By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – A couple of hours before the House of Commons held a vote confirming the time which the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage can study Bill C-10 will now be limited, the committee held its Monday meeting and continued to spin its wheels.
Nominally, Monday’s meeting was scheduled as a return to clause-by-clause consideration of the bill, but the committee first voted unanimously against a Green Party amendment which was discussed for two hours last Friday, and then defeated an NDP motion to continue meetings into the summer.
That motion, by NDP member Heather MacPherson, proposed to hold…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Friday morning, the C-10 drama was transported to the floor of the House of Commons as the Liberal government has had enough of the bill’s delay and so had announced it would introduce a motion to limit the time allocated to debating the new legislation meant to update the Broadcasting Act.
Normally, this measure is applied to House of Commons work only, but it can be applied to Committee work. However, it is exceedingly rare to use it to limit the time of committee work.
So, Mona Fortier, Minister of Middle Class Prosperity and Associate Minister of…
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An open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Dear Prime Minister,
We are Canadian broadcasting, telecommunications, and entertainment lawyers, with decades of experience advising clients on the rules and regulations that govern the Canadian broadcasting system.
We feel compelled to write this open letter in an effort to dispel certain misleading statements that are being disseminated relating to Bill C-10, specifically how it could impact the way in which Canadians use the Internet.
The Broadcasting Act (the “Act”) was last updated three decades ago at a time when smartphones and Internet-based media streaming services like Netflix or media sharing platforms like YouTube didn’t…
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USING GOOGLE’S OFFICIAL CANADA blog, Jeanette Patell, head of public policy for YouTube Canada, posted a statement today about Bill C-10, the bill which would modernize the Broadcasting Act, in which she says the company supports the federal government’s goal of modernizing broadcasting and promoting Canadian artists, but adds concern about the potential negative impact of such legislation on YouTube’s Canadian creators.
In the blog post, titled “A Note on Bill C-10: Standing with Canadian creators and their fans”, Patell writes: “Making sure that people can find and enjoy all of this quality Canadian content is a big priority…
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OTTAWA — The Community Radio Fund of Canada (CRFC) announced today it has selected 21 stations across Canada that will receive funding through the federal government’s Local Journalism Initiative.
Funded by Canadian Heritage, the Local Journalism Initiative supports the creation of original civic journalism that covers the diverse needs of underserved communities in Canada. The initiative supports the salaries of journalists hired by eligible Canadian media organizations and provides up to $37,500 per successful applicant.
The content created through this initiative will be accessible to all Canadians and media outlets free of charge through the program’s national distribution centre. (Examples of…
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Government must look before it leaps with C-10
By Monica Auer
THE DECISION BY THE Minister of Canadian Heritage several weeks ago to drop explicit protection for user-generated content uploaded to social media sites from Bill C-10 led to more attention being focussed on the new Broadcasting Act it would create.
In plain language, the Minister’s change means that while users themselves would not be subject to that Act, it would govern social media services “whose broadcasting consists only of” user-uploaded content. Even if the CRTC is unlikely to demand content posted by millions of Canadians on Facebook or YouTube meet its…
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By Denis Carmel
GATINEAU – Four hours worth of meetings on Friday and Monday barely advanced the progress of Bill C-10 at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage and as more time passes and so little is done, there is real risk now of the bill simply withering and dying.
The Friday meeting dealt with only two amendments, both of which were defeated, and three amendments that were ruled out of scope by the chair of the Committee, Liberal MP Scott Simms.
We thought the Committee might have returned to its normal business of clause-by-clause consideration and, oddly, most of the talking…
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By Doug Barrett
NETFLIX’S RECENT ANNOUNCEMENT that it would establish its Canadian headquarters in Toronto produced considerable excitement – at least in Toronto.
In February, under the heading “making a New Home in Canada”, Netflix’s Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos wrote a blog post announcing: “We want to make a new home for Netflix in Canada – opening an office and hiring a dedicated content executive to work directly with the Canadian creative community.”
Then in late April, the company announced Toronto had been selected as “Netflix’s 22nd international outpost” and Sarandos, in the press release, stated: “We’re looking forward to…
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Production volume for Canadian content was $2.92 billion, a 12.4% decrease
OTTAWA — For the 12-month period ending just prior to the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Canadian film and television production sector generated $9.32 billion in production volume, $12.24 billion in gross domestic product and created 224,500 jobs across Canada.
That’s according to a new report, released last week by the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), which provides an analysis of economic activity in Canada’s screen-based media production industry during the period between April 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020.
“These numbers are an important reminder of the boundless economic…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – After three meetings that interrupted the clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-10, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage got back to work Wednesday afternoon but did not advance at a pace that would suggest that the bill will get out of committee anytime soon.
The amendment discussed today was proposed by the government and announced previously by Minister Guilbeault. It was supposed to correct the impression that the removal of Section 4.1 was an attack on the freedom of expression, the impression that the CRTC would be given power to somehow regulate user generated content. The amendment,…
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