By Howard Law
I KEEP THINKING I have written my last post on the Bill C-11 debate over regulation of user generated content and discoverability, but I am always wrong.
The issue continues to consume almost all the Parliamentary oxygen available. The Conservatives have made it a big part of their branding and fundraising. Now there is speculation that the Poilievre leadership is thinking about a third filibuster, this time in the Senate which had previously agreed to return the bill to the House by Nov. 18.
C-11 has given us our own Canadian culture wars, divisive on the basis of ideology,…
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THE BIG INTERNATIONAL web platforms carry Canadian news content they didn’t create. They take it for free and use it to stock their sites, hold on to their users, attract new ones, and generate substantial revenues. The federal government’s Bill C-18 is a step in the right direction: it recognizes at last that the use and dissemination of local news content without compensation is unfair and, in the long term, threatens the very survival of Canadian news outlets.
Behemoths like Google and Facebook, which have a combined market cap in excess of US$1.6 trillion, are grabbing our content and intellectual…
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FREDERICTON – As of Jan. 20, 2023, 10-didgits (area code and phone number) will be needed to make local calls in New Brunswick, the Telecommunications Alliance announced today.
The CRTC made the decision to implement 10-digit dialing in October 2020. It is paving the way for the 428 area code to be introduced in the province on April 29, 2023, “as the current 506 area code reaches capacity,” a press release explains.
The Telecommunications Alliance, which is a group of major Canadian communications companies, “is leading a public awareness campaign to inform residents and businesses across New Brunswick about local…
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Uncertainty around whether Senate will meet Nov. 18 deadline
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – The Transportation and Communications Senate Committee (TRCM) continued its pre-study of Bill C-11 yesterday and the committee staff should be commended for very effective casting.
The first hour featured two visions of intervenors and their approach to the bill. Peter Menzies, previously vice-chair of the CRTC, outlined some (he only had five minutes) of his objections.
“Bill C-11 seems to be inspired by a desire to assist those whose business models are having difficulty adjusting to the Internet age. That’s an understandable desire. But to the extent this overly broad…
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Cogeco said terms are “positive step”
By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – The CRTC has defined the boundaries for regional mobile virtual network operators to lease wireless space from the networks of the large incumbent operators, stipulating carriers wanting to operate such an MVNO must actively be offering services to retail customers, not just have spectrum and facilities.
The regulator earlier today released its long-awaited terms and conditions for an MVNO regime, which emerged out of its April 2021 decision to allow established regional virtual operators with spectrum and existing facilities to lease network space from Rogers, Bell, Telus, and SaskTel.
The terms and…
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TORONTO – Attendees of the Competitive Network Operators of Canada’s 2022 ISP Summit received a surprise visit earlier today from MP and industry committee member Nathaniel Erskine-Smith (above) who spoke about competition, affordability and universal access.
He noted his frustration with the CRTC and its 2021 decision to backtrack on its previous wholesale rates decision, stating he viewed it “as the CRTC screwing things up and then throwing up their hands and saying oh this is actually too hard for us to fix… so we’re actually going to have to not deal with this anymore.” (He previously made his…
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TORONTO – While attendees of the Competitive Network Operators of Canada’s (CNOC) 2022 ISP Summit heard yesterday about the “unfriendly regulatory environment for competitors”, CNOC executive director and general counsel Geoff White highlighted today the reasons they have to still be optimistic about the future.
During his keynote speech titled “Where Do We Go From Here?”, White did not deny the last year has been difficult. He spoke about the recent wave of acquisitions in the industry (CNOC members VMedia and Distributel included), Rogers’ nationwide outage and the CRTC’s lack of movement on key files including one…
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TORONTO – Yesterday afternoon, the regulatory panel at the Competitive Network Operators of Canada’s (CNOC) 2022 Canadian ISP Summit delved into currently hot topics including rural broadband subsidies, affordability, competition and site blocking.
And while the panel, moderated by Bryson Masse (above, left), CNOC regulatory and communications adviser, was titled “Zen and the Art of Regulatory Patience”, the panelists gave the distinct impression the time for patience has come and gone.
Madeleine Redfern (second from right), COO of CanArctic Inuit Networks Inc. spoke about her experience living in Canada’s north where she pays $1,000 per month for unreliable and slow Internet….
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OTTAWA – The Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications today heard from academics who argued the bill is overly broad and needs to be fixed.
Vivek Krishnamurthy (above), director of the Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa told the committee in his view, “we shouldn’t be enacting laws that seek to sweep so much content into a regulatory scheme.”
He took issue particularly with how the act deals with user-generated content, stating he is concerned about the broadness of what the government is including in the bill as well as the “narrow exclusions…
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Minister Rodriguez to appear at CHPC on C-18
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – Earlier today, the House of Commons heritage committee held its third meeting on Bill C-18, the Online News Act.
Canadian Association of Broadcasters
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) reminded us during the meeting that “… foreign digital platforms take more than half of those ad revenues out of Canada’s economy. They are offshored to entities with little connection to Canadians’ values or public interest, and profoundly undermine Canadian news organizations’ ability to support and maintain a robust newsgathering infrastructure.”
Pleasant prelude to future negotiations.
“Search and social platforms may help to…
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