Monique Lafontaine appointed Ontario commissioner for CRTC

Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly has appointed Monique Lafontaine as the CRTC’s new commissioner of Ontario, according to a government release. She will begin the five-year term on Jan. 2. Lafontaine will replace former Ontario commissioner Raj Shoan, who was dismissed twice from his position due to allegations of workplace misconduct. The second firing, which came after he won an appeal in Federal Court, left the Ontario seat vacant since May. Lafontaine’s hiring comes despite Shoan’s case still being up in the air. Heritage Canada put out a call for applications for four vacant CRTC positions, including the Ontario role, and then extended the deadline earlier this year. The chair and vice-chair roles had been filled since, with no announcement yet on who gets the Manitoba and Saskatchewan seat. As a lawyer, Lafontaine specialized in television, radio, new media regulation, program licensing and affiliation agreements, stakeholder relations and anti-spam and privacy legislation, the release said. Her legal background spans 17 years, and she’s based in Toronto. While with the law firm McCarthy Tétrault, Lafontaine worked on matters before the CRTC, including licensing hearings related to digital and television and the commission’s first satellite radio hearing, according to a bio on her website, which states she has “indepth knowledge of CRTC rules and procedures.” Before joining McCarthy, she was a policy analyst at the CRTC, her bio said. She also previously worked as general counsel for the Directors Guild of Canada and ZoomerMedia Ltd. Lafontaine holds bachelors of law and administration from the University of Ottawa and received her masters of law from York University. The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) responded positively to the news of Lafontaine’s hiring on Wednesday. The organization’s president and CEO Reynolds Mastin remarked that it was the first time in the 50-year history of the CRTC, “that a Commissioner has been appointed with experience from the production side of the Canadian broadcasting system.” The sentiment comes after the Canadian broadcast industry initially expressed reservations when Ian Scott, who has a telecom background, was made chair of the CRTC. Scott made a point to attempt to alleviate those concerns when he said that the CRTC should “regulate in the public interest” and not have a “particular slant.”

Monique Lafontaine appointed Ontario commissioner for CRTC

Broadcast | November 29, 2017

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Monique Lafontaine appointed Ontario commissioner for CRTC

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