Post Tagged with: "speech from the throne"

delete by Wiel Hacking (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/25s9adb

An Anti-Digital Agenda: Forget the Digital Policy Reboot, the Government Just Hit Delete Instead

Last week, I wrote about the need for the Canadian government to reboot its digital agenda, arguing that less than 12 months after the 2019 national election, the policy agenda had gone off the rails with a reversal on affordable telecom services, delays in broadband support and privacy reform, as well as plans for extensive online regulation. The Speech from the Throne, which sets out the government’s agenda, suggests that rather than rebooting the digital agenda, the government has largely deleted it altogether.

The speech was the longest throne speech since the Liberal election in 2015, yet there was apparently no time to reference privacy reform, intellectual property, wireless, or innovation (innovative appears once). Instead, beyond catching up on unfulfilled promises on rural broadband and promising action on online hate, the government’s digital agenda is – as Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said last week – now distilled primarily down to “get money from web giants.” That isn’t a digital agenda, it’s anti-digital agenda, with technology companies cast as both a foreign enemy to be regulated and an ATM for free cash to fund pet projects in the cultural sector.

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September 24, 2020 3 comments News
The Open Government Partnership (OGP) Regional Meeting for Europe 2014 by Open Government Partnership (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/nwzXXy

Why the Government’s Commitment to “Open by Default” Must Be Bigger Than Open Data

This week, I was pleased to participate in a joint initiative between the University of Ottawa’s Public Law Group and iPolitics to examine the government’s Speech from the Throne from many policy perspectives. This includes contributions from Professors Mendes, Morales, Oliver, Pal, Dodek, Forcese, Chalifour, and Cairns Way. My piece (iPolitics version, homepage version) focuses on the government’s commitment to “open by default”, which appears in all ministerial mandate letters. I note that the emphasis on open and transparent government in the Speech from the Throne was both welcome and unsurprising. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on openness and transparency with impressive commitments to transform how Canadians access government information.

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December 9, 2015 26 comments Columns

Canadian Government Unveils Its Celebrations-First Agenda

The government’s Speech from the Throne was billed in advance as a “consumers-first” agenda with Industry Minister James Moore talking up initiatives such as tackling wireless roaming fees and the unbundling of cable television packages over the weekend. Yet it turns out the consumers-first agenda is pretty thin: the roaming fee issue may be limited to domestic roaming (an issue that is invisible to many wireless customers), the unbundling will be useful for some though not all television subscribers, and promising enhanced broadband in rural communities is a far cry from committing to universal broadband access for all Canadians by 2015 (other issues such as the anti-digital economy measure of banning extra fees for paper bills is hardly worth mentioning and an airline passenger bill of rights wasn’t mentioned).

Perhaps the real intended focus is a celebration-first agenda as the speech emphasizes that “Canada’s Confederation is worth celebrating.” The government therefore commits to marking the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown and Quebec conferences, to celebrating the 200th birthdays of Sir George-Étienne Cartier and Sir John A. Macdonald, the centennial of the first world war, and the 75th anniversary of the second world war.

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October 17, 2013 5 comments News

Speech From the Throne: Digital Strategy, Copyright, Open Telecom, Lawful Access, & Cybersecurity

Today’s Speech from the Throne, which sets out the government’s agenda for coming Parliamentary session, includes a considerable number of digital issues.  These include: a digital economy strategy: “a digital economy strategy to drive the adoption of new technology across the economy” copyright reform: “to encourage new ideas and protect […]

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March 3, 2010 67 comments News

Speech from the Throne Coming This Week

The National Post's John Ivison offers his predictions for this week's Speech from the Throne, including copyright and patent reform as well as phased liberalization of the foreign investment rules on telecoms and broadcasting.

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March 1, 2010 Comments are Disabled News