OTTAWA – After a Parliamentary committee decided yesterday to pull back from a 10-year-old request asking the CRTC broaden its rules applicable to false and misleading news, Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein confirmed that the public notice will be withdrawn.
Speaking to the Canadian Media Production Association annual Prime Time event, he explained the rule has been in place “for a donkey’s age”, but a decade ago the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations – a joint Commons and Senate committee that studies government regulations – determined that the CRTC’s rules regarding false and misleading news ran counter to the Charter of Rights.
It requested the Commission change the rules.
Von Finckenstein noted that the Commission did almost everything in its power to not deal with the issue. But recently, the committee told the CRTC that if it didn’t make the rule changes, it would declare the Commission’s current regulations invalid.
“I’m only touching it because I was forced to by Parliament. For 10 years, we stalled. We ran out of stalling,” he said.
With the committee, however, having changed its mind on the issue, likely because of the significant public outcry in the media and online, the CRTC will move to withdraw the public notice as early as tomorrow.
“Thank you committee, I will withdraw this proposal tomorrow. This is the end of this issue,” von Finckenstein declared.
– Perry Hoffman
