News

Can We Please Focus on the Real Lawful Access?

Lawful access, the government’s planned legislation on Internet surveillance, has generated considerable attention over the past few days as the government decided against including it in its first omnibus crime bill. That decision generated media coverage, claims that the government backed down in the face of a 70,000 signature online petition, and a debate in the House of Commons in which Public Safety Minister Vic Toews stated that warrantless online wiretapping is not planned. While I recognize these developments feel like a cause for celebration, I fear there is a major problem developing as too much of this discussion doesn’t actually involve the real lawful access.

First, the omission of lawful access from Bill C-10 does not mean lawful access is dead or defeated. It is only delayed as Justice officials have indicated that the government is “committed to reintroducing” the lawful access measures. In fact, yesterday Toews confirmed again “the legislation will come.” The exclusion from the omnibus crime bill is definitely a step in the right direction – it should allow for the committee hearings that have never happened despite several attempts to pass lawful access – but lawful access will still be introduced and presumably passed at some point in the future.

Second, the debate has unfortunately veered into concerns over lawful access that don’t reflect reality.

September 22, 2011 — 26 comments — News

The CRTC’s Vertical Integration Decision: A Step in the Right Direction

This past summer’s usage based billing hearing featured a critical moment when CRTC Vice-Chair Len Katz asked a question of independent ISPs that made it clear the commissioners were finally getting it. Katz started from the following premise:

I guess I come from the position that we, the Commission, have already recognized there is a need to create competition, more competition in order to protect Canadians, and facilities-based competition is not yet here. So it’s our job to find a vehicle to create that competition and, in the simplest terms, it is to create an environment where broadband would be made available to a third party through a lease arrangement.

The acknowledgement about the state of Canadian competition and the responsibility of the regulator to address the issue was long overdue. While the UBB decision is still forthcoming, Katz’s comments provide some reason for optimism. Yesterday’s CRTC vertical integration decision contained a similar statement that offered a strong indication that the Commission got the concerns associated with vertically integrated media companies that can use their market power in a manner that harms consumer choice :

September 22, 2011 — 2 comments — News

Ellis on Rogers Game Throttling

David Ellis has a must-read post on Rogers game throttling and the lack of action by the CRTC. The post comes as the CRTC prepares to issue updated guidelines on net neutrality complaints.

September 22, 2011 — 4 comments — News

Behind the Scenes of Bill C-32: The Complete Ministerial Q & A

With the House of Commons back in session this week, it should not take long for copyright reform to reappear. Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore has already indicated the bill will be reintroduced unchanged from Bill C-32 and that the legislative committee will pick up where it left off without the need to hear from any persons or groups who appeared under Bill C-32. That suggests things could move very quickly with a few sessions and a march to passing the bill before the end of 2011.

My posts in the months leading up to the bill gave some sense of what was likely on the way and more recently I’ve written on the Wikileaks cables that demonstrate the remarkable U.S. influence over the Canadian copyright agenda. I’ve now obtained a series of documents that provide some useful insights into the behind-the-scenes work within the government and the C-32 legislative committee. While access-to-information requests typically exclude information about government bills, the death of Bill C-32 meant the information was fair game. Over the next week, I plan daily posts of various documents including the government’s full clause-by-clause analysis, its C-32 committee witness strategy, and an analysis of the submissions provided to the committee by dozens of groups and individuals.

The series starts with the complete question and answer document [15 MB PDF] prepared for Ministers Moore and Clement for their committee appearance in November 2010 (Scribd version embedded below). The document covers a wide range of anticipated questions and the official government response to each. The answers will not surprise as anyone following the issue will have heard the Ministers and other MPs repeat them regularly. Nevertheless, the more interesting scripted responses to key questions include (with some context in square brackets):

September 21, 2011 — 37 comments — News

Government Introduces Omnibus Crime Bill Without Lawful Access Provisions

The government is introducing its omnibus crime today and it appears that the lawful access provisions will not be a part of it. The Department of Justice release includes no reference to the lawful access bills. While there is every reason to believe lawful access will be introduced some time […]

September 20, 2011 — 10 comments — News