By Connie Thiessen
Canadian Heritage Min. Pablo Rodriguez has announced a newly-reconstituted independent advisory committee that will recommend candidates to serve on the CBC/Radio-Canada Board of Directors.
In a statement issued late Wednesday, Rodriguez said the government is committed to ensuring that the process is “independent, merit-based and results in the recommendation of high-quality candidates” as some current board members near the end of their mandate.
The new non-partisan body is tasked with conducting a selection process for Governor in Council appointments and providing Rodriguez with recommendations “of highly qualified candidates that respect gender parity and truly reflect Canada’s diversity,” according to the Canadian Heritage release.
The members…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House Canadian Heritage committee yesterday unanimously adopted an NDP amendment to the Online News Act, bill C-18, that would give technology platforms an interim one-year exemption from negotiations with news organizations to host their articles until they can be granted a full five-year exemption.
The five-year moratorium on negotiations with news organizations was adopted in a committee hearing on Friday, and the committee was looking to define the limit on an interim exemption that exists in the current version of the bill.
So yesterday, the committee decided that the interim period should be limited to…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Senate transport and communications committee today unanimously adopted an amendment introduced by Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne that will add a right to privacy clause in the proposed Online Streaming Act, which would empower the CRTC to further regulate digital entities.
“This approach would be similar to that taken in the Telecommunications Act,” federal privacy commissioner Philippe Dufresne said when he appeared in front of the committee in September. “It would ensure that privacy is fully taken into account in the interpretation and application of the bill, both by the CRTC…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The House Heritage Committee on Friday unanimously adopted an NDP amendment to the Online News Act that will give big tech platforms immunity from negotiations with news platforms for a period of five years.
The proposed legislation, bill C-18, will force platforms like Facebook and Alphabet to negotiate payments to news organizations for linking to their articles on their websites. But the platforms have argued that having to negotiate with news organizations constantly, month after month, year after year is untenable.
So, an NDP amendment was introduced and passed unanimously Friday that would see a moratorium on…
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OTTAWA – The Senate Transportation and Communications Committee defeated five of six amendments introduced by a Conservative senator intended to define parameters in bill C-11, a proposed around proposed legislation that would allow the CRTC to further regulate online streaming platforms.
The bill, also known as the Online Streaming Act, went through a clause-by-clause process at committee on Wednesday.
Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Denise Batters introduced six amendments, five of which did not survive. The first was to amend the definition of community channel to use “language of their choice” rather than “language used in a…
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By Brad Danks, CEO of OUTtv Media Global Inc. (OMG) (pictured above); Monika Ille, CEO APTN; and Luc Perreault, strategic advisor of Stingray Group
The Senate Transport Committee is starting its clause-by-clause review of Bill C-11, an Act to amend the Broadcasting Act. Hours of Committee time have been spent on the scope of the Bill and how it would apply to digital first creators and social media platforms. This is understandable and appropriate.
Far less time has been spent on a weakness in the Bill that will have a much more profound impact on the Canadian broadcasting system and the content Canadians can access….
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – A Conservative amendment that would place monetary thresholds on which companies qualify for CRTC regulation under new legislation would allow those companies to skirt the rules, according to a Liberal MP Tuesday during a House Heritage committee hearing.
In its current form, Bill C-18, the Online News Act, would give the CRTC the ability to determine which companies must compensate news publishers to host on their platforms links to news articles.
But the Conservatives are proposing an amendment that would place limits on the application of this law by the…
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Will the USMCA become an issue for implementation of C-11?
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Officials from Canadian Heritage told the Senate Transportation and Communications Committee Tuesday that they were in regular contact with their American counterparts about legislation that would give the CRTC enhanced authority to regulate online platforms.
Owen Ripley, associate assistant deputy minister of cultural affairs, said the government is navigating the United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal and must ensure it is not offside of the trade agreement with bill C-11, the Online Streaming Bill.
As for whether there would be possible retaliation for further regulating American firms, Heritage officials at…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA — The House of Commons Heritage Committee started considering amendments to Bill C-18, the Online News Act, today and dealt with only three amendments during the two-hour session.
Although they seem to have agreed not to filibuster, the Conservatives clearly used delay tactics that had the effect of angering Liberal and NDP members alike.
This became obvious once the committee took 20 minutes to deal with administrative issues that could have been avoided.
Given the text of the amendments and even the number of amendments are deemed confidential, it is difficult at this stage know how many there are,…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA — This evening, the Transport and Communications Committee of the Senate (TRCM) heard from CRTC chairman Ian Scott (above) who took the opportunity to clarify some concepts and asked to remove amendments passed by the House of Commons Heritage Committee to Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act.
The chair started by stating again that the Commission has no intention of regulating the user-generated content (UGC). “Bill C-11 draws a distinction between the users of social media on one hand, and the platforms themselves on the other. Its intent is to exclude individual users from regulation. I want…
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