Procedure and House Affairs

The Procedure and House Affairs Committee met to study civic resilience, hearing from Heidi Tworek, director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at the University of British Columbia; Lindsay Brumwell, interim executive director of Equal Voice; and Taylor Owen, Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications at McGill University.

Heidi Tworek testified that online harassment of public officials is worsening, citing that 741 of Quebec’s 8,000 local politicians have resigned since 2021, many citing harassment, and that 63% of local politicians surveyed in 2025 had experienced it. She argued that generative AI supercharges these problems by lowering barriers to creating deepfakes and impersonations, and that chatbots can reproduce Russian state media in data voids, creating a vector for foreign interference. She recommended using legislation, such as a revised online harms act, to address chatbots and transparency; establishing a non-partisan Canadian democracy fund for long-term monitoring; and ensuring public institutions have communications strategies built for the chatbot age to prevent data voids.

Lindsay Brumwell testified that less than half of Canadians believe there are opportunities to run for or get involved in politics, and eight out of 10 say politics are not welcoming to newcomers, with women facing barriers including harassment, financial difficulties and lack of encouragement. She noted that federally, women’s representation has been static at about 30% for three elections, while municipal data is mixed, with British Columbia and Yukon exceeding 50% but 16% of municipal governments having no women on council. She recommended long-term support for public life leadership development, recognizing online harassment as a barrier to participation, and improving research and data collection on representation and participation trends.

Taylor Owen testified that a network of 20 YouTube channels with nearly 40 million views is targeting Albertan audiences with AI-generated avatars and pro-annexation content, producing 12 times more such content than authentic Albertan channels. He argued that democratic institutions were designed for a slower pace and are ill-suited to the rapid change driven by AI, and that the information environment is fracturing Canadians as a country, with influencers now producing twice as much news content as journalists. He recommended a regulatory regime compelling platform and AI co-operation with accredited researchers, through a reintroduced online harms act, and an independent research infrastructure with structural funding, as called for by the Hogue commission.

In response to questions, Tworek clarified that the Quebec resignation figure includes both those who left during their term and those who chose not to seek re-election, and that harassment is more acute at the municipal level due to less institutional capacity. Brumwell explained that women are more interested in municipal politics due to family and travel commitments, but often do not anticipate the harassment they face, and that the top barriers for women are not feeling qualified, not knowing the process and financial concerns, which differ from men’s priorities. Owen noted that the Meta news ban led to increased reliance on influencers and a shift to TikTok for news, and that citizens’ assemblies need meaningful government engagement with their findings to avoid disenfranchising participants.

The committee did not debate any motions or procedural matters during this meeting.