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Google $1B news initiative won’t stop new legislation, gov’t says
Media | 10/01/2020 7:34 pm EDT
An announcement Thursday from Alphabet Inc.'s Google that it would put aside $1 billion to spend on news publishers around the world -- including two in Canada -- has not...
Production sector to receive $50M in gov’t insurance support
Media | 09/25/2020 4:52 pm EDT
Independent producers will be able to access a $50 million insurance backstop to help get TV and film productions off the ground despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said Friday.
The Short-Term Compensation Fund for Canadian Audiovisual...
Back to Parliament: your (pandemic) preview
Media | 09/22/2020 12:43 pm EDT
Given the precarious situation around the now-escalating COVID-19 pandemic, what will actually be...
Google not shielded by journalistic protections, OPC tells court
Media | 09/11/2020 1:57 pm EDT
Privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien has urged Federal Court to find the...
Guilbeault doubles down on web giant legislation plans
Media | 09/03/2020 5:06 pm EDT
Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault Wednesday denounced what he called...
COVID has accelerated media ‘crisis’: report
Media | 08/26/2020 5:17 pm EDT
Canadian traditional media sources are in "crisis" as COVID-19 has exacerbated existing downward trends in advertising revenues, with shortfalls for local private broadcasters in the next two years...
Broadcasting sector reacts to O’Toole victory
Media | 08/24/2020 6:19 pm EDT
The election of Erin O'Toole as federal opposition leader late Sunday night makes "the threat of CBC privatization more real," according to Friends of Canadian Broadcasting executive director Daniel Bernhard.
During his campaign for the Conservative party leadership,...
UPDATED: OPC now says it supports COVID-19 tracing app
Media | 07/31/2020 8:52 am EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has cleared up uncertainty about...
CIPPIC and CBC can intervene in de-indexing case, court rules
Media | 07/27/2020 5:16 pm EDT
Federal Court has said that both the CBC/Radio-Canada and the...
OPC signs joint letter to video conferencing platforms about privacy concerns
telecom | 07/22/2020 4:33 pm EDT
An open letter to online video teleconferencing (VTC) platforms signed by...
Telus hires Jacob Glick as VP public policy
telecom | 07/02/2020 5:26 pm EDT
Telus Corp. has hired Jacob Glick to be its vice-president of public policy. Glick was most recently the general counsel for North, a wearable technology eyewear company based in Kitchener-Waterloo. That company was acquired by...
Privacy commissioner hasn’t approved new gov’t contact tracing app
telecom | 06/18/2020 3:48 pm EDT
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that in developing the federal...
Gov’t to introduce web giant, CanCon, news legislation in fall: Guilbeault
Media | 06/16/2020 3:00 pm EDT
Legislation modernizing Canada’s Broadcasting Act is “pretty much...
Outdated privacy laws may hamper COVID-19 tracing: Therrien
telecom | 05/29/2020 7:00 pm EDT
The outdated state of Canadian privacy laws may harm efforts to launch a...
Google exec outlines privacy measures in new contact-tracing API
telecom | 05/22/2020 2:54 pm EDT
Colin McKay, head of public policy and government relations for Canada for...
Bains says he’s in ‘constant contact’ with telecoms over network capacity
telecom | 04/08/2020 4:24 pm EDT
Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains says the strength of Canada’s telecommunications networks has been on “full display” during the COVID-19 pandemic, as they have coped...
Canada could track COVID-19 through cellphones: experts
telecom | 03/20/2020 3:25 pm EDT
As reports emerge of countries around the world using cellphone location...
BTLR on telecom: a Q&A with Janet Yale
Media | 02/14/2020 5:31 pm EST
In a phone interview with Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel chair Janet Yale,...
Confusion over Guilbeault remarks on BTLR online news recs
Media | 02/03/2020 1:27 pm EST
OTTAWA — On Monday Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, with some help...
CRTC should regulate foreign digital services, news sites: BTLR
Media | 01/29/2020 12:00 pm EST
The blue-ribbon panel tasked with modernizing Canada’s communications...
Facebook to lobby feds on digital services tax after election promises
Media | 11/21/2019 5:34 pm EST
Facebook Inc. has registered to lobby the federal government on “proposed digital services tax,” according to the lobbyist registry, just weeks after an election campaign...
Twitter lobbying on feds’ internet ad policy
Media | 11/18/2019 4:38 pm EST
Twitter Inc. has registered to lobby the federal government on its internet advertising policy, following the social media company’s ban on political ads on its platform globally. The registration, effective November 1, seeks...
U.S. trade organizations upset over proposed digital tax
Media | 11/15/2019 4:09 pm EST
In a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump’s economic and foreign affairs teams, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 14 other organizations have told the American government that they are concerned...
Privacy commissioners call for updated privacy law
telecom | 11/11/2019 5:58 pm EST
In a joint resolution, passed in Prince Edward Island last month and announced in Gatineau last week, federal, provincial and territorial information and privacy commissioners are calling on their respective governments to...
Consensus on ‘digital giants,’ data breaches in French debate
Media | 10/10/2019 11:57 pm EDT
Federal party leaders agreed Thursday evening in the last debate of the...
OECD seeks unified tax regime for web giants
telecom | 10/10/2019 5:49 pm EDT
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will host a public consultation next month on its proposed “unified approach” to the taxation of the world’s biggest tech companies. A document released by the...
Leaders talk Netflix taxes, privacy in TVA election debate
Media | 10/02/2019 10:51 pm EDT
During the first French-language debate of the federal election campaign,...
Local Quebec radio groups want more gov’t ads
Media | 09/12/2019 5:25 pm EDT
Two local Quebec radio groups representing around 60 stations in the province are asking the provincial...
Helix will keep cord-cutters in Videotron ‘ecosystem,’ CEO says
Media | 08/27/2019 5:52 pm EDT
MONTREAL — Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron unveiled its new Helix platform...
CBSA moving data to Amazon cloud amid security concerns
telecom | 08/13/2019 6:52 pm EDT
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is seeking assistance in moving certain data on Amazon.com Inc.’s cloud services, just as the e-commerce giant comes under scrutiny after a hack of its servers leaked millions of personal data records at an American bank.
Late...
CRTC commissioning report about market impact of online BDUs
Media | 08/09/2019 6:40 pm EDT
The CRTC wants to know more about the potential for the Canadian...
‘Deepfakes’ could trigger election security alert, gov’t officials say
Media | 07/09/2019 4:50 pm EDT
Artificial intelligence technology allowing videos to be seamlessly...
CRTC asks wireless providers to justify post-data cap throttling
telecom | 07/04/2019 4:52 pm EDT
The CRTC has asked several telecoms to explain how their throttling of wireless speeds once customers exceed their data allotments doesn’t violate the commission’s regulatory policy on internet...
Close growing ‘value gap’ by eliminating safe harbour: Music Canada
Media | 06/26/2019 6:34 pm EDT
Music Canada, the trade organization which represents the Canadian divisions of some of the world’s largest record labels, has declared that the gap between what artists create and what they are...
Change safe harbour exemptions in Copyright Act, industry committee says
Media | 06/04/2019 6:27 pm EDT
The House industry committee is asking the Heritage committee to study whether or not they can compel online service providers like Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube and Facebook Inc....
Digital rights group studying privacy policies of political parties
Media | 05/15/2019 6:01 pm EDT
The Centre for Digital Rights has hired new lobbyists to help it research...
Facebook sets higher standards in guidelines than laws: Chan
Media | 05/10/2019 6:09 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Facebook Inc.’s head of public policy in Canada said Friday the platform’s community guidelines, “in many respects,” go above what is currently prescribed in Canadian law, as the...
Ethics committee grills Google over political ads decision
Media | 05/10/2019 2:31 pm EDT
OTTAWA — In an at-times tense hearing of the House of Commons ethics committee, executives from the Canada office of Alphabet Inc.’s Google made the case that the company was technologically...
Experts say there is no road map for a Facebook-OPC court fight
Media | 05/01/2019 4:17 pm EDT
If the Office of the Privacy Commissioner takes Facebook Inc. to Federal...
Court rejects Google motion to expand scope of deindexing case
Media | 04/17/2019 6:31 pm EDT
A chief Federal Court clerk has rejected Alphabet Inc.’s request to expand to constitutional questions the scope of a legal reference that seeks to determine whether Canada’s private sector...
Twitter registers social media education on lobby files
Media | 04/15/2019 4:05 pm EDT
Twitter Inc. has added a timely subject matter to its lobby files: educating federal officials on social media use during elections. The social media company updated its files last week to include...
Gov’t criticized by tech companies on cloud strategy for sensitive data
telecom | 04/03/2019 1:17 pm EDT
In the lead-up to a meeting with Amazon.com Inc., the government was...
Google would be regulating media under PIPEDA: counsel
Media | 03/21/2019 6:28 pm EDT
OTTAWA — If a court determines Google’s search engine falls under the country’s private sector privacy law, then that would effectively make the internet company a media regulator, counsel to...
Facebook forms team for advice on ad registry
Media | 03/18/2019 2:39 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. will solicit the advice of an advisory group as part of its effort to ensure its ad registry captures key issues leading to the 2019 federal election. The group of five will include former NDP deputy leader Megan Leslie, former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's chief of staff Ray Novak, University of Manitoba’s Ry Moran, McGill University’s Antonia Maioni, and University of Victoria professor David Zussman, it said in a Monday press release. The company announced in the release details of its “Ad Library,” which intends to fulfill a legal requirement under elections...
OPC, AGC oppose Google expanding deindexing reference
Media | 03/14/2019 4:49 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and the Attorney General of Canada (AGC) have filed appeals challenging Alphabet Inc.’s application to expand the scope of a deindexing case to include questions about whether forcing it to...
Incumbent competition ‘very aggressive’ against Fizz at launch
telecom | 03/13/2019 4:25 pm EDT
Quebecor Inc.’s company brass says its Fizz flanker brand is picking up...
Few internet giants weighed in to BTLR, submission list shows
telecom | 03/08/2019 4:13 pm EST
The panel in charge of reviewing the broadcasting and telecom acts received...
Google won’t run political ads in 2019 election
Media | 03/05/2019 4:01 pm EST
Alphabet Inc.’s search giant Google plans to ban political advertising from its platforms during the next federal election campaign in Canada, following the introduction of tougher political advertising transparency rules by...
Media parties dismissed in deindexing case, for now
Media | 03/04/2019 4:14 pm EST
The Federal Court has denied the CBC/Radio-Canada’s and the Media Coalition’s application to intervene in a case that will determine whether the privacy commissioner can order search engines to delist certain content -- at least until it deliberates on Alphabet Inc.’s motion to change the scope of proceedings. Google’s motion, which became available only after the intervention hearing last month, seeks to amend the original November reference to include a discussion of freedom of expression rights under the Charter. CBC called the privacy commissioner’s request an “indirect...
Shaw Rocket Fund wants CBC to broaden children’s programming
Media | 03/01/2019 4:54 pm EST
The Shaw Rocket Fund wants CBC/Radio-Canada to expand its focus on children’s content to reflect a broader age range and is asking for new communications legislation to ensure it has the funding...
Online discoverability a challenge for books, magazines, BTLR hears
Media | 02/25/2019 2:31 pm EST
Organizations representing Canadian publishers are flagging the difficulty...
YouTube top source of mobile traffic: Sandvine
Media | 02/18/2019 10:12 am EST
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube makes up just over 35 per cent of worldwide mobile data traffic, making it the...
OPC’s deindexing position ‘indirect attack’ on CBC, lawyer says
Media | 02/11/2019 6:33 pm EST
OTTAWA — A lawyer for CBC/Radio-Canada who is asking the Federal Court to...
Don’t exclude online services from Broadcasting Act: Private radio
Media | 02/04/2019 12:00 pm EST
Canada’s private radio broadcasters are fighting against a push to keep...
TekSavvy launches IPTV service
Media | 02/01/2019 5:11 pm EST
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. is now offering IPTV in Chatham, Ont., and the service will become available in...
YouTube limiting promotion of conspiracy videos and ‘borderline content’
Media | 01/28/2019 4:47 pm EST
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube says it plans to tamp down on the spread of misleading, fake or conspiratorial video content that gets recommended for its users to watch by limiting the promotion of...
Be ‘wary’ of regulating online speech: Facebook
Media | 01/22/2019 5:57 pm EST
While online misinformation needs to be taken seriously, that doesn’t...
Preventing LGBTQ content discrimination raised in BTLR consults
Media | 01/21/2019 4:15 pm EST
The CEO of an independent specialty TV channel is raising concerns that a lack of regulation could let foreign-based digital companies operating in Canada de-monetize or discriminate against types of Canadian content based on cultural values, such as works made by the LGBTQ community. Brad Danks, the CEO of OUTtv Network Inc., a Canadian-based LGBTQ television network, raised the point in his company’s consultation submission to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review panel -- the expert group studying how to modernize Canada’s communications legal and regulatory...
Platforms could pull out of Canadian market if regulated: Google
Media | 01/16/2019 2:17 pm EST
Alphabet Inc.’s Google already contributes to the Canadian creative...
Most Canadians support ‘right to be forgotten’: poll
telecom | 01/07/2019 3:01 pm EST
Canadians appear to be generally in favour of the ‘right to be forgotten’, with most showing support for the idea and a majority saying they would support having it set out in Canadian law,...
ARIN asks Parliament to require ISPs to maintain Whois info
telecom | 01/04/2019 6:21 pm EST
The organization responsible for allocating IP numbers to intermediaries in...
MPs onside with alcohol ad standards
telecom | 12/13/2018 11:57 am EST
An industry group has created a code of conduct governing the content and application of beer...
Cellular search-and-rescue system RCAF’s domestic priority
telecom | 12/07/2018 9:35 am EST
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) is currently testing radio technology mounted on search-and-rescue aircraft that communicates with mobile phones of lost or missing people in areas without cell coverage.
The project is considered by officials to be its “highest...
Consumer groups warn MPs against site-blocking pitches
Media | 11/06/2018 1:55 pm EST
OTTAWA — Consumer advocacy groups are cautioning MPs against proposals that would make site-blocking in Canada easier, after a push for those anti-piracy policies failed at the CRTC failed last...
Google Canada on the defense over Google+, Sidewalk Labs
Media | 10/23/2018 5:57 pm EDT
Colin McKay, head of public policy and government relations for Alphabet...
OPC asks for more flexibility on info sharing with CRTC
telecom | 10/16/2018 4:38 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Canada’s federal privacy watchdog asked a Senate committee...
Canada waiting on other countries for new digital tax rules: Morneau
Media | 10/12/2018 5:23 pm EDT
Canada has been “pushing hard” to speed up development of a plan for...
OPC inquiring about Google+ leak
Media | 10/10/2018 2:34 pm EDT
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) said it is gathering more information about whether the personal information of Canadians was implicated in a leak involving an Alphabet Inc. social network. “Google has contacted...
Google Canada asks MPs for Copyright Board reform
Media | 10/04/2018 3:29 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Alphabet Inc.’s Google wants to see the Copyright Board of Canada tariff setting process...
New NAFTA allows Super Bowl simsub ahead of SCC review
Media | 10/01/2018 7:18 pm EDT
The new trade pact forged by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico to replace the...
OPC to seek court reference on search engine delisting
telecom | 09/27/2018 5:39 pm EDT
OTTAWA — Federal privacy commissioner Daniel Therrien says he plans to...
Class action filed against Facebook over Android metadata collection
Media | 09/17/2018 12:35 pm EDT
Facebook Inc. is facing another class action suit in Ontario over how it handles user privacy in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal – this time,...
EU copyright directive passes
Media | 09/12/2018 2:24 pm EDT
The European Parliament passed its copyright directive Wednesday, with some amendments to the...
Facebook makes Watch video service available world-wide
Media | 08/30/2018 4:33 pm EDT
In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook Inc. announced the global launch of...
Social media threats challenge gov’t, platforms ahead of election
Media | 08/30/2018 3:12 pm EDT
In the three years since the last Canadian federal election, emerging...
NDP to lobby government on foreign digital sales, ad taxes
Media | 08/29/2018 6:10 pm EDT
The federal NDP said it will enter the new parliamentary session with a focus on pressuring the government to right wrongs they say have been committed by allowing foreign internet companies to skirt...
CBC appoints new OTT content director
Media | 08/24/2018 4:08 pm EDT
CBC/Radio-Canada has appointed Gave Lindo to lead the public broadcaster’s over-the-top (OTT) content strategies as well as its original digital programming, according to a release on Thursday.
Lindo held the position of senior director and chief of staff of programming...
A quarter of English-speaking Canadians listen to podcasts
Media | 08/21/2018 4:35 pm EDT
The latest report from CBC/Radio-Canada’s Media Technology Monitor (MTM) project outlined 24 per cent of anglophone Canadians said they have listened to a podcast in the last month. Interest in...
Senate committee calls for study of online ad tax deductibility
Media | 08/21/2018 4:10 pm EDT
The Senate transport and communications committee said Tuesday the...
TV dominates OTT in viewership: industry group
Media | 07/25/2018 5:12 pm EDT
Despite the impact over-the-top (OTT) streaming services have had on the television market for sometime in Canada, a new report by Think TV suggests that linear is still dominating those services. The report said that,...
Numeris’ new digital measurement a ‘necessary step’: expert
Media | 07/16/2018 5:07 pm EDT
Broadcasters with multiplatform properties are expected to benefit from a...
Smart speaker adoption rate at 8% in Canada: MTM
telecom | 07/13/2018 2:12 pm EDT
Eight per cent of Canadians own a smart speaker, which is about in line with adoption of other early...
Canadian broadcasters drawn by ‘ton of momentum’ in podcasting
Media | 07/06/2018 11:11 am EDT
In early May, the Liberal government faced questions in the House of...
Petition calls for empowered agency to compel deletion of false ads
telecom | 06/20/2018 6:10 pm EDT
Thousands of Canadians have signed separate petitions created by Democracy Watch, with one calling for a strengthening of the elections law body that could compel media sites to remove false ads....
EU committee approves internet filtering copyright directive
Media | 06/20/2018 4:43 pm EDT
A European Union committee has approved a controversial copyright directive that critics say could interfere with the sharing of online content. At issue are two articles under the directive. The...
YouTube Premium, YouTube Music available in Canada
Media | 06/18/2018 1:55 pm EDT
Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube said Monday that its subscription platform YouTube Premium and its YouTube Music service are now available in Canada.
YouTube Music includes features like personalized recommendations, music videos, and a “smart search” that allows listeners...
Live TV streaming services opportunity for Corus, CEO says
Media | 06/13/2018 5:30 pm EDT
U.S.-based video services like Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube TV and Amazon.com...
Freedom expands WiFi calling availability
Media | 06/11/2018 3:34 pm EDT
Shaw Communications Inc.’s Freedom Mobile said more phones with Apple Inc.’s iOS and Alphabet...
Bell to launch new on-demand services, content hub
Media | 06/07/2018 5:47 pm EDT
BCE Inc. will launch two new ad-supported video-on-demand (AVOD) services, rebrand its entertainment...
Media sector, senator back change to ad tax exemption
Media | 06/06/2018 3:47 pm EDT
OTTAWA — A proposal to eliminate a tax exemption for advertising on foreign digital media received...
Balsillie-led Centre for Digital Rights registers to lobby
Media | 05/25/2018 12:33 pm EDT
A new organization called the Centre for Digital Rights (CDR) that is looking to create a national data strategy has registered to lobby the government after its co-founder Jim Balsillie told a House of Commons ethics committee this month that internet giants are engaging in...
MPs hear about ‘surveillance capitalism,’ Google data use
Media | 05/11/2018 11:32 am EDT
OTTAWA — Two sides of the data-use debate squared off at the House ethics...
Trade committee recommends sales tax for foreign ‘intangible products’
telecom | 04/27/2018 4:54 pm EDT
The House standing committee on international trade is calling on the government to implement sales taxes on “intangible products” sold by foreign companies, improve rural internet access and...
Senate committee to look into issue of tax on foreign ads
Media | 04/24/2018 5:58 pm EDT
OTTAWA — The chairman of the Senate transport and communications...
Hey Siri, 39% of Canadians are talking to their electronics: MTM
telecom | 04/19/2018 6:14 pm EDT
Virtual assistants are beginning to take hold in Canada, with almost 40 per...
Exec shakeups at DHX continue
Media | 04/18/2018 5:05 pm EDT
DHX Media Inc. has appointed a new president, chief operating officer (COO) and created the new position...
B.C. court dismisses Google case in Equustek
Media | 04/18/2018 12:33 pm EDT
A British Columbia court said it will not set aside or change a provincial court decision to force...
Corus plans TV ad tech test next month
Media | 04/05/2018 6:29 pm EDT
Corus Entertainment Inc. is “accelerating” its transformation into a more data-centric company, its...
FairPlay regime ineffective, counter to Telecom Act: opponents
Media | 04/05/2018 4:39 pm EDT
A proposal to implement a website-blocking system to fight piracy has drawn...
Ontario doubles down on rural internet, AI, sets up fund for next gen tech
telecom | 03/29/2018 3:52 pm EDT
The Ontario government is pledging $50 million for a fund that will accelerate the development of next generation technology including artificial intelligence, 5G and autonomous vehicles. Unveiled Wednesday in this year’s provincial budget, the Transformative Technology Partnerships Fund will spread out the money over the next 10 years, and is intended to bring together smaller businesses that create the technology, businesses that adopt the technology, postsecondary and research...