Few internet giants weighed in to BTLR, submission list shows

The panel in charge of reviewing the broadcasting and telecom acts received comments from a number of non-industry parties, such as provincial governments and police services, while some of the biggest online companies in the world, including Amazon.com Inc., did not submit comments, according to newly-disclosed government documents. The list of those who sent written submissions to the panel, obtained by The Wire Report through an Access to Information request, shows the review of Canada’s communications legislation received 156 written submissions from various companies, organizations and groups. The government disclosed five pages of 39 in total, citing privacy exemptions in the law and redacting names of individual citizens who sent in submissions. The submissions were due Jan. 11, but the list of parties who submitted comments has not been available until now. The panel has refused to publish the submissions until it issues its interim report this summer, a decision that has received criticism from some industry-watchers. Since January, some of those individuals and organizations have been making their submissions available publicly proactively -- the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) has collected and posted more than 50 on its website -- or provided their submissions to media. The Wire Report has had first or exclusive reports on many of those submissions, including from Alphabet Inc., the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, BCE Inc., Stingray Group Inc., the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations, the Canada Media Guild, and the government of Northwest Territories. On the full list of parties who submitted comments are various telecom and media companies, including some who have so far refused to share their submissions, such as Corus Entertainment Inc. and DHX Media Inc. Canada’s publicly traded telecoms have shared their individual submissions, but the industry group Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has not. Neither has the Canadian Electronics and Communications Association (CECA), whose members include the likes of Ericsson AB’s Canadian division and Nokia Corp. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is not a member and didn’t put in an individual submission. Other parties on the list of those who participated and who have declined to share comments include the government of Yukon, the province of British Columbia and the City of Calgary. A number of first-response organizations who commented are also not making their submissions available, including the Toronto Police Service, Halton Regional Police and the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs. There are some notable absences from the list. Google, Netflix Inc. and Facebook Inc. commented, but while Amazon did meet the panel, it didn’t submit any written comments. Neither did Twitter Inc., Amazon Inc., Apple Inc. or Spotify AB., the list shows. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Kyle Duggan at kduggan@thewirereport.ca

Few internet giants weighed in to BTLR, submission list shows

News | March 8, 2019

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Few internet giants weighed in to BTLR, submission list shows

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