TORONTO – The past chairman of the CRTC, Charles Dalfen, died suddenly on Tuesday. He was 66.
Canadian Press reported today that he had a heart attack.
Dalfen was chair of the Commission from 2002 to 2006, and was a well respected broadcast and telecommunications lawyer before and since. We interviewed him on a number of occasions, including early in his final year as chairman. Click here for that interview and read about how little has changed from a regulator’s point of view during the past three years.
Dalfen was comfortable in the chairman’s office but was ambitious from the get-go, rising to vice-chair, telecommunications, at the CRTC in the mid-seventies, when just in his mid-30s, after a stint as an ADM.
He ended up as a partner at law firm Torys before his posting at the Commission as chair and had since returned there as a senior adviser on legal and policy matters related to radio, television, cable, new media, satellite, wireless, and wireline telecommunications, according to the firm.
Dalfen was still very active in the industry and was interviewed most recently by BNN’s show Squeeze Play. Click here to see the transcript of that interview and what he thought about the current TV regulatory battles.
– Greg O’Brien
