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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TORONTO – CRTC chair Ian Scott told Ryerson students last Friday the Commission supports the approach of the government’s Bill C-11, known as the Online Streaming Act, and indicated he agrees with Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s assertion that it will not regulate user-generated content.
In his speech, a copy of which was distributed by the CRTC today, Scott said that while some argue Bill C-11 will give the Commission the authority to regulate users’ content on social media sites, “That’s just not true.
“As it’s drafted at the moment, the Bill draws a distinction between the users of…
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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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WHITEHORSE and YELLOWKNIFE – Northwestel announced today it is boosting the speeds on all its unlimited Internet plans for customers in the Northwest Territories and Yukon, at no additional cost.
“Business and home unlimited Internet customers will see an increase of 50 Mbps or more in their download speeds starting April 8, 2022, following the CRTC approval of revised Northwestel tariffs this week,” a press release explains. (The tariffs were approved on an interim basis.)
Northwestel is reaching out directly to its Internet 125 and Business 150 customers who will need their modems replaced, however, its other customers will not…
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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 – Distributel Communications has asked the CRTC to revise the interim access rates for disaggregated wholesale high-speed access (HSA) services to bring them in line with those of aggregated HSA services.
In a Part 1 application posted to the CRTC’s website today, Distributel asks the Commission to establish the revised rates “to ensure that disaggregated HSA access rates are not higher than the access rates for aggregated HSA services where the access components for each HSA service use the same underlying technology and are within the same tariffed speed band.”
Distributel says the revised rates will remove a barrier “that…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today seven projects in British Columbia and Alberta will receive up to $19.5 million in funding from its Broadband Fund.
In total, the projects will benefit approximately 1,255 households in 10 communities, including seven Indigenous communities, across the two provinces, according to the CRTC’s press release.
A backgrounder for the announcement says the CRTC’s Broadband Fund will allocate the money to four service providers in the following way:
ATG Arrow Technology Group Limited Partnership (Arrow) will receive up to $4 million to build or improve fixed broadband Internet access services for…
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YouTube says currently, C-11 could harm Canadian content creators
OTTAWA – YouTube is warning Bill C-11, known as the Online Streaming Act, could harm Canadian digital creators.
A Canadian Press story, published in multiple news outlets, says a briefing “provided on a not-for-attribution basis” indicates the platform believes C-11 risks downgrading the popularity of Canadian content abroad thereby cutting into Canadian YouTubers’ earnings.
“YouTube fears the measures in the proposed Online Streaming Act, designed to promote Canadian content, could skew the algorithm they and other digital platforms use to match content with viewers’ personal preferences,” the story reads.
This is not…
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When they manage contractual relations
By Denis Carmel
MONTREAL – Last Thursday, March 24, the Supreme Court of Canada determined it would not hear the case of the Government of Québec ordering Internet service providers (ISPs) to block some gambling sites, therefore confirming a Court of Appeal of Québec (CAQ) ruling, that in this case, telecommunications falls within federal jurisdiction, as it interfered with the ISPs’ operations.
By coincidence, the same day the same CAQ confirmed, in part, a ruling from the Superior Court stating that articles of the Québec Consumer Protection Act (CPA) could be used to govern…
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