Resumption of clause-by-clause consideration met by stalling tactics
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a quickly scheduled evening meeting the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage resumed its review of the content of individual sections of Bill C-10, which aims to amend the Broadcasting Act.
Right away the committee went back to the discussion over whether the amended bill complies with the Charter of Rights.
The first hour featured an overlong speech (a classic filibuster) from Conservative MP Rachel Harder, about the importance of the Charter of Rights compliance for the bill being studied. She may have a point, but the stalling tactic angered…
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MONTREAL and WINNIPEG – The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, said this week it “deplores” the delay of the clause-by-clause study of Bill C-10 to amend the Broadcasting Act.
The coalition which includes creative associations such as ADISQ, ACTRA, CMPA, SOCAN and WGC, among others, “urges all members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage committee to agree to resume the study of the bill promptly,” reads its press release.
“Without a rapid resumption of this work, the entire fate of Bill C-10 is at stake. And without the immediate implementation of this bill, the entire Canadian cultural…
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By Brad Danks and Luc Perreault
AS WE WRITE, BILL C-10, An Act to Amend the Broadcasting Act, is stalled in committee at clause-by-clause review. Conservative members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage are asking the bill to be suspended pending a Charter analysis from the Department of Justice and an appearance from the Ministers of Justice and Canadian Heritage.
They say that an amendment made to the bill – removing a social media exclusion in proposed section 4.1 – is a substantial change and Canadians’ freedom of expression is at stake.
The Liberals say they are prepared to request a…
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By Howard Law
UNTIL LAST WEEK, PARLIAMENT’S Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage was plodding through the clause-by-clause review of Bill C-10 with no tasty headlines. Perhaps the bill’s revamp of the Broadcasting Act, which would sweep in Netflix, isn’t controversial anymore.
Of course, federal political partisanship is inevitable, as Canadian as bad weather.
And so, we now have the Conservatives’ faux controversy over free expression on social media platforms. In an e-mail blast from CPC MPs across the country, they made their case:
“Recently, the Liberal government introduced Bill C-10 – a bill that would regulate social media websites like Facebook, YouTube, and…
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By Denis Carmel
AT THE START OF THE first Heritage Committee meeting to consider amendments to Bill C-10, the chair of the Committee, Liberal MP Scott Simms, said: “Buckle up, folks. This is the fundamental core of parliamentary democracy at its best. It’s going to be an exciting time—so exciting that we’ll probably sell the story rights to Netflix.”
He was joking but the hearing had a discoverability problem: they were held at lunch time on Mondays and in the afternoons on Fridays.
So, on Thursday evening, after going a little viral this past week, the committee will convene from 6:30…
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TORONTO — Asian Television Network International (ATN) appears to have high hopes the federal government’s Copyright Act review, launched April 14, will put an end to the piracy of television and movie content in Canada.
ATN, Canada’s largest South Asian broadcaster, has long blamed content piracy for its declining revenues (which we’ve reported on numerous times, including here, here, here and here).
Last Thursday, in a press release titled “Purging the Piracy Parasite – ATN Applauds Government Initiative”, the broadcaster says it is “encouraged” by the copyright legislation review and public consultation process announced jointly…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – After a week of complaints that Bill C-10, the bill to update the Broadcasting Act, would instead cause all Canadians’ YouTube videos and Instagram posts and so on to fall under CRTC jurisdiction, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said late Monday a new amendment is coming to try and fix the fuss.
On April 23, when Julie Dabrusin, Parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, proposed to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that Section 4.1 of Bill C-10 should be removed because it “has created some confusion for people on whether or not social media…
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OTTAWA – Isabelle Mondou, who on Friday was associate deputy minister of Canadian Heritage and on assignment to the Privy Council office as deputy minister for the Covid-19 response (communications), becomes deputy minister of Canadian Heritage on Monday.
Mondou has worked in government for a long time, mostly in the PCO, and she replaces Hélène Laurendeau, who retired from the job last month.
Photo borrowed from her LinkedIn page.
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TORONTO – The Banff World Media Festival announced this morning Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, will speak on Thursday, June 17, participating in a virtual keynote conversation during the festival’s Marketplace Week.
With delegates from more than 50 countries, Banff attracts the world’s top creators, producers, showrunners, talent, networks, studios, streamers, press and media companies – and attendees from all countries will be sure to tune in to hear what Minister Guilbeault has to say about Bill C-10 (the bill to modernize the Broadcasting Act which, if passed, will surely have an effect on foreign content providers in a…
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By Len St-Aubin
THINK ABOUT HOW MANY millions of audio and video clips get posted to social media every day. Now contemplate, for a moment, the human and other resources that would be needed to supervise, regulate and control it all.
That is what the Liberal government has just proposed to do with an amendment to Bill C-10 that it pushed through Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage meeting Friday. That will be your tax dollars at work: wasteful, ineffective jobs for regulators, and freedom of expression be damned.
With the deletion of one clause (4.1) in Bill C-10, the bill to…
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