The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Bill C-10

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:06.160 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corwithal Lights, Brock, with new

00:00:10.180 content every single Tuesday. We're a bit early. It's usually at 1.30 p.m. Eastern time. We invite

00:00:15.200 you to join us. Not only that, we need you to like, comment, subscribe, share this program,

00:00:20.720 help us push back against the ever-moving liberal agenda. I normally was going to say this and move

00:00:26.480 on to my next part, but Bill C-10, this is the topic we're going to be talking about today.

00:00:31.860 That potentially may have led to The Blueprint being cancelled. Justin Trudeau obviously didn't

00:00:37.280 want any scrutiny of his vision, his musing, so we're glad that changes are being made,

00:00:43.520 but we're not quite sure they're actually going to be the changes we want to help us talk about it.

00:00:48.080 We're bringing in Rachel Harder, the Member of Parliament for Lethbridge, also the Shadow

00:00:51.860 Minister for Digital Government. Welcome to the first time on this program. Thank you, Jamie. It's

00:00:57.640 so nice to be here with you today. All right, we're going to kick off Bill C-10 discussion in

00:01:01.660 just one moment. Today is May the 4th, and of course, our leader is a big fan of Star Wars. He

00:01:06.900 has this video. I think we should share it, because it's appropriate being May 4th.

00:01:15.780 This is going to be our greatest adventure.

00:01:21.860 Yes. Taken down. Taken down. That is very sad. You saw the little empire emblem here as

00:01:29.620 the Galactic Empire brings its will down on the people. We'll quickly just give a background.

00:01:36.340 C-10, it was introduced last November. It was slowly making its way through the committee process.

00:01:41.320 It was just doing its thing. It was meant to make the big web giants pay. Then a couple of weeks ago,

00:01:47.720 on a Friday, a committee, the Liberals who dominate committee took a clause out that would have

00:01:53.820 exempted user-generated content like those from Facebook and TikTok, YouTube, that kind of thing,

00:02:00.200 from government's regulation. The government continued and said, it's no big deal. There's

00:02:07.760 no problem to see here, even though the Heritage Minister, Gilboa, could not explain it at all.

00:02:12.460 Now, they're saying, after pressure, they're going to bring an exemption back in that will

00:02:18.460 hopefully make this crystal clear. But they had one at first, which was no big deal. Maybe you can

00:02:24.000 unpack this. It's hard to follow. Liberal logic.

00:02:29.080 Well, that's exactly it, Jamie. It is difficult to follow. You're entirely right. There was a clause

00:02:34.940 originally in this legislation when it was announced in the fall. That clause protected the content that

00:02:41.680 individuals would put on their social media pages. And then, you know, about a week ago at committee,

00:02:46.480 that was removed. And of course, Canadians were rightly outraged because, let's be honest,

00:02:53.040 at the end of the day, they want to be able to put up their cat video or a video of them dancing in

00:02:56.680 their kitchen or, you know, maybe they're having a barbecue with friends and they post that.

00:03:00.480 They want that freedom without, you know, having that content censored by the government or an arm of

00:03:06.220 the government. That said, Canadians pushed back. Of course, Conservatives have pushed back.

00:03:10.280 Now, Minister Gabot is telling us that he's going to come forward with an amendment

00:03:14.420 and somehow that this amendment is going to clarify that individuals are protected.

00:03:20.020 I haven't seen that wording. I look forward to seeing that wording. But I think what needs to

00:03:25.340 be highlighted here is that this is yet another liberal attempt at trying to save face. They're

00:03:33.540 trying to make themselves look innocent. They're trying to say, you know, all along, they never meant

00:03:38.540 to infringe upon, you know, Canadians' rights. Look, over and over and over again in question

00:03:44.420 period, the minister has buckled down on this and has tried to, you know, push this legislation

00:03:53.180 through. If there's any change that is made, it is because the Canadian people were effective in

00:03:58.680 using their voice and pushing back for what matters.

00:04:00.860 Keep in mind, this is not the first time these Liberals have tried to take away the role of an

00:04:08.800 opposition party or opposition voices. You remember in the previous Parliament, what was known as,

00:04:14.080 I believe, Motion 6 led to Elbowgate. That was taking away the powers that the opposition have

00:04:20.740 in the House of Commons. Then we fast forward to the pandemic. The first thing they do, the Liberals do,

00:04:27.120 when the kind of restricted Parliament was brought back, fake Parliament, if you will, was to bring in

00:04:32.940 a bill that gave the executive branch sweeping powers to spend or tax on anything they wanted

00:04:39.060 up until 2022, free reign. Basically, any opposition voice, again, trying to be censored.

00:04:45.320 And now we have Bill C-10, which had that clause that protected freedom of speech, and they took it out,

00:04:52.900 acted so confused when people were upset, couldn't believe it. Why would you want to have opposing

00:04:58.880 views? And here we are again. It's as if this is a path, a pattern with this government.

00:05:07.280 Yeah, absolutely. That's exactly it. I think this government has proven themselves again and again

00:05:12.960 and again to be against freedom. And look, at the end of the day, Jamie, you and I both know

00:05:19.600 that freedom is messy. It is. To grant people freedom can be messy. But the alternative to that

00:05:27.260 is a dictatorship. The alternative to that is government control. The alternative to that,

00:05:33.280 I would argue, is absolutely soul-crushing and destructive. And so if we want to contend for

00:05:40.320 and protect the Canadian society in which we live and the freedoms that we enjoy, we have to push back

00:05:47.020 on these things. Because the Liberals want nothing more than to push their ideological agenda

00:05:52.280 and impose their value set on Canadians. I mean, another example of this, Jamie, is we saw this,

00:05:58.820 you know, a few years back in 2018 with the Canada Summer Jobs Grant. You know, they said companies

00:06:03.920 could apply for the grant, but they needed to sign off on a statement of values. Well, who created those

00:06:10.560 values? Liberals created those values. And if businesses or, you know, not-for-profit organizations

00:06:15.480 weren't willing to sign off on that value set, then they didn't get the grant. That's wrong.

00:06:21.180 It is wrong for the government to dictate the values that an organization needs to sign off on.

00:06:26.900 When you're talking about the values, let's unpack that a bit. Without this clause, without this

00:06:31.740 exemption giving people the right to post whatever they want on YouTube or TikTok or whatever platform,

00:06:37.180 that sends this country potentially down a very, very dark and dangerous path. I don't think

00:06:44.360 many Canadians, regardless of how they vote, would be happy with that.

00:06:50.560 Absolutely. And this is where I would, again, contend this is not a partisan issue, or at least

00:06:55.600 it shouldn't be. You know, protecting Canadians' charter rights should just be a no-brainer for every

00:07:00.680 single political party. But for whatever reason, Conservatives seem to be the only ones that are

00:07:05.760 willing to raise our voices and really contend for the protection of, you know, freedom of expression,

00:07:12.260 freedom of belief, freedom of opinion. And so, you know, kudos to our colleagues. And again,

00:07:18.460 kudos to Canadians for using their voices to speak out and to show that they are incredibly unhappy 1.00

00:07:24.920 and even outraged with the current legislation that is before the House Bill C-10.

00:07:31.100 And what is funny is we, as Conservatives, raised many concerns about this bill prior to the clause

00:07:39.340 being taken out a few Fridays ago, and no one was really paying attention. So I'm glad the media

00:07:43.700 finally caught up. But I just want to say, if this was Stephen Harper as Prime Minister, and Stephen

00:07:51.060 Harper brought in this bill, the media would be losing their collective minds. And it's just been

00:07:57.480 a slow, slow burn here, and they're finally catching up. Yeah, it's so interesting, right,

00:08:04.180 just to see the discrepancy there between the way that we would, you know, perhaps be treated if we

00:08:09.280 were in the same boat. You know, again, at the end of the day, we know that the Liberals enjoy

00:08:16.200 some protections from the media that we aren't and weren't granted as Conservatives. Nevertheless,

00:08:22.780 you know, I would just highlight again, you know, I think because Canadians have been so vocal on this

00:08:30.960 topic and have made their voices heard. The media, you know, has started to be sympathetic to them.

00:08:38.680 And therefore, you know, they've given us as Conservatives an opportunity to have our voices

00:08:43.280 heard as well, which, you know, I genuinely appreciate. So the Heritage Minister, Stephen

00:08:48.100 Bilbo says he is going to bring a new clause that will make it crystal clear that there won't be

00:08:53.460 that government regulation on these kind of social media platforms. Do we trust him?

00:08:58.380 Frankly, no, no, I would say that Minister Bilbo has been sneaky, he has been disingenuous. He's been

00:09:08.860 crafty, you know, anytime in question period where he has been asked to respond to our concerns,

00:09:14.880 he has resorted to the typical Liberal response, which is deflect, deflect, attack, deflect,

00:09:22.300 repeat. And that's, that's, that's generally their response. And again, it's shameful, you know, and so

00:09:30.140 just even in the House this week, you know, we saw that the Liberals were incapable of disagreeing

00:09:36.060 without being disagreeable. I asked the Minister a question, he wasn't able to answer, it made him

00:09:41.120 feel uncomfortable. And so instead of actually engaging with the issue at hand, he decided to

00:09:45.840 deflect and attack me on personal values and beliefs that I hold. You know, again, I would never wish for

00:09:54.320 freedom of speech to be taken from the Minister, we have the freedom to use or misuse our voice,

00:10:01.040 I would contend that the Minister misused his voice, rather than answering the question, he decided to

00:10:05.780 attack me. But again, that's his freedom to do so, he now has to bear the consequences. And of course,

00:10:11.580 you know, at the end of the day, it, it just makes it obvious that he is trying to deflect from the

00:10:16.680 issue at hand. Jamie, my point is this, if they cannot give a straight answer in the House of

00:10:21.780 Commons, if the Minister cannot defend this piece of legislation, why would I trust him to be able to

00:10:28.740 bring forward an amendment that is going to serve Canadians well, and for him to be straight up,

00:10:34.720 honest and forthright about that? He hasn't, he hasn't possessed those qualities thus far.

00:10:39.840 I have my doubts about whether or not he's able to possess those qualities going forward. But maybe

00:10:46.180 he'll prove me wrong. Well, I would almost say that I haven't seen the Prime Minister answer a

00:10:53.040 question and question period in, in almost six years now. So that's fair, maybe, you know, it'll

00:10:58.960 happen someday, but I don't see it. But yeah, I should have, it's my mistake, I should have had that

00:11:03.260 video of question period yesterday queued up. And I apologize for that, where the the minister just

00:11:08.680 basically gaslight you, he, he didn't even answer it, he just attacked you on a personal level.

00:11:13.460 And, and really, that shows that they had nothing, the minister had nothing, you had him dead to

00:11:19.640 rights. And he just flips on the personal attack button. Yeah. You know, I mean, that that certainly

00:11:28.180 was the case yesterday. He didn't even refer to the question that I asked him, he just launched,

00:11:33.800 you know, straight into personal attack. Like I said, you know, I feel that it was inappropriate.

00:11:39.080 At the same time, freedom is messy. He chose to misuse his freedom. And, you know, at the end of

00:11:45.680 the day, I think Canadians can see through it. Absolutely. So what are we looking for in this in

00:11:50.920 this clause that the Liberals say they're going to bring in is, you know, obviously, this dark and 0.92

00:11:56.400 dangerous path without it allows the government to determine what is basically speech they don't agree

00:12:01.940 with, right? So eventually, where the dark and dangerous path goes, anything that becomes contrary

00:12:08.240 to the government view, the government narrative, the government message becomes content that is

00:12:14.140 offensive in some way. And so we want to avoid that altogether, allow people to post their opinions on

00:12:20.580 social media, and have the freedom to do so. So is that kind of what we're looking for? Any specific

00:12:25.500 language that you'd like to see?

00:12:27.140 Well, I think certainly, you know, when the minister brings forward this amendment,

00:12:32.020 I'm going to be looking for language that is succinct, precise, definable, you know, and of course,

00:12:41.900 I'm going to seek, I'm going to seek the opinions of legal experts, including also, you know, Peter

00:12:47.920 Menzies, former CRTC co-chair. And so that being the case, you know, I'm going to I'm going to want to

00:12:53.820 see what they say with regard to this amendment and how it's brought forward. But what I find

00:13:00.400 interesting is, you know, the minister thus far, when he has had questions posed to him, or concerns

00:13:09.420 raised, or when people have disagreed with his legislation, he's labeled them as, quote, unquote,

00:13:15.560 extremist. If he labels those individuals as extremist, and therefore squelches their voice,

00:13:23.820 it doesn't give me a lot of confidence in his intent when it comes to protecting individual

00:13:31.100 rights and freedoms concerning the content people post. I don't know that he's really interested in

00:13:36.520 that. I think he's interested in appearing as if he cares. I think he's interested in saving face.

00:13:43.240 I think he's interested in getting the media off his back. You know, but at the end of the day,

00:13:48.520 is he truly interested in making sure that Canadians are rightly protected? No, I don't think so. So I'm,

00:13:55.640 you know, obviously, I'm a skeptic when it comes to this amendment that's coming forward. I'll be

00:13:59.700 reading it very closely. And as I said, I'll be seeking legal opinions from individuals who are

00:14:05.180 experts in this field as well. I think we should also ensure that Canadians continue to write into the

00:14:10.060 minister and try to keep pressure on that this is a very clear definition.

00:14:15.500 Absolutely. Absolutely. And again, I think, you know, if there's one reason, you know, why the

00:14:22.580 minister would actually change this, it's because of the voices of Canadians, because they matter.

00:14:27.620 And so I would encourage Canadians from coast to coast to speak up, to have their voices heard,

00:14:33.620 to express their concerns. Let's fill the minister's inbox. Let's, you know, make his phone ring off the

00:14:40.240 hook. Let's have our voices heard. Because right now, we have the freedom to express our opinions. Right

00:14:46.320 now, we have the freedom to make our voices heard. But if we do not defend those rights and freedoms

00:14:54.180 right now, I believe this government is going in the direction of actually squelting those voices

00:15:00.800 and preventing them from being heard. That's a scary spot to land at.

00:15:05.280 Rachel Harder, we are almost out of time. So I want to do a happy thing. I want to congratulate you

00:15:09.900 on your recent engagement. You had a COVID engagement. Congratulations. Well done. And I also give the floor

00:15:16.080 to our guest for the final word, the final message. It's all you.

00:15:20.680 Jamie. Well, thank you so much for that congratulatory note. Of course, my fiance and I are very excited to

00:15:26.740 be getting married. And not only are we going to have a COVID engagement, but also a COVID wedding.

00:15:31.900 And so we're looking forward to our small wedding of 10 in June. And I look forward to my colleagues

00:15:37.520 having the opportunity to meet him and hopefully, you know, for friendships to form. With that, I would

00:15:43.140 just say, you know, when it comes to the legislation that is in front of us, ultimately, at the end of the

00:15:48.920 day, the goal of the Conservative members within the House of Commons is to stand up for and protect

00:15:54.640 the voices of Canadians. And those voices are often expressed through social media platforms,

00:16:00.240 which is becoming the new public square. And so we must do everything that is in our power

00:16:05.940 to defend that space and the freedom that Canadians have to post the things that matter most to them

00:16:12.020 within it.

00:16:13.420 Thank you very much, Rachel Harder, the Member of Parliament for Lethbridge, also the Shadow Minister

00:16:17.540 for Digital Government. We will have her on again. That is a great show. We do appreciate

00:16:22.100 her time. I know she's busy. This topic is heating up evermore. And we appreciate the support from

00:16:27.000 Canadians right across the country to keep pressure on this Liberal government. Remember, please like,

00:16:32.580 comment, subscribe, share this program, help us push back against the ever moving Liberal agenda

00:16:37.620 with new content every single Tuesday at 1.30pm Eastern Time. Of course, if you can't watch this

00:16:43.620 all now on Facebook, please download it. Listen to it later on on platforms like CastBox, Google Play,

00:16:49.300 iTunes, Spotify, you name it. It is out there. We do appreciate your time. We do appreciate Rachel's

00:16:54.800 appearance. We'll have her on again. Like I said, remember, low taxes, less government, 0.88

00:16:58.860 more freedom. That's the blue thing.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - May 06, 2021

Bill C-10

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