Online News Act should be passed despite imperfections, Senators told

Tuesday the Senate Transport and Communications Committee continued its study of Bill C-18, the Online News Act. Witnesses told the panel they had concerns about the legislation but nothing so great as to cause Senators to scuttle it. The first hour featured appearances by Monica Ille of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network and Jean LaRose of the APTN affiliate Dadan Sivunivut. Last year LaRose denounced the bill as “totally useless” for his sector; he explained how lobbying has produced results that changed his mind. “We have worked closely with MPs to highlight the importance of indigenous storytelling” he stated. “This work was rewarded with amendments to the bill which recognized indigenous storytelling as a unique form of news reporting that highlights the reality of being indigenous.” His colleague Ille was also happy with the changes made to the bill. Initial descriptions of indigenous news were too limiting, she maintained. “The wording in these definitions may unintentionally limit indigenous participation in the news ecosystem,” she told the panel. “This is because the current definitions imply that indigenous news outlets may be restricted in scope to focus only on indigenous communities.” LaRose said that Dadan Sivunivut, which runs indigenous radio stations in Ottawa and Toronto, may be able to rehire journalists who were laid off due to the pandemic advertising slump. The second hour was devoted to three online publishers who also want the bill to be adopted despite reservations. David Skok, founder and CEO of The Logic, laid out the benefits of the legislation. “While it is not a perfect bill, it will level the playing field in three key areas,” he explained. “First, C-18 is a backstop, forcing publishers and platforms to come to the table for fair and equitable agreements that don’t privilege those only with negotiating power.” Secondly, it will fairly compensate publishers for the use of their work. The Logic has been unable to reach agreement with any major platforms, he added. Finally, each day the bill is delayed makes it one step closer to the extinction of Canadian newsrooms, he informed the Senators. Skok testified in favour of the bill when it was before the House of Commons last year. Ben Wood is publisher of the All Business Online News Group, which produces online newspapers in Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. He is not a fan of the proposed law and said if there were a button to get rid of it, he’d push it. He personally will not profit from the provisions of the bill. “Bill C-18 is not going to be a game changer for us because we will not post our articles outside of our hard paywall,” Wood noted. He said the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit, which he originally opposed, should be extended. He is against direct government subsidies to news media organizations. Wood said his publications are primarily reader-funded. Eight-four per cent of the revenue comes from circulation rather than advertising. Jeanette Ageson is publisher of The Tyee, a Vancouver-based news site. She was appearing on behalf of the Independent Online News Publishers of Canada. She warned that Canada should heed the lessons of what went wrong with the Australian legislation, the model for the Canadian act. “We heard that in Australia small publishers did eventually get deals with the platforms that they are happy with, and that is encouraging,” she stated. “But I also understand that deals with many small publishers were delayed. Initially the platforms were not responsive to requests for negotiation.” Too often the big Australian players scooped up most of the money, leaving only crumbs for the small- and medium-sized publishers. As discussion was winding down, Wood pointed out that The Logic has PostMedia as a minority shareholder. Skok defended his financing, saying big and small stakeholders are involved and that he holds the majority stake. “Nobody tells me what to do,” Skok assured the committee. Wednesday Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez will close out the list of witnesses. Chair Leo Housakos expects to begin clause-by-clause study next week. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca This story has been updated to better reflect Ben Wood’s position on the Online News Act.

Online News Act should be passed despite imperfections, Senators told

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Online News Act should be passed despite imperfections, Senators told

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