OTTAWA – This evening Konrad von Finckenstein was officially announced as the new chairman of the CRTC.
Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Status of Women, made the announcement with an early-evening release on the Heritage Ministry’s web site. "Mr. von Finckenstein’s credentials will bring strong leadership to the CRTC," said Minister Oda. "I am confident that his experience will greatly benefit the Commission."
A long-time public employee who held very senior positions in the Brian Mulroney Conservative government and helped write the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, von Finckenstein was also Commissioner of Competition at the Competition Bureau from 1997 to 2003. While at the Competition Bureau, he was also the founding Chairman of the International Competition Network.
When he joined the Competition Bureau in ’97, his mandate then was "to strengthen the organization, improve its public image, and revise the Competition Act to bring it in line with new business realities," says one of his bios which we found on line.
This little tidbit is important given the rumblings from the current Conservative government that the CRTC must change.
It continues: "Mr. von Finckenstein led a re-organization of the Bureau. He created an Amendments Unit – to respond to today’s fast-paced and changing economy and to facilitate a number of much needed changes to the Competition Act – as well as a Communications Branch to ensure constant interaction with key stakeholders and the Canadian public."
In 2003, the German-born, 61-year-old was appointed as Judge of the Federal Court, ex officio member of the Federal Court of Appeal and Judge of the Court Martial Appeal Court.
While serving on the bench, von Finckenstein (pictured) gained a measure of world wide fame as the judge in March 2004 who ruled against the big record companies that wanted to sue those using peer to peer file sharing programs to share music, saying it wasn’t illegal to place music files in a directory. The ruling effectively meant that that music file sharing was not illegal in Canada – or at least not legally actionable in the way the music industry had hoped – and various sectors of the culture industry have been lobbying for changes to the Copyright Act ever since.
Von Finckenstein’s public service career began in 1973, when he joined the Department of Justice Canada. In 1986, he was appointed Senior General Counsel of the Trade Negotiations Office, and chair of the Canadian dispute settlement mechanism. Over the following years, he held various Assistant Deputy Minister positions at External Affairs and the Department of Justice Canada.
– Greg O’Brien
