House passes controversial Bill C-10 through limited debate

The revised Broadcasting Act is finally on its way to the Senate after the House of Commons passed Bill C-10 in a vote of 196 to 112 through a time allocation motion. Late Monday night into early Tuesday morning, the House began its debate on C-10 where it left off last Monday, with another time allocation motion to limit debate to an hour. The Conservatives continued with their talking points, saying the bill is an attack on freedom of expression by including social media platforms in the bill, and also by imposing limits on debate at committee and in the House. Meanwhile, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault reiterated the Liberal’s talking points that “YouTube has become one of the biggest distributors of music in Canada and had to be included in C-10.” The NDP, in regards to the House of Commons’ time allocation motion, voted with the Conservatives as they did with the “gag” order put on the committee earlier this month. “I'm stunned with how badly the Liberals have managed this file. We have to include web giants in our ecosystem, that's fine, that's not the issue. But time allocation was imposed on committee work, they got a five hour limit and that wasn't enough. They still dropped the ball by extending the passage of an amendment, refused a decision of the Speaker of the House, and is now coming back with a time allocation motion,” NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice said, according to simultaneous translation, during debate on the time allocation motion. “That's not how we really protect our artists. How is it that even at committee level, the Liberals can't get to a bill that has so much support from artists,” he said. Guilbeault responded to NDP criticism by accusing the party of “refusing to support the bill and move it forward.” He also said that every month that passes artists are losing $70 million in revenue that the industry could be making through regulating web giants through Bill C-10. NDP Heather McPherson called the minister “confused,” saying that the NDP was supportive of artists and the bill but “perhaps what the minister doesn't understand is the role that Parliament plays in our parliamentary system, similar to the way the minister didn't seem to really understand how broadcasting works, or in fact how his own bill worked before he tabled it.” “We can be supportive of legislation and also find it very problematic to watch the way that the minister has managed this file and is now trying to shove it through Parliament, without giving parliamentarians time to actually get this bill right,” she said. Despite the pushback by the two parties on the time allocation motion, the Liberals managed to pass it with support from the Bloc Québécois which acknowledged, through its MP Alain Therrien, that time allocation is “rarely acceptable.” “However, C-10 is something that the Bloc agrees with, as well as the entire artistic community in Quebec. They have been waiting for this bill for quite some time. That's why the Bloc Québécois will support time allocation to ensure that web giants do their fair share,” Therrien said. After time allocation passed, the House moved on to 23 amendments for the bill, grouped for debate. Two of the amendments were a last-ditch effort by the Conservatives to reintroduce a section of the bill that would stipulate it “does not apply in respect of programs that are uploaded to an online undertaking that provides a social media service” and to further protect users by stating that “for greater certainty programming services exclude any service that allows users who are not carrying on broadcasting undertakings to upload programs such as those provided by web applications, social media platforms and smart devices.” Bill C-10 must now pass through the Senate, which is studying its own bill that could regulate social media by forcing companies like Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google to compensate journalists for their work. Advocates for a free internet are now pressuring the Senate to give the C-10 a thorough review before passing the legislation. In a news release Tuesday, Open Media said despite Liberal attempts to limit the CRTC’s power over social media, Bill C-10 still gives the regulator “broad powers to instruct online platforms to modify their pages, feeds and search results,” which raises concerns that government agencies will promote or hide user speech across online platforms, for its own purposes.” “The Senate absolutely must step in to do the job the House failed at –- taking its time, speaking to all stakeholders, and analyzing the implications of this sweeping legislation. Before C-10 moves forward, they must ensure it is either completely fixed, or dismissed outright for the disaster that it is,” said Matt Hatfield, OpenMedia Campaigns Director, in a statement. “If our government was actually serious about supporting Canadian culture online, they’d start by listening to the thousands of Canadian creators who are already flourishing in the digital environment –- despite a complete lack of support from our cultural industries.” If approved by the Senate, the CRTC will have nine months to implement regulations for the bill. -- Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Hannah Daley at hdaley@thewirereport.ca

House passes controversial Bill C-10 through limited debate

News | June 22, 2021

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House passes controversial Bill C-10 through limited debate

News | June 22, 2021

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