Culture change: Carney faces pressure to bring back digital policies after Canada-U.S. trade talks collapse

As the clock approached the midnight deadline on Friday for negotiators to reach an agreement before the U.S. imposed new 50 per cent tariffs on Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney shut the operation down and pulled his representatives out of Washington. The abrupt shift came after, among other things, U.S. President Donald Trump and his negotiators were accused of making “unfair” last-minute demands on Canada’s cultural sovereignty. After previously accusing Carney of kneeling to the White House, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet (Beloeil—Chambly, Que.) is calling on the prime minister to reinstate cultural concessions. In a Monday press conference, Blanchet proposed the government immediately reinstate the repealed Digital Services Tax (DST) and backpedal on its decision challenging the foreign streamer contribution rate set by the CRTC earlier this year. Carney (Nepean, Ont.) announced his intention to repeal the DST in June 2025 after Trump threatened to suspend trade talks if the tax took effect. Then, after the CRTC announced it was tripling the amount foreign streamers will have to earmark to fund Canadian content, Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller (Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Soeurs, Que.) sent the regulation back to the drawing board. He cited concerns that streamers would pass the financial burden on to Canadians, but Blanchet and others accused Miller and Carney of making concessions to the U.S., as the administration had repeatedly called the Online Streaming Act a trade “irritant.” Blanchet also urged the government to immediately consult with the leaders of all the parties recognized in the House of Commons on how to move forward. Speaking to reporters on Aug. 22, Carney said part of the reason his government walked away from negotiations was continual efforts from the U.S. to “restrict our protections of our language, our culture, and in effect, our sovereignty.” The prime minister did not specify all of the cultural concessions Canada’s southern neighbour was looking for, but said American negotiators wanted to change rules around discoverability of Canadian content. In a statement, NDP Leader Avi Lewis said Carney was “right to walk away from the negotiating table.” “Accepting a deal that would lock in pointless, destructive tariffs and undermine our ability to regulate big tech would have been disastrous for our workers, industries and sovereignty,” the statement read, “PM Carney read the room by rejecting the Americans’ offer.” Raj Shoan, executive director of Friends of Canadian Media, said the Carney government’s about-face on culture needs to be taken with a grain of salt. “We support the decision of the government and the prime minister to walk away from these negotiations. No deal is better than a bad deal,” Shoan said in an interview with The Wire Report. “That said, we have to look at the actions of the government as well as their words. This government openly admitted they walked away from a digital sales tax on American tech companies specifically because they felt like it could be addressed in the trade agreement.” “And that, of course, fell apart.” Shoan said giving up on the DST prematurely was “probably a mistake,” and nixing the CRTC’s May decision was “a colossal mistake.” Hindsight is 20/20, but Shoan said it is evident now that making those decisions did not help Canada’s bargaining position. He also wants to see both policies resurrected. “They tried their approach, it didn’t work. Conceding in advance of getting a deal didn’t work, we didn’t get what we wanted,” he said. “Instead, let’s just use the approach that was originally intended. We’re going to tax these companies in a manner that is appropriate.” During his press conference, Carney was asked by reporters whether he would reinstate those previous concessions, but he did not answer directly. “In terms of measures and tax and others, we are constantly looking at our tax system, how we can make it as fair as possible, shift the burden to those who are most able to pay and in a way that incentivizes investment and entrepreneurship,” he said. In a blog post Sunday, media commentator Howard Law drew on his career experience as a trade union negotiator. Law argued 90 per cent of a negotiator’s job is getting the right read on their membership. For Carney, that means Canadian citizens. He argues the prime minister had not properly read the room when it came to cultural concessions. “‘he public got there first.’ Carney got there later,” he wrote, invoking trade lawyer Barry Appleton. “t’s clear now he underestimated the Canadian people and was on the verge of presenting us with a bad deal as a fait accompli without giving us the opportunity to stand up to an American government brazenly determined to turn us into a vassal state, a Belarus to their Russia, when we’d rather be Ukraine.” Michael Geist, Canadian research chair in internet and e-commerce law, wrote in a Monday blog post, “Ending the DST, the existing streamer contributions, and the Online News Act obviously seems inconsistent with the claim that culture was never on the table. But this may reveal how the government thinks about cultural policy, as it draws a distinction between mandated payments and cultural regulation.” He argued the government was swayed by intense efforts from the culture lobby, but it’s not clear the public was ever pleased with block news links on Meta or the consequences of mandated payments. What does enjoy broad support, Geist wrote, is “the sovereignty principle that Canada decides how culture is regulated within its borders.” “The government is seemingly open to shifting on the payments issues (rightly), but still declares cultural regulation off the table by defending the measures aimed at how culture is promoted and presented rather than who pays for it.” In a statement following the collapse of negotiations, Reynolds Mastin, CEO of the Canadian Media Producers Association, said the organization looks forward to working with the government to ensure the Online Streaming Act is defended. “Canadians must remain in control of their own stories, with global platforms that generate billions of dollars from our market playing by Canadian rules and contributing meaningfully to a strong production ecosystem,” the statement read. The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE) also weighed in on the developments, welcoming the government’s decision. “However, significant concessions have been announced in recent months,” read a statement from executive director Marie-Julie Desrochers, pointing to the push to reconsider the streamer contribution requirements. “The CDCE now expects the government’s actions to reflect the line it has drawn. The forthcoming policy direction to the CRTC provides an opportunity to restore its full authority to implement the Online Streaming Act. The announced rollback can still be avoided.” The statement argued U.S. pressure on Canadian cultural sovereignty will not end alongside negotiations, but that technology companies will continue to promote their interests among policy makers. “Cultural sovereignty must not be affirmed only when negotiations collapse; it must guide every decision Canada makes,” the statement said. “As Prime Minister Mark Carney reminded us, it is essential that we remain masters in our own home. This commitment must now translate into concrete action enabling Canada to protect its culture in all its diversity for the long term.” mcollins@thewirereport.ca

Culture change: Carney faces pressure to bring back digital policies after Canada-U.S. trade talks collapse

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By Maria Collins
|August 25, 2026

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Culture change: Carney faces pressure to bring back digital policies after Canada-U.S. trade talks collapse

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