By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – We’re going to have to wait a little longer to learn more about the next steps in the legislative process following the publication of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review (BTLR) panel report.
In its first public meeting after the 2019 election, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage invited representatives of the panel to brief the committee members on its report, which is actually called Canada’s Communications Future: Time to Act, issued on January 29th. Many are also calling it the Yale report.
In its appearance at the committee today, the panel’s chair, Janet Yale and panel member Monique Simard, seemed mostly interested in putting to rest the perception created by a misunderstanding of the report over journalistic independence.
The day after the report was issued, Conservative Member Michelle Rempel questioned the minister of Canadian Heritage during question period.
“Yesterday a government-appointed panel enthusiastically recommended that the government should control what news coverage Canadians should be allowed to see. Under the Liberal plan, the Liberals would be able to force all news sites to prominently link all of their coverage to Liberal government-approved websites. This would have an instant chill effect on free speech and diversity of thought in the Canadian media ecosystem. Does the government think that Canadians are too dumb to think for themselves?”
The Minister did not seem to be able to respond to that mischaracterization of the report other than attack the Tories.
Sadly, this misleading rhetoric is what one can expect in Ottawa, on both sides of the House.
So, to try to correct this impression, in her opening remarks at the committee on Monday, Yale offered the following: “The news industry in Canada is in serious crisis. In the last decade alone, over 200 community and daily papers have closed.
“Our report recommends reasonable, responsible steps to ensure the work of Canadian news organizations and individual journalists cannot be repackaged, repurposed and monetized for profit without some measure of compensation for those who did the actual work,” she went on.
The report recommended that all broadcasters, as well as Facebook, Google and Amazon must register and adhere to conditions of registration set by the CRTC.
“Already in Canada we license news organizations such as CBC, CTV, Postmedia and others—while wholly protecting editorial independence. Why should we not register the largest media companies in the world in the same fashion—and with the same editorial protections and exemptions when it comes to news functions?” she added.
“And let me be clear: nowhere does our report recommend or suggest that government should play a role in determining who is and who is not a journalist. Nor does it advocate for government regulation of news content, editorial practices or propose any interference with the independence of news media,” she concluded.
