It was agreed, — That the proposed budget in the amount of $23,250.00, for the pre-study on Bill C-63, be adopted.

Anaïs Bussières McNicoll, Catherine Claveau and Witness-1 made statements and, with Nicolas Le Grand Alary and Michel Marchand, answered questions.

Tako Van Popta gave notice of the following motion:

Given that:

• a need exists to quickly pass provisions to keep Canadians safe while protecting free speech;
• members of several political parties have expressed a need to split bill c-63 in part due to reservations about the bill's provisions involving restrictions on speech;
• the committee is currently doing a pre-study on Bill C-63;
• Bill C-63 proposes giving full responsibility to develop regulations for online platforms to a regulator that hasn’t been formed yet, and does so with too much ambiguity on what regulations this body will propose or administer;
• Based on witness testimony, a better approach to keep Canadians safe online while protecting their civil liberties would be to legislate a defined list of responsibilities that online platforms have to undertake to keep Canadians safe;

That the committee proceed to concurrently pre-study Bill C-412 – Promotion of Safety in the Digital Age Act, along with its pre-study of Bill C-63, so as to examine other legislative options to protect Canadians online which could be quickly advanced by consensus without the controversial elements on C-63.

Questioning of the witnesses resumed.

At 5:05 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 5:12 p.m., the meeting resumed.

Emily Laidlaw, Étienne-Alexis Boucher and Matthew Hatfield made statements and answered questions.

At 5:24 p.m., Rhéal Éloi Fortin took the Chair.