No guarantee deals between digital platforms and news organizations continue if Bill C-18 not passed: Heritage

By Christopher Guly OTTAWA – Should Bill C-18 not pass Parliament, “there is no guarantee that the deals and the agreements that have been currently negotiated in the Canadian context would continue, because there is no obligation on platforms to continue to bargain in that way,” Thomas Owen Ripley, associate assistant deputy minister for cultural affairs at the Department of Canadian Heritage, said at a Tuesday hearing of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications studying the Online News Act. “Over time, it would be perfectly open for platforms to stop entering into those agreements with Canadian news businesses.”...