Peter Kent

[Privacy, November 22nd, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, it is time for the Liberals to come clean on the Statistics Canada file.

The minister himself this week admitted that StatsCan kept him and the cabinet in the dark about the demand to Canada's banks to hand over more than a million Canadians' most personal financial information without consent.

When will the Liberals get their heads around new realities in the digital world, accept that Canadians should own their own data, and should have a right to decide with whom they share it, or not?

[News Industry, November 20th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, government bailout investment has no place in an independent Canadian news industry. How independent can thousands of journalists at struggling news organizations across the country be if their employers' survival is dependent on government subsidies, slush-fund tax relief or direct cash bailouts? Again, and I do not want to hear about millions more for the CBC, why can the Liberals not understand that a media bailout in an election year is simply unacceptable?

[Navy Day, November 20th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, today is Navy Day, a day dedicated to the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Coast Guard and the exceptional sailor program.

Our senior service traces its roots back to Tudor times in England, where a standing navy was established long before a standing army and, of course, an air force was still a theoretical da Vinci dream.

The Royal Canadian Navy's beginnings date back to 1910, growing quickly during the First World War. By the end of the Second World War, Canada had the third largest navy in the world. The Canadian Coast Guard, formed in 1962, now boasts a fleet of more than a hundred vessels of various purposes and sizes.

Now, challenges do remain with procurement, the shipbuilding program and partisan interference, and Bravo Zulu, Admiral Norman. However, today we salute the men and women who have served in war and peace and who serve now in Canadian waters and around the world.

Parati Vero Parati, Ready, Aye Ready.

[Petitions, November 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of constituents in Thornhill and beyond who petition the government, urging Parliament to move quickly on the proposed legislation to amend the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to prohibit Canadians from travelling abroad to acquire human organs removed without consent.

[News Industry, November 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, Jerry Dias, the head of the union representing thousands of Canadian journalists, confirmed in a tweet last week that his union will campaign aggressively to help the Liberals in the next election. The very same day, he was quoted in the Toronto Star asking the Liberals for more money. Now Canadians learn the Liberals plan to cave in to this demand with a major cash infusion for media outlets.

Does the minister not see that this bailout could be easily perceived as an attempt to buy off the media in an election year?

[News Industry, November 19th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we have learned through media reports that the Liberals are considering a bailout package for Canada's struggling news industry in this week's fall economic statement. We hope this is merely a trial balloon because a healthy democracy relies on a free and independent press. It would be unacceptable for the Liberals to even appear to be trying to influence favour with the media.

Will the minister confirm that the Liberals will not attempt to buy off the media in an election year?

[Privacy, November 8th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, Ann Cavoukian, the former Ontario privacy commissioner, says it is time Statistics Canada realized it is no longer the same world as when the Statistics Act was first enacted. Dr. Cavoukian says,

When our sensitive financial data is disclosed by our banks to the govt. without our consent, and then housed at “Shared Services Canada”, you can bet we have something to worry about!

Why will the Liberals not listen when a privacy expert like Ann Cavoukian says, “Stop this totally unacceptable practice”?

[Privacy, November 8th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, we learned today that the Liberals not only misled this House but misled the Privacy Commissioner to believe that the deepest personal financial information of only 500,000 Canadians would be seized, without consent, by Statistics Canada. We know now that it is 500,000 households, that almost 1.5 million Canadians' data will be captured.

Did the Liberals try to hide the true scope of this project because they knew Canadians would be, quite rightly, appalled?

[Privacy, November 7th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister needs to wake up and understand that Canadians reject the government's support of Statistics Canada's harvest of deeply personal financial data without asking for permission. Canadians realize that Europeans this year have new privacy laws that prohibit this sort of privacy exposure without the specific consent of clients.

Why will the Prime Minister not accept that Canadians own all of their personal information, financial or otherwise, and that they should decide whether that data is shared or not?

[Privacy, November 6th, 2018]

Mr. Speaker, if this is only a pilot project, I can only imagine what the full monty will look like. The new European privacy law gives citizens full control of personal data held by banks and financial services, that is, the right to say no to requests to share that data with third party organizations.

Last week, Canada's Privacy Commissioner told our committee that “Individual privacy is not a right we simply trade-off for innovation, efficiency or commercial gain.”

Why will the Liberal government not allow Canadians to say no to Statistics Canada?