Libs support C-10 charter review, but after full revision of bill: Dabrusin

The Conservative party is “falsely accusing” the government of wanting to regulate free speech online, according to Liberal Party MP Julie Dabrusin, as debate over the exclusion of social media from Bill C-10 -- and what that means for individual free speech -- continues. Dabrusin said Monday that the Conservatives “are stopping the committee from introducing amendments which would address their concerns and which they are very aware are on the table,” and that the Liberal Party will support a charter review once the full bill has been amended. Dabrusin’s comments came during a teleconference held shortly after the House of Commons Heritage Committee met to continue its debate on whether or not to have the amended bill sent back to the Minister of Justice for charter compliance review. At the last Heritage meeting, held on Friday, Conservative MP Rachael Harder, who is not an official member of the committee, brought forward a motion requesting that the Minister of Justice produce an updated charter statement with respect to the potential effects of Bill C-10, to “invite the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Minister of Justice to appear before the committee to discuss the implications of Bill C-10” and to “suspend cause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-10” until the two former conditions are met. All parties, except the Conservatives, supported the removal of Section 4.1 of the bill which would have excluded social media companies like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.‘s YouTube from CRTC regulation. The Green Party, which is not an official committee member, can only present amendments to the bill and cannot vote. Dabrusin told reporters during the teleconference Monday that Section 4.1 was put in the bill prior to public consultations. “We hadn't taken into account yet what we got from stakeholders -- from the music industry in particular -- afterwards about the role that social media companies specifically are playing in acting as broadcasters for professional content,” she said. She added that “individuals cannot be considered a broadcaster (under the act) and cannot be regulated.” At last Friday’s meeting, Dabrusin successfully passed a motion to adjourn debate on Harder’s motion and continue with the clause-by-clause amendments to the bill. It was NDP MP Heather McPherson’s vote that gave the Liberals, who have five seats on the committee, the votes needed to end the debate. On Monday however, McPherson voted with the Conservative Party, which has four committee seats, and the Bloc Quebecois, which has one seat, to resume the debate. The move on McPherson’s part was no surprise as the NDP released a statement supporting Harder’s motion prior to Monday’s meeting. “With Bill C-10, New Democrats will take every precaution to ensure that freedom of expression is protected. It’s possible to both ensure freedom of expression is protected while creating a level playing field between web giants and Canadian companies,” the party stated in its release. “It’s imperative to get this right and to understand the potential impact of this bill on regular Canadians and content creators before we move forward.” The party said “it's clear” Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault will not go through the necessary review before moving forward and that it will be submitting a sub-amendment to ensure that “the Conservatives are not using this as an opportunity to delay the advancement of the bill indefinitely.” As a result, during Monday’s committee meeting, McPherson brought forward an amendment to Harder’s original motion putting in place a timeline of 10 days for both the charter review to take place and for the ministers to appear before the committee to answer its questions and concerns over freedom of expression. It passed unanimously but the committee did not get a chance to vote on Harder’s now-amended motion. Dabrusin brought forward her own amendments to Harder’s motion to remove the stipulation that the committee suspend clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-10 until the conditions are met. Her reasoning was that stakeholders want the committee to continue work on the Broadcasting Act revisions as quickly as possible. She also brought forward an amendment to have the Minister of Justice provide a charter statement after the clause-by-clause review is completed. Dabrusin told reporters Monday that “we will be building on further amendments to make it very crystal clear” that the bill only includes professional content. When asked what changes were coming down the pipeline that would ease these freedom of expression concerns, she said she could not discuss amendments to the bill which have not yet been moved by the committee. Discussions on the charter review motion, with Dabrusin’s proposed amendments, will continue at the end of the week. “My hope is we now have until Friday to be before we meet again at committee and that the members of all of the parties can take that moment, those few days to talk about how we can come up with a solution,” Dabrusin told reporters at the teleconference. - Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca

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