QUESTION PERIOD — Foreign Affairs
Mandate of Minister
March 31, 2022
Honourable senators, my question is to the Government Representative in the Senate. It’s in reference to Minister Joly, who, before a committee in the other place, was responding to questions in regard to the government’s work in fighting back misinformation and propaganda. I quote what the minister said before that committee:
We’ve banned Russia Today and Sputnik on the broadcasting side. We’ve pushed digital platforms to also ban them, but we need to do more. . . .
Our mandate, and my mandate as foreign minister, is really to counter propaganda online. . . . They need to make sure that they recognize that states have jurisdiction over them, that they are not technological platforms but they’re content producers. It is our way, collectively, to make sure that we can really be able to have strong democracies in the future.
Government leader, in the letter to Minister Joly from Prime Minister Trudeau, where does it give her the mandate to push back on online propaganda in this country?
Thank you for the question. As senators and colleagues would rightly understand, the internet is a space that knows few borders, notwithstanding our sovereign right to regulate as best we can. Therefore it’s an all-of-government issue to make sure that Canada remains protected against all forms of threats emanating from cyberspace, whether it’s information online or information coming from foreign sources. In that regard, we have agencies like the Communications Security Establishment, CSIS, the RCMP and others working with government and partners to ensure that we remain safe, both from cyberattacks and from the other equally pernicious forms of misinformation that come our way through the cyberspace.
Government leader, there is absolutely no direct reference in Minister Joly’s letter from the Prime Minister that her mandate is to counter propaganda online. As I said in my speech on Bill S-237 the other day, the first job of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Canada is to defend the national interest and values we hold as Canadians, which include free speech. The answer to combatting foreign interference isn’t to censor our own citizens — not at all.
Leader, seeing as how Minister Joly thinks her mandate is to counter propaganda online, could you tell us this: How exactly does the minister in your government define propaganda? Does anyone in the NDP-Liberal government even know how Minister Joly defines it herself? How will we have assurances that there won’t be a line crossed here?
Thank you for the question. This government — as all governments in Canada, I assume — is devoted to the principles of free speech as enshrined in our constitutional traditions and in our Charter. Any limitations on Canadians’ rights need to be prescribed by law, satisfy rigorous standards as applied by the courts and be subject to the scrutiny of Parliament as well when such laws come before us. If and when such laws come before us, I’m sure we will do our constitutional duty to make sure they respect our constitutional rights.
