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Angus Calls for Hearings on CRTC Broadcasting False News Change

NDP MP Charlie Angus has put forward a motion at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage calling for hearings on the CRTC’s proposed change to the broadcasting false news prohibition.

13 Comments

  1. Disband CRTC
    What good did CRTC do for the past 5 years? Nothing. Nada. Only weird decisions that eventually had to be overturned by the government.

    Disband it and let the government regulate directly.

    L.

  2. Too late
    The Bloc Quebecois has already passed a motion for urgent hearings at the industry committee (the concerned comittee….)

  3. @Jim
    What’s your point? 😉

    Things like this aren’t necessarily about actually doing any useful work but rather can be about getting their name in the news, in particular in the run-up to an election… and when in a minority government, we are always in run-up mode. Does Mr Angus believe this would be a good thing? I have no reason to doubt that, but a little PR doesn’t hurt either, does it?

  4. Abolish CRTC
    I agree with Laura. Disband the CRTC and let the Gov’t regulate. CRTC is being runned by old bureaucrats anyways. On what planet are they living on, to agree to charge per data usage. TV is so boring, people have no choice but to stream to watch what they want.

  5. CRTC is a waste of space
    CRTC has done nothing beneficial for us at all. They make it so we have to pick our channels in packages rather then letting the consumer pick exactly what they want to watch, no offense to anyone but why should I have to pick a package with a bunch of channels I won’t watch just for one channel. Aside from that putting internet on a pay per data usage is insane did they not think about the ramifications this would have on business that transfer large files via ftp not to mention what the impact that this would have for people that are utlizing cloud storage (which is the way the industry is heading). Even to use this as a way to generate PR all this bringing is negative PR making people not want to vote for them at all. Lets open up our market to the companies from the United States that want to offer their products to Canadians it will only be beneficial for us as consumers lets face it the media and internet industry in Canada needs that competition not to mention the advancements that this would have on our cellular network. If this happens to put some companies out of business who cares we shouldn’t have to support them with Government handouts that allow them to stay afloat.

  6. Abolish CRTC
    CRTC is useless body that only work for currnet Government so if Government want to hide behind CRTC than they should abolish CRTC and make decision themselves so they can be accountable to you.

  7. Quebecor already liying and misleading the Quebec population
    In regards to the link you reference, it states:

    “The CRTC last week quietly proposed a significant change to the rules on false or misleading news broadcasts on radio or television. The law currently provides that a broadcast licensee “shall not broadcast any false or misleading news.” The CRTC is proposing to amend the law with respect to television and radio by lowering the standard to “any news that the licensee knows is false or misleading and that endangers or is likely to endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.” In other words, it would perfectly permissible for a broadcaster to air false or misleading news, provided that it not endanger the lives, health or safety of the public.”

    Quebecor Media is already reporting false and misleading news by stating Tony Clement said this:

    “The end of unlimited internet packages allow a more competitive and more diversified offer which will benefit consumers, said Federal Minister of Industry Tony Clement said in a statement issued Monday.

    Minister Clement, who supports this decision, said in a statement that it is his duty to encourage a more competitive market.” http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/quebeccanada/archives/2011/01/20110131-231801.html

    In other words, Quebecor is stating Tony Clement supports the end of unlimited internet.

    This Quebecor article is in many of Quebecors main stream media papers.

    What is Konrad, Angus, Moore, the Bloc, and Clement going to do about this false news reporting that serves Quebecors interests?

    I’s like to see a reply to this one from all of them.

  8. Time for makeover at the CRTC, Bell and Robbers employees there need to leave. Enough is enough.

  9. I have a bad feeling that we may eventually find out that Bell’s husband has been sleeping around with the CRTC’s wife….

  10. More than the CRTC
    This CRTC isn’t really the problem, this goes right up ‘the hill’.

    The CRTC certainly doesn’t serve any real function anymore, maybe it never did, but don’t be deluded into thinking that should it suddenly vanish tomorrow that all will be golden and everything ‘tech’ will be wonderful. You have a Federal Government in place which is so out of touch with technology in general it’s driving Canada right back into 3rd world, worse actually, status.

    I hope once this idiotic decision is reversed that Canadians have had enough exposure to the issue finally that they’ll say, ‘hey wait a minute, now I see what the REAL problem is!’ Get off the damn fence and hold the Feds responsible for their actions and demand changes.

    Bell and Rogers are absolutely robbing Canadians blind. Any TC engineer will tell you that, $1.50 per GB for what they call overages is absurd. It costs about ONE CENT per GB. Do some research, you’ll find that out pretty quickly.

  11. To Mr. Angus
    Dear Mr. Angus,

    Please kindly ask who pushed for this “fake news” rule. Was it CRTC’s own idea or were there some corporations asking for it. We would definitely appreciate a list of names.

    Nap.

  12. CRTC – is the Bandwidth limit a red herring?
    The reason for the fake news rules change according to the Toronto Star is so that the new rule may better stand up to Human Rights challenges since we now often see court judges deciding what the law is and not just whether a law has been broken. Unfortunately, if you read Mr. Magoo’s post above you’ll see that the new rule only invites five times the argument above what the old rule could have because the old rule doesn’t have any ands, ifs, or buts; it’s simple. When you add and, basically it would allow a broadcaster to lie knowingly as long as it doesn’t cause the public physical damage. This is a threat to the integrity of news, since news is supposed to be truth. In other words the news can be used to release any propoganda as long as it doesn’t threaten the lives of those who read it- if the rule changes to what is being proposed. Perhaps if Konrad, et al, can tell us how the current wording can be challenged someone can come up with something better. I’m surprised that on a blog about the rule change- a change that could have dire consequences- that the majority of people are only worried about how much bandwidth they can use. Perhaps this was announced to pull our attention away from the rule change, so that we can moan about how many torrents we can have going at once.

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