Search Results for "c-18" : 185

USTR Ambassador Tai gives keynote in Geneva on the future role of the WTO by US Mission Geneva https://flic.kr/p/2mB2yiF (CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Bill C-11 Hearings Are Back, Part Four: The Risks of a Trade Challenge and Tariff Retaliation

The first three posts in this series on Bill C-11 have focused on the risks of regulating user content, the risks to Canadian creators, and the risks of increased consumer costs and less competition. Today’s post identifies another risk with the bill: the prospect of a trade challenge under the CUSMA that could lead to billions on tariff retaliation that target some of Canada’s most important economic sectors. The possibility of a U.S. trade battle over the bill is no idle speculation even if downplayed this week by an official from Global Affairs. This summer, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai raised the issue directly with Canadian Minister of International Trade Mary Ng. While the Canadian readout of the meeting notably excluded any reference to the issue, it was cited in the U.S. readout of the meeting:

Read more ›

September 16, 2022 5 comments News
Fabric of Society by Informed Images https://flic.kr/p/24uP8Br (CC BY-NC 2.0)

A Failure of Responsibility: My Reflections on Canadian Heritage Funding an Anti-Semite and Being Wrongly Called Racist by a Sitting MP

It is thankfully not everyday that a sitting Member of Parliament uses social media to suggest that you are racist. Yet that is precisely what happened to me last week when Chris Bittle, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, suggested that my public comments on Twitter calling for Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez to say something about his department funding an anti-semite as part of its anti-hate program was grounded in racism. Bittle has since deleted the post and apologized. In light of considerable media coverage (CBC, Postmedia) and words of support that came from friends, colleagues, and elected officials from across the political spectrum, I spent the weekend thinking about the incident and decided to offer some reflections.

Read more ›

August 29, 2022 13 comments News
Speech is Silver by Brian Talbot (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/mU9hE

Unequal Speech: How to Explain the Contradictory Criticism of the CRTC Radio-Canada Decision and Support for Bill C-11

The controversy over the CRTC’s Radio-Canada decision involving its repeated use of the N-word has continued to grow with Quebec-based politicians – including the governing CAQ and the Liberal Party of Quebec – warning of censorship and calling on Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez to reverse the CRTC decision. The outpouring has left me struggling to reconcile the seeming hypocrisy of politicians who warn about the dangers of CRTC speech regulation even as they have been the most ardent supporters of Bill C-11, eager to pass resolutions that call on the federal government to enact legislation empowering the CRTC to regulate user content.

My initial take in a tweet was that this reflects a demand to protect their own speech even as there is a willingness to sacrifice the speech of others in return for a Youtube payoff. On reflection, however, I think there is more at play. Before explaining, it bears mentioning that months of assurances during the Bill C-11 hearings that the CRTC does not engage in speech regulation were patently false.

Read more ›

July 7, 2022 8 comments News
local news for local people by Lis Ferla (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/6gnLCV

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 129: Farhan Mohamed and Jeff Elgie on Why Canadian Independent News Publishers Want the Government to Fix the Online News Act

In the two months since the Online News Act was introduced it has received limited coverage and sparked little debate. Last week, Bill C-18 began to attract attention as over 125 small and medium sized Canadian publishers began to sound the alarm, calling on the government to fix the bill by addressing concerns around fairness and transparency. Farhan Mohamed of Overstory Media and Jeff Elgie of Village Media are two of Canada’s most successful and innovative local digital publishers, operating in dozens of communities across Canada. Both signed onto the initiative and join the Law Bytes podcast to discuss their business models, relationships with the Internet platforms, and concerns with the Online News Act.

Read more ›

June 6, 2022 Comments are Disabled Podcasts

Episode 129: Farhan Mohamed and Jeff Elgie on Why Canadian Independent News Publishers Want the Government to Fix the Online News Act

In the two months since the Online News Act was introduced it has received limited coverage and sparked little debate. Last week, Bill C-18 began to attract attention as over 125 small and medium sized Canadian publishers began to sound the alarm, calling on the government to fix the bill […]

Read more ›

June 6, 2022 0 comments