By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The creative industry applauded the House moving bill C-11 forward after accepting most of the Senate’s amendments Thursday night.
But the industry also held some reservations about certain provisions as the bill heads back to the Senate and inches closer to becoming law.
The law would require streaming services to contribute in an equitable and flexible way toward Canadian content, while prioritizing support for content from francophone, Indigenous, LGBTQ2+ and racialized creators.
The federal government obtained support from the opposition, New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois to accept 20 of the Senate’s 26 amendments, including two with modifications.
According…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Two years and 16 days after Rogers and Shaw announced their intention to merge, Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne indirectly approved one of Canadian history’s largest corporate consolidations Friday by allowing for the transfer of Shaw’s Freedom wireless assets to Videotron – promised as the competitive fourth player in the telecom market.
The stipulations laid out by Champagne in a press conference on Friday are as follows: Videotron will commit to offering retail services that are “at least 20% cheaper” than from those of the major players outside its home territory, it cannot transfer Freedom spectrum licences…
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By Christopher Guly
Gatineau, Que. – Neither Canadian Heritage nor the Broadcasting Act should play a role in overseeing telecommunications or the internet, Alberta Conservative member of Parliament Rachael Thomas told an audience at the Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Service Providers conference in Gatineau, Que. on Wednesday.
“When we choose to use the Broadcasting Act, which is meant for TV and radio, and we’re bringing the internet underneath that, that’s an incredibly antiquated move,” Thomas, the official opposition shadow minister for Canadian Heritage, told Cartt in an interview following her appearance at an afternoon panel. The panel discussed Bill C-11,…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein, former chair of the CRTC
The Senate will review Bill C-18, the Online News Act, next week. Hopefully it will be a thorough review and improve this very deficient bill. Its constitutionality is doubtful, it is unclear what will be the subject matter of the mandated negotiation, and its implementation will be problematic. One can only hope that the Senate can remedy some of these issues.
However, in addition, there is one glaring legal mistake that requires fixing. Section 36 of the bill passed by the House of Commons now reads as follows:
36. The…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC on Monday denied an arbitration request from television distributor Coopérative de câblodistribution Hill Valley for a deal to retransmit Quebecor’s TVA Sports.
Quebecor has said it refuses to engage in negotiations with Hill Valley, after the Federal Court found it violated the Montreal company’s copyright by restreaming its channels to hotel customers without its consent.
The commission ruled Monday that Quebecor is under no regulatory requirement to provide its channel to Hill Valley, and its refusal to engage in negotiations “leaves no room for process to unfold.”
Despite Quebecor’s intention, the CRTC continued…
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By Connie Thiessen
Political leaders and Indigenous artists gathered in Montreal on Tuesday to demand that the CRTC introduce a five per cent minimum quota for Indigenous music content on commercial radio.
The demand is based on the recommendation of the Mémoire sur le contenu musical autochtone (Memorandum on Indigenous Musical Content), the result of a public consultation conducted last summer, spearheaded by Indigenous record label Makusham Musique, in collaboration with Innu Takuaikan, the Innu First Nations band government in Quebec. It found that 94.83% of the 312 Canadians surveyed believed a percentage of Indigenous music content should be imposed on commercial radio stations in Quebec and Canada, expressing that they almost never…
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OTTAWA – The Liberal government’s 2023 budget, released Tuesday, includes a commitment from the feds to work with regulatory agencies to reduce what it calls telecom “junk fees.”
“Unexpected, hidden, and additional fees add up quickly. From internet overage charges, to roaming fees, to event fees, Canadians deal with junk fees every day,” the budget document said.
“Budget 2023 announces the government’s intention to work with regulatory agencies, provinces, and territories to reduce junk fees for Canadians,” it added. “This could include higher telecom roaming charges, event and concert fees, excessive baggage fees, and unjustified shipping and freight fees.”
The budget document…
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By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Canada’s auditor general is recommending Innovation Canada come up with a specific mobile wireless connectivity target and timeline like the federal government has for high-speed internet, according to a report released Monday.
The department said in response that it will “conduct a review of the state of mobile coverage and planned investment” this year and will “seek additional resources if necessary.”
Currently, the federal government has in place goal targets of providing high-speed internet access with speeds of 50 Mbps download and 10 Mbps upload to the entire country by 2030, but no specific target for cellular…
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Bell said there was no consultation on the need for such requirements
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Some of the country’s major telecommunications companies are telling the CRTC that the interim notification requirements mandated by the regulator earlier this month for major network outages are unnecessary, citing an agreement signed last year by a dozen telecoms to notify relevant authorities in cases of such service disruptions.
The CRTC temporarily ordered the telecoms to notify the CRTC within two hours of a major network outage starting on March 8 until the regulator makes a decision on the permanency of such…
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By Konrad von Finckenstein, former chair of the CRTC, and Philip Palmer, former general counsel at the Justice Department focused on communications law
The Online News Act, Bill C-18, states as its purpose “to regulate digital news intermediaries” in order to bring fairness to the Canadian news marketplace. Digital news intermediaries are simply any online social media or search platform that carries links to or produces search results for news items.
The language of the Act is couched neutrally, but the announced intent is to regulate digital news intermediaries such as Meta (Facebook) and Alphabet (Google) so as to force them…
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