OTTAWA – A Federal Court judge ruled against former Ontario CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan in dismissing a motion in which Shoan sought a stay in the Governor-in-Council’s June decision to remove him from his position, upon which we have reported extensively.
This decision was released Friday after a court hearing in Ottawa which took place Tuesday, September 6.
Soon after Shoan was informed by Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly that he was having his appointment rescinded, Shoan filed for a judicial review of that decision as well as for an immediate stay of the Order-in-Council…
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Time for government to speed up appointments
GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais quietly asked the federal government for help during last week’s public hearing into skinny basic cable and flexible channel packaging. Simply, he needs more commissioners.
After the opening statements by Vidéotron (which was a group dominated by women and all of whom are bilingual Francophones, headed up by CEO Manon Brouillette), Blais, speaking in French, said he was “jealous” of the diversity looking back at him. The CRTC commissioners beside Blais were B.C. and Yukon commissioner Stephen Simpson and Atlantic Region and Nunavut commissioner Christopher MacDonald.
However, it has…
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OTTAWA – CTV Two Atlantic may now be included as part of the basic television service to subscribers in the Atlantic provinces.
The CRTC said Thursday that the move, an exception to sections 16.1 and 45.1 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, recognizes that CTV Two Atlantic was licensed as a satellite-to-cable service mandated to provide regional programming.
“CTV Two Atlantic has a standard requirement to broadcast at least seven hours of local programming each broadcast week”, reads the decision. “Authorizing the inclusion of CTV Two Atlantic as part of the basic service would therefore allow all subscribers in the Atlantic provinces to…
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Says BDUs fight comparison tools
GATINEAU – That some broadcast distributors say their bundling programs are very much like loyalty points is wrong, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) told the CRTC on the second day of a hearing into flexible channel packaging (read our coverage from day one here).
The organization, which filed joint submissions in the proceeding with the Consumers Association of Canada (CAC), argued that because TV providers are treated like common carriers under the BDU regulations, the rules say they can’t unjustly discriminate against a certain class of customers. This is…
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GATINEAU – It took more than a few hours but some sparks did fly at the CRTC’s flexible channel packaging hearing on Wednesday when commissioner Christopher MacDonald (right) questioned Bell on the timing of a company press release a day earlier which promised the company would offer Fibe TV service separate from its internet offering.
Cynics might have highlighted the coincidence of a Bell announcement, the day before the hearing kicked off, he noted, asking Bell “why now” when only four months ago the company suggested it was a monumental task to make a basic Fibe…
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MONTREAL – Bell has announced plans to consciously uncouple its Fibe TV service from its Internet service starting early next year for new customers in Ontario and Quebec.
The announcement, made just hours before the CRTC kicked off its hearing into basic TV and packaging options (and knowing that some have complained that in order to get Fibe TV's $25 skinny basic TV service, they had to first purchase Bell's broadband) comes along with the ongoing alignment of its TV services across eastern Canada. Bell Aliant said in July that it was shedding its FibreOP branding in order to…
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Time is tight though as CRTC took 19 months to issue order
A FEDERAL COURT of Appeal decision released Friday said no to Bell Media’s request to strike down the CRTC’s decision to ban the simultaneous substitution of the broadcast of the Super Bowl.
The court did not say whether it thought the policy decision was correct or not, but only, essentially, that Bell Media (which owns the rights to the broadcast in Canada through the 2018-19 season) appealed it too early. The company launched its case in May 2015, four months after the CRTC notice that it would be banning…
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TORONTO – SiriusXM Canada has received a final order from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Commercial List) approving its plan to recapitalize the company by way of a go-private transaction.
The deal, approved by shareholders last week, still requires CRTC approval and the satisfaction or waiver of customary closing conditions. It is expected to close before the end of this year.
"The Court's approval for our proposed recapitalization go-private transaction builds on the strong shareholder voting support we received last week, bringing us another step closer to finalizing the transaction," said SiriusXM Canada president and CEO Mark Redmond, in a…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC should either reconsider its recent community TV policy decision or hold a new hearing that focuses exclusively on community TV and media, says the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS).
In a lengthy letter to the CRTC made public Tuesday, the organization cites “the lack of information placed on the public record by the Commission; the number of false, selective, and erroneous statements in its analysis and decision; and the number of internal contradictions in the decision”, as its reasons for the request.
“Our comments include concerns about the paucity of information on…
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Chaiman Blais should not have been witness and adjudicator
TORONTO – Former Ontario CRTC commissioner Raj Shoan won his first day in court over CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais.
Federal Court justice Russell Zinn on Friday said in a 50-page ruling that having chairman Blais as both witness and adjudicator was unfair and because of that, set aside the finding of workplace harassment found against Shoan. The case was heard in June.
Shoan was originally accused of workplace harassment by former executive director of communications Amanda Cliff in 2014. The case against Shoan was over seven different email threads…
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