C-11 receives royal assent

Media | 07/03/2012 8:25 pm EDT

Federal legislation to update Canada’s copyright regime received royal assent Friday after passing through the Senate unchanged. Bill C-11, the Copyright Modernization Act, passed third reading in the Senate after the committee studying the bill reported it back to the upper chamber without any amendments or recommendations. The federal cabinet must now issue a governor-in-council decision to determine when provisions and sections of the omnibus copyright bill come into force. The House committee studying the bill passed eight technical amendments to the bill in March. Bill C-11 was the Conservative government’s third legislative attempt at copyright reform since 2006 and followed an attempt by prime minister Paul Martin’s Liberal government in 2005. Some witnesses who appeared before the Senate Standing Committee on...

Ethnic broadcasters challenge CRTC decision to cabinet

Media | 06/29/2012 7:25 pm EDT

A CRTC decision that awarded Calgary’s 95.3 MHz and 106.7 MHz frequencies to an out-of-province company running an English-language commercial station is “fatally flawed,” three ethnic radio stations in Calgary, Atla., said in a petition to cabinet. In a joint petition to cabinet filed June 12, Punjabi World Network Ltd., Unison Media Inc. and not-for-profit group the Diversified Society of Alberta, asked the Tory government to overturn CRTC decision 2012-308, issued in May, that awarded broadcasting licences to the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group and Vancouver-based ethnic...