Archive for May 4th, 2021

Uncommons with Nate Erskine-Smith:

I appeared on Season 2 of the Uncommons with Nate Erskine-Smith podcast on May 4, 2021.

In this episode with Nate, I discussed free speech and Bill C-10.

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May 4, 2021 Comments are Disabled ExtPodcasts
Free Speech for the Dumb by Walt Jabsco (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/5bz8a1

Free Speech Under Threat: The Real Consequences of Steven Guilbeault’s Battle with the Web Giants

Appeared in Macleans on May 3, 2021 as The Real Consequences of Steven Guibeault’s Battle with the Web Giants

My new Macleans op-ed notes that government legislation tends to attract a wide range of responses. Some bills grab the spotlight and become sources of heated debate for months, while others fly under the radar screen with few Canadians taking notice. Until recently, Bill C-10, the government’s Broadcasting Act reform bill, fell into the latter category. Introduced last November as part of Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s mission to “make web giants pay”, the bill was steadily and stealthily working its way through the Parliamentary process with only a few days of “clause by clause” review left before a final reading and vote in the House of Commons.

Yet last week, the bill was thrust onto the front page of newspapers across the country with the public seizing on an unexpected change that opened the door to government regulation of the Internet content posted by millions of Canadians. The change involved the removal of a clause that exempted from regulation user generated content on social media services such as TikTok, Youtube, and Facebook. The government had maintained that it had no interest in regulating user generated content, but the policy reversal meant that millions of video, podcasts, and the other audiovisual content on those popular services would be treated as “programs” under Canadian law and subject to some of the same rules as those previously reserved for programming on conventional broadcast services.

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May 4, 2021 10 comments Columns