OTTAWA and GATINEAU — Having determined last year Bell Canada violated the Telecommunications Act by denying Videotron access to Bell’s support structures such as telephone poles, the CRTC announced today it has imposed a total of $7.5 million in penalties on Bell for three violations of the act.
“The CRTC found that Bell Canada denied permit applications for access to its telephone poles from Videotron, its main competitor in Quebec. As a result, Videotron was not able to access Bell Canada’s poles, which delayed its network deployment and created a competitive advantage for Bell Canada,” reads a CRTC Continue Reading
OTTAWA – In a series of meetings yesterday that lasted past midnight and can only be described as chaotic, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage made it through clause-by-clause review of Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, and committee chair Hedy Fry reported the bill back to the House of Commons today with amendments.
Due to a motion passed in the House (which former Green Party leader and current MP Elizabeth May expressed disapproval of several times during the meetings), the committee had a limited amount of time in which to debate amendments. Two of three…
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By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The federal government today introduced Bill C-26, An Act Respecting Cyber Security (ARCS), which proposes amendments to the Telecommunications Act.
On May 19, when François-Philippe Champagne, the minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, made the announcement that the Canadian government intended to prohibit the inclusion of Huawei and ZTE products and services in Canada’s telecommunications systems, he mentioned legislative changes were coming.
“We intend to introduce amendments to the Telecommunications Act (TA) to ensure that promoting the security and protection of our telecommunications system is an overriding objective of Canada’s telecommunications policy,” the policy…
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By Bill Roberts
BANFF – One of the more nicely grounded sessions so far at the 2022 Banff World Media Festival (BWMF) featured Ian Scott (above, right), chairperson and CEO of the CRTC, and was moderated by Monika Ille (left), CEO of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Inc. (APTN).
APTN has long been concerned that smaller broadcasters like theirs would be at risk under Bill C-11 because they do not possess the market clout to negotiate with online, streaming distributors without CRTC help.
So, it was a nice piece of meaningful and enlightened programming to have the accomplished and trilingual Ille in…
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THOSE WHO ARE CLOSELY following the approval process of the proposed merger of Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications will know the outside date for closing the transaction was extended from March 15, 2022, to June 13, 2022, and was extended again last month to July 31, 2022.
So, we are already looking in the rear-view mirror at one (soon to be two) outside closing dates.
What is going on? A lot.
Competition Tribunal
Last month, the Commissioner of Competition Matthew Boswell filed an application to the Competition Tribunal seeking to block the merger. He also filed an application seeking…
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By Len St-Aubin
IN HIS RESPONSE to my critique of his article on regulating user-generated content under Bill C-11, Howard Law included a link to an opinion piece I wrote a year ago for Cartt.ca about Bill C-10, the predecessor to C-11.
(Note: You can read Law’s original commentary here, St-Aubin’s response here, and Law’s response to St-Aubin’s response here.)
While I appreciate that Law recommended my article to Cartt.ca readers, I want to correct a statement he made.
My article proposed an alternative approach to promoting CanCon online rather than intrusive, heavy handed and problematic regulation under the Broadcasting Act. Among other…
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OTTAWA and GATINEAU — The CRTC announced today it is now inviting comments from Canadians about the actions it should take to improve telecommunications services in the Far North, an area it defines as including Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon, 17 communities in northern British Columbia, and Fort Fitzgerald, Alberta.
This marks the second phase of the CRTC’s consultation about the state of telecom services in northern Canada. The first phase was launched in November 2020.
“During the first phase of the consultation, residents of the Far North told us that everyone living in Canada should have affordable access to telecommunications services…
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Contribution of foreign streamers updated to $1B
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez took an aggressive stance in responding to Conservative members’ questions today at a meeting of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, on whether platform users would be regulated under Bill C-11.
He started by saying that “platforms are in, but users are out.” This triggered arguments from Conservative Rachael Thomas who, amongst others, said platforms are fed by users and therefore by regulating the platforms, you are regulating the users.
The minister answered saying the platforms can only be captured if they stream commercial…
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By Howard Law
ON MAY 27 CARTT.CA published my suggested compromise on provisions in Bill C-11 impacting Canadian user-generated programming hosted by Facebook, TikTok and Google’s YouTube.
I argued a ministerial policy directive ought to direct the CRTC to regulate user-generated programming that is analogous to conventional broadcasting but exempt the remaining digital first content from regulation.
Last week Leonard St-Aubin wrote a rebuttal. Here is a summary of my take-aways from his critique:
Financing and creating CanCon should not be seen as a burden to broadcasters, but incumbent Canadian media companies treat it this way by electing to spend…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein
THE ONLINE NEWS ACT, recently introduced by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is explained on Canadian Heritage’s website as follows: “Digital platforms have come to play an integral role in Canada’s news ecosystem, shifting the way Canadians access news content that is vital to democracy. They can play an important role in supporting the production of trusted news and information.”
The basic underlying rationale is clear. Canadian news businesses, primarily newspapers, have been severely disrupted by the Internet. Their advertising market and classified ad market has gone online and newspapers’ financial viability is in great danger.
Online platforms do…
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