible for doing the regulation on the government's behalf, says that user-generated content would be fair game. Who are we to believe?

That is fairly inconsistent information and, as such, Canadians are very skeptical of the “just trust us” approach. I do not know of any contract with any reputable organization where the customer is asked to sign now and learn the details later. This approach lacks transparency and, in the absence of information, we can expect people to fill it in with misinformation. The Liberal government continues to leave out information, which leads to mistrust. Why is the government asking Canadians to just trust it? What premise has it set to deserve such blind faith?

I want to move on to my second major concern: the logistics of this bill. As I have mentioned, there are very few clear details on how this bill would impact content creators and users. What I do know is that there are thousands of videos uploaded every day, and probably even millions. How will the government plan to manage this? What is the plan? I have seen time and again the government fail to plan and constantly react instead of prepare. We have the highest wait times at passport offices that we have ever seen, because the government was not prepared. How is it going to manage the volume of content creators fairly? I would like to know these details before we pass this bill.

Rules and guidelines are extremely important when generating content. I worked in both mainstream media and as an online content creator, and it is extremely important to have guidelines that equal the playing field, but this bill would not do that. Here is a quote from Dr. Irene Berkowitz. Irene said:

Bill C-11's wrong turn starts with the notion that CRTC has jurisdiction over the whole Internet for two reasons. The first is scale. Consider the math. On YouTube alone, 500 hours of content is uploaded per minute....

Second, new media is a feature, not a bug.... Bill C-11 gets it backwards. Instead of positioning new media as a model to engage audiences, it ensnares new media in the epic fail part of our old media: disregard for audiences.

Here is another quote. It is from Darcy Michael, a comedian and digital content creator:

Bill C-11 will directly affect my ability to earn an income.

He went on:

The sheer logistics of the CRTC trying to approve Canadian content for every video uploaded to social media is impossible. Across the country, there are thousands of videos uploaded every day. There is simply no way to approve this. You are creating a logistical nightmare, with all due respect to the members, without properly understanding the industry that we're in.

He continued:

I don't want to be paying 30% to do something I don't benefit from as a digital creator. I think it's a second tax. I think that by the end of the day I'll be paying 80% tax on my income. That isn't fair.

To my third point, why the rush? This is a significant piece of legislation that needs a lot of attention and detail, so why would anyone who truly cares about democracy want this rushed? Bill C-11 would be the first major update to the Broadcasting Act in 31 years, and this government is ramming it through. Why?

Dozens of interested witnesses have yet to be heard by the heritage committee. The government has an obligation to listen to those who are directly impacted by the bill. By imposing an arbitrary deadline to return the bill to the House, the government is not allowing members to carefully consider each clause or amendment, and this will inevitably result in a flawed and incoherent Broadcasting Act, which comes back to the second point I made earlier: There is no way to work out the logistics in such a rushed approach.

I am somebody who likes things done quickly. I am always about speed and efficiency, but this is being rushed. I would ask Canadians if they would want someone regulating every book they read and every song they hear. Do they want censorship at that level? Bill C-11 would create winners and losers based on the CRTC's rule book, which is unknown at this time and will be decided on with zero transparency to Canadians.

Here are some powerful words from Oorbee Roy, a digital content creator, who said:

Not only does the bill not help me. It also hurts me and actively undermines my needs as an artist. There is no language in the bill to tell me otherwise.

Frankly, I don't qualify. I'm just not the right fit. That I'm not the right fit is a story I've been told my whole life. ... I'm too round. I'm a nerd. I'm too old. I'm female. I'm not feminine enough. I'm not the right demographic, but I've never been the right demographic. My voice has been suppressed far too many times.

That is a powerful quote from Oorbee Roy, a digital content creator.

I will wrap up my speech by saying that George Orwell warned us of the dangers of having the thought police, and I think that Bill C-11 is a potentially dangerous bill that needs a lot more attention before we can get it right. I urge everyone in this House to vote against it and take the time it needs to make sure we get it done right.

[The Economy, June 20th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, children and seniors are going hungry and people cannot go to work because they do not have enough money to put gas in their vehicle. Any MP who spends time in their riding or reads any of their emails knows how dire the cost-of-living crisis is, yet inflation continues to rise under the current Liberal government. Are the Liberals just not listening to Canadians, or do they just not care?

[Online Streaming Act, June 17th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague across the way for his contribution to the arts.

As somebody who was an online content creator and able to create a business as a result of it, and who also worked in mainstream media, I am curious to have his thoughts on how he thinks the CRTC can logistically regulate the millions of videos that are uploaded to social media and YouTube every single day.

[Health, June 17th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, last week I spent an hour on the streets with a young woman who had passed out. She was in danger of getting hit by a car. I could not call paramedics because she was not in medical distress. I could not take her to the hospital because they did not have room for her, and I could not call the police because there was nowhere to take her.

I understand that decriminalization is very important to destigmatization, and that is critical in treating addiction, but why are we not investing in real solutions and investing in a mental health system to treat people and help them on their way to recovery?

[Peterborough—Kawartha Constituent, June 17th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, Lee-Anne Quinn has received the Order of Military Merit award, the highest order a member of the military can receive. She is the honorary lieutenant colonel to the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment.

She is an all-star athlete. She is a Guinness World Records holder. She is an RN. She is a nurse practitioner who volunteers her time at Camp Maple Leaf. She received the Florence Nightingale Medal in 2007 as Canada's top nurse. She has served and practised medicine around the world in war-torn countries. She is also a survivor of PTSD. Lee-Anne is passionate about mental health solutions and service. She retired this past Tuesday so she can devote all her time to the Brock Clinic, which she worked tirelessly to make happen. The clinic offers free care for the homeless.

Lee-Anne has done so much for this community. I promise, as I said I would, that I will continue my work at the federal level to work across all party lines to ensure that mental health care becomes a priority from coast to coast to coast in this country. I am so honoured to know Lee-Anne.

[Tourism Industry, June 16th, 2022]

Mr. Speaker, the Liberal government continues to be reactive rather than prepared. The vice-president of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said that if the Government of Canada has a plan for tourism, it has never shown it to us. Mark Webber of the Customs and Immigration Union said that his border agents are no longer agents but instead have become “IT consultants”, and wait times have skyrocketed because of the inefficient ArriveCAN app. He went on to say that they were never consulted on the app. No wonder our airports and land borders are a disaster and an embarrassment.

Why would the government create a system without consulting the frontline workers who must implement it?

[Government Business No. 16—Proceedings on Bill C‑11, June 13th, 2022]

Madam Speaker, that was a great presentation.

When we are looking at doing something so significant, I am curious to know why there is a rush. As somebody who comes from a journalism background and who also was an online content creator, I know how important it is to make sure things are done properly.

What would be the ramifications of not rushing it through and making sure it is done well as opposed to done fast?