ANALYSIS: How Canadian broadcasters could still be sold to foreign interests under C-10

By Greg O’Brien THE PRIOR ITERATIONS OF our Broadcasting Act are carefully written, specific, documents. The first, passed in 1968, was an Act meant to, among other things, “safeguard, enrich and strengthen the nation of Canada from sea to sea,” as quoted in the History of Canadian Broadcasting. That version of the Act also established the CRTC, empowering it with the responsibility to make sure the system stays under Canadian ownership and control. American companies who had ownership positions in our broadcasters and then-nascent cable companies were forced to divest (down to a maximum of 20% ownership, but many left...