OTTAWA – News is important.
This was a sentiment everyone on the panel discussing compensation for news media at the International Institute of Communications Canada’s annual conference yesterday was able to get on board with – but it was also essentially the only thing everyone agreed on as they discussed the government’s recently introduced Bill C-18, known as the Online News Act.
The panel, moderated by Christopher Dornan (above, left), a retired professor at Carleton University, was composed of four people each representing different interests, which made for a lively debate.
Kevin Chan (second from left), the global director of Facebook’s…
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By Ken Kelley
OTTAWA – Less than a week after the House of Commons voted to send Bill C-11 to Canada’s Heritage Committee, a panel gathered at the International Institute of Communications Canada’s 2022 conference weighed the details and realities of the act.
Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, was first introduced in February 2022. Its goals include clarifying the scope of the Broadcasting Act, which dates back to 1991, and determining how the latter should apply equitably to online streaming services.
Today’s panel comes on the heels of a Globe & Mail-Nanos Research poll, which shows…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – In a keynote speech at the International Institute of Communications’ annual conference in Ottawa on May 16, Pierre-Karl Péladeau, CEO of Québecor, in his usual frank manner urged Parliament to pass Bill C-11 and Bill C-18. As well, he wants to see more competition in wireless. (Péladeau gave his speech in a combination of English and French.)
Wireless
“Our legislative and regulatory system has to ensure a healthy competition in the market, to benefit consumers but also to ensure the perennity of the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications systems,” he said.
Péladeau mentioned the Competition Bureau indicated…
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And send it to the Heritage Committee
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – After tabling Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, on Feb. 2, the House debated it on four occasions and the Conservatives, the official opposition, have been able to stall the legislation, forcing the government, with the assent of the NDP, to use a procedure setting a time limit on the debate to ensure passage of the second stage of the bill.
The motion was adopted today, opposed by the Conservatives and the Bloc Québécois (who support the bill) and it is expected the vote on second reading will be…
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MONTREAL — Bell Let’s Talk today announced $500,000 in new grants from the Bell Let’s Talk Diversity Fund to support six organizations working to improve access to mental health care for Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities in Canada.
This is in addition to $600,000 in grants disbursed earlier this year to six other organizations focused on increasing access to mental health services for members of BIPOC communities.
Since its launch in 2020, the Bell Let’s Talk Diversity Fund has provided $3.35 million in grants to 28 organizations, including inaugural donations to Black Youth Helpline and the National Association…
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TORONTO — To celebrate Asian Heritage Month, SiriusXM Canada announced today it is featuring special programming, new stations, podcast episodes and exclusive commentary spotlighting the Asian Canadian and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) culture, traditions and history during the month of May.
Throughout AAPI and Asian Heritage Month, SiriusXM will spotlight Asian music and comedy artists on K-Pop Radio (channel 104, May 18-24), Steve Aoki’s Remix Radio (ch. 104, May 25-31), Raw Dog Comedy (ch. 99, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET), Comedy Central Radio (ch. 95, 5 p.m. ET throughout week of May…
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By Valerie Creighton
WITH ALL THE NOISE created by the many opinions and assumptions being floated about Bill C-11, it feels like the bill’s original purpose has been lost in translation.
The summary page of Bill C-11 clearly states the primary objectives (distilled) as:
add online undertakings as a distinct class of broadcast undertakings.
serve the needs and interests of all Canadians – including racialized communities, ethnocultural backgrounds, socio-economic statuses, abilities, disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and ages.
provide opportunities to Indigenous persons, programming that reflects and is in Indigenous cultures and languages.
Bill C-11 is called ‘The Online Streaming Act’…
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By Howard Law
This is part two of a three-part series – read part one here.
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST the Liberals’ first attempt at passing the Online Streaming Act as Bill C-10 last spring is poised for relaunch as the House of Commons considers Bill C-11.
In my last post I described what Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is trying to accomplish with C-11. In this post we’ll take a look at the critique by the bill’s opponents.
Like previous criticism of C-10, it’s best articulated by Michael Geist’s prolific posting. His arguments have been picked up by Conservative…
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By Howard Law
THE NEW SEASON of Canadian culture wars is now available from the House of Commons’ second reading of Bill C-11 the Online Streaming Act, the federal Liberals’ digital reboot and seventh iteration of the Broadcasting Act since 1932.
After minor revisions by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, the Bill C-11 debate promises to be a re-run of last year’s Bill C-10 which drew flak from friends and foes alike and was successfully filibustered by the Conservatives prior to the dissolution of Parliament for the fall election.
Split into three posts, I will cover what Rodriguez says C-11 is about, what its…
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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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