Hon. Marc Gold: Honourable senators, I am rising to speak very briefly about the seventeenth report of the Standing Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs entitled, Controlling Foreign Influence in Canadian Elections. I took the adjournment on this report so that I could familiarize myself with its contents because it deals with a very important issue.

The integrity of our electoral system is a fundamental pillar of our democratic process, which, in turn, is shaped in large part by election financing rules. These rules set our system apart from the U.S. electoral system, in which money plays a destructive and disproportionate role that seriously undermines the integrity of the whole process.

If the regulation of private funding generally is central to our electoral system, so too is how we regulate foreign funding.

In this regard, as the report underlines, our current rules and laws need to be reconsidered and revised.

One should add that in this brave new world in which we live, we need to pay attention to how social media and other new forms of communication are used by third parties in how to strike the appropriate balance in that regard between the rights of free speech, the values of a fair electoral system and all the other constitutional values that are at stake.

The report of the standing committee is a clear, well-written and succinct analysis of these issues. It's thoughtful, to the point and illustrates so well the important and valuable work that our Senate committees do.

There's no need for me to resume the contents. They were admirably summarized by Senator Runciman when he presented the report some weeks ago earlier this month. I simply rise and conclude by commending this report to you. I do hope that their recommendations will be considered carefully by the government before the next election.