By Howard Law
IT’S FIVE YEARS since the Public Policy Forum published The Shattered Mirror calling for Facebook and Google to become major funders of the journalism ecosystem that their digital advertising oligopoly impoverished.
Bill C-18 the Online News Act will do just that. The legislation is about a year behind the Liberal government’s schedule, having been derailed last spring by the Conservative filibuster of the Netflix Bill C-10 and a federal election.
That unanticipated delay after years of lobbying by news publishers discouraged most of them enough to sign take-it-or-leave-it deals with Google and Facebook on compensation for…
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Also proposes $5M for new Changing Narratives Fund
OTTAWA – While Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez has sought to reassure Canadians the CRTC will have the resources it needs to take on the new responsibilities proposed for it in the recently introduced Bills C-11 and C-18, today’s budget provides a few actual details.
Tabled by the federal government today, Budget 2022 proposes to provide the CRTC with $8.5 million over two years, beginning in 2022-2023, “to establish a new legislative and regulatory regime to require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to…
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CRTC confirmed as intended regulator
By Amanda OYE
OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez (above) today introduced Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which would put in place a framework to level the playing field in the Canadian digital news marketplace and ensure news media and journalists are fairly compensated for their work.
“Bill C-18 would require tech giants to make fair commercial deals with outlets for the news and information that is shared on their platforms,” a government press release announcing the bill explains.
“The deals would need to provide fair compensation, respect journalistic independence and invest…
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By Monica Auer
ONE OF THE MAIN arguments offered by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez (above) in support of Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, is that it will “update Canada’s broadcasting rules to include online streaming services and will require them to contribute in an equitable way to our culture.” Yet if passed as presented to the House of Commons in February 2022, exceptions and gaps in Bill C-11 mean that it may deliver much less than promised.
To begin, Bill C-11 specifically excludes some broadcasters from all or some aspects of Canada’s broadcasting legislation. Take, for instance,…
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By Christopher Guly
GATINEAU – Telecom regulation should be carved out of the CRTC’s mandate, said a former commissioner on a panel looking at “what’s next in telecom” at the 10th annual Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Service Providers (CanWISP) conference at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec today.
“We should have a Canadian communications commission based around the idea that the internet is the basic communication method going forward,” said former journalist Peter Menzies (pictured below), a senior fellow of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute who served as vice-chair of telecommunications at the CRTC.
In its final report on Canada’s communications future,…
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OTTAWA – The National Post reported earlier this week the CRTC could be named the regulator in charge of the upcoming legislation that will compel platforms including Google and Facebook to share revenue with Canadian news organizations.
“Several industry sources told the National Post that, following meetings with the government, they expect the CRTC could be tasked with the new regime,” an article from the National Post says.
A government source told the newspaper the CRTC will have a “light touch” and “will not be doing the arbitration itself – that will be left to an independent arbiter that both…
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OTTAWA — Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez (above) and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada David Lametti announced today a new expert advisory group on online safety as the next step in developing federal legislation to address harmful online content.
The expert advisory group “will be mandated to provide advice on a legislative and regulatory framework that best addresses harmful content online,” reads a government press release.
The announcement comes after the Canadian government said in February it planned to engage a group of experts to help it revise its proposed framework after its public consultation…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU – The CRTC announced today Canadian television service providers can no longer distribute the Russian state-funded English-language channel RT (Russia Today) or RT France.
The Commission formally removed both channels from its list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution in Canada after determining their continued distribution “is not in the public interest,” according to a press release.
“RT’s programming is not consistent with the standards against which Canadian services are measured nor the policy objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act,” the release explains.
“The CRTC is also concerned with programming from a foreign country…
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TORONTO — Blue Ant Media announced today Cottage Life’s hit series Life Below Zero: Canada is returning for a second season beginning Tuesday, March 22 at 9 p.m. ET/PT during the channel’s eight-week nationwide free preview event.
Based on the Life Below Zero format created and produced by BBC Studios’ Los Angeles production arm, the second installment of the Canadian adaptation is a co-production between Saloon Media, a Blue Ant Media company, and Quebecor Content in partnership with APTN.
“Filmed across the Northwest Territories, Yukon, Northern Ontario and Nunavik in Northern Quebec in bone-chilling -51° C weather conditions, Life Below Zero: Canada Season…
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Also severed business ties with Russia
OTTAWA – Ross Video announced earlier this week it is making a $100,000 donation to Ukraine humanitarian relief efforts.
The company also stopped its shipments to Russia last week and severed support for its products that are already there.
“As a company, we rarely comment on geopolitical affairs. However, we are compelled to support the Ukrainian people and their remarkable efforts to defend their homeland,” says David Ross, CEO of Ross Video, in the release. “Like hundreds of thousands of other Canadians, I am proud of my Ukrainian heritage. I simply cannot sit idly by…
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