The Industry Committee conducted its first hearing yesterday afternoon on Bill C-47, the Olympics marks bill (the second and likely final hearing goes this morning). With the exception of one Conservative MP who raised the prospect of whether the bill should include criminal provisions for ambush marketing, most of the […]
Come back with a warrant by Rosalyn Davis (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/aoPzWb
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Olympic Marks Bill on the Fast Track
Bill C-47, the government's Olympic marks legislation, has been quietly placed on the fast track. The very fast track. With no warning, the bill heads to committee this week with hearings today (Industry Canada, VANOC) and Tuesday (several Olympic athletes and committees, clause by clause). With clause-by-clause review already on the schedule, the Industry Committee will only conduct a limited review and the bill could head back to the full House of Commons for third and final reading by the end of the week.
I've posted several items about the bill, expressing concern about substantive shortcomings and legislative fairness. Given the government's determination to fast track this bill, the most that can be done is to suggest some modest reforms to the bill (dropping the bill is out of the question and major surgery is not permitted at this stage). With that in mind, the Committee should consider recommending at least two changes:
Library of Parliament Releases C-47 Legislative Summary
Seventeen page analysis of the Olympics mark bill here.
Debating the Olympics Marks Bill
Members of Parliament devoted nearly two hours on Wednesday to debating Bill C-47, the Olympic Marks bill. While much of the discussion predictably veered toward completely unrelated issues (child obesity, French language coverage of the Olympics, the "world class" status of Vancouver, camcording), the core elements of the discussion were encouraging. With one notable exception (BC Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, who urged the government to push foward on the bill without any committee hearings), most of the MPs engaged in the debate recognized that the bill grants the Vancouver Olympic Organizing committee (VANOC) enormous power that should be carefully analyzed and should not be permitted to chill free speech, parody, or other legitimate activities. There were strong calls for committee hearings from Liberal Hedy Fry (who referenced some of my comments) and the NDP's Charlie Angus.
The free speech issue in particular was raised by several MPs.
Olympic Marks Bill Back in the House
Bill C-47, the Olympics marks bill demanded by the IOC, was back in the House of Commons yesterday as the Government moved that the bill be read a second time and be referred to committee. James Moore, the MP who spoke on behalf of the government, ran on too long, […]
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