Liberal MPs say Tories faking outrage over Bill C-11, defend CRTC as regulator

Liberal MP Mark Gerretsen decried the fake outrage he said the Conservatives are invoking in opposing Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, as Liberals got a chance to defend the bill in the House of Commons on Wednesday. The debate came hours after C-11 took up a good portion of Question Period. The Tories are alone in opposing the legislation, as the Bloc and the New Democrats have expressed their backing of it. Gerretsen also teased the official opposition for relying on a limited number of outside experts. “Perhaps one of them can identify somebody other than Michael Geist, who they quote time after time in the House” he stated. “Can they quote somebody else, or make reference to somebody who also feels the same way, and can honestly speak to this issue in the same way?” Alberta Tory Glen Motz rose to the dare. He recited a litany of others opposed to the bill. “I am never one to back down from a challenge,” Motz said. Motz cited The Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne; Ryerson University senior policy fellow Dr. Irene Berkowitz; OpenMedia campaigns director Matt Hatfield; former CRTC chair Peter Menzies; Forum for Research and Policy in Communications’ executive director Monica Auer, among several other stakeholders who took issue with the bill. “Those are just a few that my friend across the way seems to have forgotten,” he said. Liberal MP Ken Hardie, a former broadcaster, conceded that questions have been raised about some aspects of the bill. “The concerns that have been expressed about Bill C-11 need to be paid attention to. We should not just dust them off and say there is no problem here,” he told his colleagues. “The questions are legitimate, but we also need to drill into the details and see exactly what the implications are. When we do that, we are going to end up feeling a lot more secure and confident.” Hardie followed the government line that the proposed regulations of social media giants are similar to the Canadian content rules of the past 50 years. He cited his own work in radio as an example. “When we look at Bill C-11, what it is really going to do is regulate the broadcaster so that it is responsible for the material that is played by it,” he stated. “I could play any record I wanted, but if I did not follow Canadian content rules the broadcaster, i.e. the station I worked for, would get into trouble, but nobody was standing over my shoulder saying that I had to play this song next or that I could not play a record, except if it did not match the format. It is not the content producers, but the platform that provides the content to the public, that the bill will regulate.” Conservative critic for Canadian Heritage John Nater wondered if the CRTC was the proper conduit to regulate service providers. “The CRTC has spent more than 14 months trying to renew the CBC licence. It spent over a year trying to implement a three-digit suicide prevention hotline,” he reminded MPs. “It has a chair who has private meetings, and goes out for beers, with one of the largest businesses that it regulates: Bell Canada. The government wants the CRTC with some unknown policy drive to do this. Does this member really think the CRTC is going to be able to regulate the internet?” Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner dismissed Tory concerns about the commission overstepping its bounds. “Bringing everyone into the same ecosystem and having everyone contribute to this ecosystem just makes sense, and that is what we will do with Bill C-11,” she opined. “I would say that I cannot come up with any specific examples of the CRTC being especially heavy-handed. I would rather the CRTC be helping ensure fairness in this country than leaving it to Facebook.” Liberal MP Stéphane Lauzon drew upon personal experience to show that creators have nothing to fear from the provisions of the legislation. “Having been a musician, creator and singer myself, I would like to inform my colleague opposite that I have had the opportunity to perform on the internet without having to pay anything, since anyone can post a video on YouTube, for example,” he said, according to translation.“This is not included in the bill, and it allows everyone these days to be creative and share our amateur talents without being mortgaged to the hilt, without having to pay anything.” Toronto-area MP Francesco Sorbara brought up the advantages the bill has for often overlooked groups. “Both the Accessible Canada Act and the Broadcasting Act have a role to play in eliminating barriers to accessibility in the broadcasting sector. They work together to remove the barriers to accessibility that people with disabilities continue to face in society on a daily basis,” he said, according to translation. NDP Heritage critic Peter Julian said critics were throwing around the word “censorship” loosely when it comes to Bill C-11. “The reality is the censorship that takes place now with the web giants is the algorithms that withhold Canadian content from Canadians. Even Canadians trying to access that content cannot do it because of the algorithms that are not shared or not transparent that censors what Canadians can see and what Canadians can hear. That is the reality.” He chided the Conservatives for talking about the bill that was introduced in the last Parliament which died on the order paper or future measures which may be invoked. Julien told his colleagues that he has found overwhelming support for the proposed regulations. “So far, I have received roughly 8,000 letters in favour of this bill and two dozen against,” the BC MP stated. “The letters of opposition came from people who were still talking about a future bill, a bit like the Conservatives, who are saying this evening that in a year or two there may be another bill. That will be the time for another debate.” –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Liberal MPs say Tories faking outrage over Bill C-11, defend CRTC as regulator

News | 05/12/2022 6:53 pm EDT

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