Paul Manly

[Broadcasting Act, June 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I find it very rich to listen to Conservatives talk about free speech and about the rights of parliamentarians when they are the only party that has blocked the Green Party from having our fair share of questions in the House of Commons. We are the only members of Parliament who get a question every second week, after they evicted one of their members for taking donations from a white supremacy group.

I would like to ask the hon. member if he has read the Broadcasting Act, which states:

This Act shall be construed and applied in a manner that is consistent with the freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence enjoyed by broadcasting undertakings.

This is right at the very beginning of the act, and this constrains the CRTC to ensure Canadians have freedom of expression. I am wondering if he has actually read the Broadcasting Act as well as the legislation.

[Broadcasting Act, June 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I have heard a lot about free speech from the Conservatives and I would like to ask if they think that social media platforms are a place of free speech.

I will point to a situation on May 5, Red Dress Day, to commemorate missing and murdered indigenous women and girls across this country. Hundreds if not thousands of posts were removed by Instagram and Facebook from people who were expressing their sorrow, rage and loss of family, friends and loved ones to this tragedy in our country.

Does the member think this is freedom of speech? When these platforms are removing this kind of content in this country are they a democratic space?

[Broadcasting Act, June 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for her speech and for her hard work on this bill. She knows that I put a lot of time and effort into this bill as well. I would like to thank her for supporting one of my amendments, which was to level the playing field between independent producers and broadcasting undertakings. This is something that has been adopted in the U.K. and in France. It is a market-based solution to a market imbalance problem.

Why does the member think the Conservatives, who claim to be the ones who fight for the little guy against the big companies, would vote against that amendment? We did not get a chance to debate it because we spent so much time listening to filibusters for hours on end. We did not get to talk about these amendments, but this was an important amendment that I discussed with the Canadian Media Producers Association. It was very important to them to create a better balance between the large companies and the small producers. I would like her comments on that.

[Broadcasting Act, June 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I was disappointed at committee during important amendments that I wanted to speak to and debate, and hearing endless talking points about YouTube creators in this country. I looked up the top 100 YouTube creators in this country and could not tell them apart from American content.

However, when I talked to APTN about the importance of having their voices integrated into the Internet through these platforms, that was key. It is about building indigenous languages. It is about Canadian voices and bringing forward Canadian voices.

I would like to ask the minister about his comments on the importance of revitalizing indigenous language and indigenous culture in this country, and understanding indigenous cultures.

[Broadcasting Act, June 14th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I was really disappointed with this bill. I agree there were lots of flaws in it, and we worked really hard to fix it. However, I put forward 27 amendments, and there were some from the Canadian Media Producers Association that I was not even able to speak to in the committee process.

I agree with the hon. member that there has been a lot of bamboozling in this debate. I heard talk in the House of Commons about the movie Canadian Bacon and whether it is Canadian content because the word “Canadian” is in its title and John Candy acts in it. By the way, another great actor in it, Adrian Hough, is Canadian. That movie was produced by an American company owned by Michael Moore, who wrote and directed the movie. It also has Alan Alda and a whole bunch of other Americans in it.

This discussion about Canadian content and what constitutes Canadian content is something the Conservatives do not even seem to understand. They do not seem to understand that CBC News is not about Canadian content; it is about news. When it uses CNN as a source, that is not about Canadian content; it is about news content.

Would the hon. member not agree that there has been a lot of misinformation and misleading of the Canadian public about what Canadian content really is?

[Petitions, June 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, in the second petition, the petitioners are deeply concerned about protecting endangered old growth. They note that a number of first nations have asked for deferrals on old growth.

The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to work with the provinces and first nations to immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems, fund the long-term protection of old-growth ecosystems as a priority for Canada's climate action plan and reconciliation with indigenous peoples, support value-added forestry initiatives and partnerships with first nations to ensure Canada's forestry industry is sustainable and based on the harvesting of second- and third-growth forests, ban the export of raw logs and maximize resources for use for local jobs, and ban the use of whole trees for wood pellet biofuel production.

[Petitions, June 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, it is an honour to table two petitions today.

The first is petition e-3159, which has 10,984 signatures from people who are concerned about approved strip mines in the Alberta Rocky Mountains.

The petition states that strip mining in all its forms causes irreversible damage to the environment, puts watersheds supplying clean drinking water for millions of Canadians at risk of permanent contamination and threatens billions of dollars in revenue and tens of thousands of jobs in agriculture, recreation and tourism. Removing overburden exposes contaminated materials to the elements, destroys habitat and allows wind and water borne pollution to be spread for hundreds of kilometres. Finally, proper consultations with indigenous communities about these mines were not done before they were approved.

The petitioners call upon the Government of Canada to impose an immediate ban on new or expanded strip mines in the Rocky Mountains.

[Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1, June 14th, 2021]

Madam Speaker, I want to follow up on one comment the member for Saanich—Gulf Islands brought up about not having the government break the fixed election law. Why is it that we have speeches tomorrow for MPs who are not intending to run again if there is not going to be an election until the fixed election date, and if there is no need for an election at this point?

The other point I would make is this. We are here to try to fix this legislation. We have just seen the largest transfer of wealth from governments and taxpayers to the ultrawealthy. The ultrawealthy have made out like bandits during this pandemic. There are flaws in this legislation that would cause people to have their CERB cut when they are not ready. The needs of the small business community, in particular tourism, have been flagged in this piece of legislation, and there are a lot of things to fix. It is our job, as members of Parliament and legislators, to fix this legislation. That takes time and democratic debate.

[Petitions, June 11th, 2021]

Speaking of ecocide, Mr. Speaker, the second petition is from citizens who are deeply concerned about the clear-cut logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems. They are calling upon the government to work with the province and first nations to immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems, to fund the long-term protection of old-growth ecosystems as a priority of Canada's climate action plan and reconciliation with indigenous peoples, to support value-added forestry initiatives in partnership with first nations to ensure Canada's forestry industry is sustainable and based on the harvesting of second- and third-growth forests, to ban the export of raw logs and maximize resource use for local jobs, and to ban the use of whole trees for wood pellet biofuel production.

I will note that over 200 people in British Columbia, on Vancouver Island—

[Petitions, June 11th, 2021]

Mr. Speaker, I have two petitions to table today.

In the first petition, the petitioners note that the climate crisis and destruction of ecosystems, or ecocide, is the result of many years of harmful industrial practices permitted by law with many risks having been known about for decades by the companies choosing to continue them and by the governments that subsidize those activities. Citizens and residents can and must take some responsibility for what is consumed, but it is industry, finance and government that make high-level investments and policy decisions.

As a member state of the United Nations, Canada shares a collective legal duty to promote social progress and better standards of life. Therefore, the petitioners call upon the House of Commons to declare its support for an ecocide law amendment to the Rome Statute and to advocate for its adoption internationally, in the knowledge that many countries must stand together for the long-term protection of life on Earth.