The concerns over witness intimidation and bullying targeting Bill C-11’s critics continues to attract attention on Parliament Hill as Senators spent more than an hour debating the issue earlier this week. The issue stems from a Globe and Mail report that Canadian Heritage Parliamentary Secretary Chris Bittle – together with his colleague, Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner – sent a letter to the Lobbying Commissioner to seek an investigation into the funding of Digital First Canada, a group representing digital first creators. DFC’s Executive Director, Scott Benzie, appeared before the Heritage committee in the spring and Bittle used his time to focus on the organization’s funding. The Lobbyist Commissioner letter was apparently filed more than two months ago and Benzie had been assured that he was compliant with the law. The story was presumably leaked to coincide with Benzie’s appearance before the Senate committee, a tactic that smacked of witness intimidation and bullying with the government seeking to undermine a critic of the legislation. Soon after, Conservative MP John Nater filed a point of privilege in the House of Commons, arguing that Bittle had attempted to intimidate a Senate witness and the matter escalated further at the Senate committee, where multiple Senators raised the issue.
Archive for October 6th, 2022
Law Bytes
Episode 217: David Fraser on the Privacy Implications of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Facebook Ruling
byMichael Geist
October 28, 2024
Michael Geist
October 21, 2024
Michael Geist
September 30, 2024
Michael Geist
September 23, 2024
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
- CRTC Approves Google’s $100 Million Online News Act Exemption Deal
- The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 217: David Fraser on the Privacy Implications of the Federal Court of Appeal’s Facebook Ruling
- When Antisemitism No Longer Shocks
- The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 216: Game Changer or More of the Same? Patrick Leblond on the New Global E-Commerce Agreement
- Is Meta Offside the Online News Act? The CRTC Wants to Know.