Interesting exchange yesterday in the House of Commons as the Bloc took the government's emphasis on deregulating telecommunications to the ultimate conclusion – "since the government is no longer interested in regulating telecommunications, why does it not just transfer its telecommunications authority to the Government of Quebec?"
Post Tagged with: "crtc"
Gov’t Backs Down in Cash Grab For Deferral Account
The Globe and Mail reports that the government was thinking about grabbing the more than $600 million sitting in deferral accounts that the CRTC wants used for broadband and consumer groups want refunded. The optics of hundreds of millions of consumers' money going into government coffers while the same telcos […]
Reflecting on the CRTC’s Hate Site Blocking Decision
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) looks at last week's flurry of activity over Internet-based hate sites at the CRTC, including the request for an order to permit voluntary blocking and the Commission's decision to deny the request on Friday.
Had the CRTC addressed the substantive questions, the case would have presented an enormously difficult choice. There is little doubt that the content in question is illegal and that Warman faces a serious threat. By directly targeting Warman, the foreign sites have arguably brought themselves within Canada's jurisdiction. Further, by merely asking the CRTC to issue a voluntary order, Warman avoided state-sanctioned censorship and placed the issue in the hands of ISPs.
Despite the good intentions behind the application, however, there remains some cause for concern.
Tough Choice for CRTC in Hate Blocking Case
Appeared in the Toronto Star on August 28, 2006 as Content Blocking a Can of Worms More than a decade ago, John Gilmore, one of the founders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, coined the phrase "the Internet interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." Last week, the Canadian […]
CRTC Denies Hate Site Request
The CRTC has issued a quick decision on the Warman request to allow Canadian ISPs to block access to two U.S. based hate sites. The Commission denied the application, basing its decision primarily on the fact that other parties (the carriers, the sites) were not provided with notice and the […]
Recent Posts
Canadian Government Caves on Digital Services Tax After Years of Dismissing the Risks of Trade Retaliation 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 238: David Fraser on Why Bill C-2’s Lawful Access Powers May Put Canadians’ Digital Security At Risk 
Ignoring the Warning Signs: Why Did the Canadian Government Dismiss the Trade Risks of a Digital Services Tax? 
Why Bill C-2 Faces a Likely Constitutional Challenge By Placing Solicitor-Client Privilege at Risk 
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 237: A Conversation with Jason Woywada of BCFIPA on Political Party Privacy and Bill C-4
