Conservatives vying to stall government’s efforts to get quick passage of C-11 in committee
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – When committee members from all parties agreed last week to hold a minimum of 20 hours of meetings to hear witnesses, including the first five hours on autopilot (no motion would be entertained), it led us to believe everything would go smoothly, relatively speaking, in the Heritage Committee’s study of Bill C-11.
The government’s efforts, however, seem to have been thwarted by delaying tactics and outside events, such as votes in the House of Commons and main estimates studies by the committee.
The…
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OTTAWA – The House of Commons today passed a motion for Bill C-18, the Online News Act, to be read a second time and for it to be sent to the Heritage Committee.
The Conservatives previously asked for an amendment to the motion for second reading, which was voted on today and would have (if it had passed, which it did not) seen the bill withdrawn and its subject matter referred to the Heritage Committee.
Today’s news comes a day after the House of Commons passed a motion to set a time limit on the debate of the bill.
The…
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OTTAWA – Last week, the CRTC posted a part one application from several service providers who came together to ask the Commission to review the wholesale roaming tariff rates of the country’s national wireless carriers (Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications and Telus Communications), calling them “manifestly unjust and unreasonable”.
“This application deals with the flagrant overcharging for wholesale roaming – an essential service that stands as one of the central pillars of the Commission’s policy framework for ensuring sustainable competition in the provision of mobile wireless services in Canada,” reads the application, which was filed by regional competitors Bragg Communications Inc….
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The CRTC today closed two separate complaints made by BCE against Quebecor subsidiary Videotron, deciding in favour of Québecor in one matter and choosing not to get involved at this time in the second matter.
VRAI HVOD service
In the first matter, the Commission issued a decision dealing with a BCE complaint (see also here and here) about Quebecor’s Vrai service which, it argues, was offered in violation of the CRTC hybrid video-on-demand (HVOD) exemption order because it was not being offered to other broadcasting distribution undertakings for television and was being offered as…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Recently, the federal government posted an appointment opportunity on the Privy Council website for the chairperson of the CRTC and its vice-chairperson.
To the dismay of some, working knowledge of both official languages is not a requirement.
In Ottawa jargon, the post reads: “Proficiency in both official languages would be preferred.”
In question period today, the Bloc Québécois raised the issue: “For them (the Liberals), it is okay to appoint someone who doesn’t speak French to oversee a whole segment of our culture,” said Martin Champoux, the Bloc’s critic for Canadian Heritage, in French, after stating that French…
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OTTAWA – A motion was adopted in the House of Commons today to set a time limit on the debate of Bill C-18 to move it past the second reading stage.
If this sounds familiar it is because earlier this month, a motion was adopted to limit the time spent on second reading debate for Bill C-11. When the motion was passed for C-11, the bill had been debated in the House four times, whereas C-18 has been debated once.
Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez (above) argued this motion was needed because they have already seen the Conservatives…
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OTTAWA – The Heritage Committee will continue to hear witnesses on C-11 this week, starting today from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Tomorrow, the committee will meet from 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., and on Wednesday, the committee will meet from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
The witness lists for today’s meeting can be found here and here. The witness lists for tomorrow and Wednesday are to be determined.
Update: Updated notices of meeting for tomorrow (May 31) with the names of witnesses set to appear can found here, here and here. Among those listed are Kevin Desjardins, president of…
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By Howard Law
HERITAGE MINISTER PABLO RODRIGUEZ has promised a policy directive to the CRTC with cabinet instructions on implementing Bill C-11.
Point number one in the new directive should be making the certification of Canadian content more relevant to the Canadian experience by including qualitative judgments of national subject matter in the video content. I posted about this recently, as have others. The signal from the minister is that he has an open mind to it.
Point number two is to direct the CRTC to reappraise the existing regulatory supports for the money-losing local news industry.
Point number three is what to do…
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By Len St-Aubin
BILL C-11, THE ONLINE STREAMING ACT, like its predecessor Bill C-10, demonstrates a massive lack of understanding of the internet, online media, and the ways Canadians use both.
The government says it’s about fairness, that C-11 will merely require streaming ‘web giants’ like Netflix, Disney, Amazon, YouTube to “pay their fair share” and contribute to CanCon financing. So do its supporters — producers of subsidized CanCon for traditional radio and television, who stand to benefit. In fact, Bill C-11 tries to force-fit virtually all online media into the straight jacket of radio and TV regulation by ‘modernizing’ the…
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Also disappointed wholesale rates will not be reversed
By Ahmad Hathout
INDEPENDENT INTERNET SERVICE providers said they are “encouraged” by the direction the federal government is taking in its proposal Thursday for a new policy direction to the telecom regulator, despite the government also denying a request to overturn the Internet access costs on which the direction focuses.
“They’re going to have a very clear roadmap for how the government expects them to regulate this industry,” Matt Stein, CEO of Distributel and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada, a trade group for independent ISPs, said in an interview, adding he…
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