C-10 creates ‘false battle’ amongst broadcasters: former CRTC commissioner

The Canadian government is “expanding the scope of licenced speech” as it updates Canada’s broadcasting policy even though its “has never even asked itself whether this is the right course of action” in the digital age, according to a former CRTC commissioner. Wednesday, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications held a conference on the legal issues surrounding Bill C-10 -- which died on the Senate floor this summer as an election was called -- exploring the legal concerns raised since the revised Broadcasting Act was introduced in the House of Commons. The morning panel examined whether the bill “hits the mark as a 21st century broadcasting policy for Canada,” with panelists assuming that it will be reintroduced during this parliamentary session as it was. Chairman of the Internet Society Canada, Timothy Denton -- who also served as a commissioner at the CRTC -- said that policymakers should look at aspects of the bill from an “internet point of view” and “constrain to application of broadcasting policies” in the online world. Denton noted that with the advent of the internet, programming, as it is traditionally understood in the broadcasting industry, became an application (sites like YouTube, WhatsApp, TikTok) which increased competition for traditional television networks, removed a reliance on analog technology, and decreased costs for online broadcasters. “Just think of the number of teleconferencing technologies you've used in the last few years. All of them were launched without needing permission from the transport networks. This kind of innovation had been impossible in the pre-internet era,” he said. Denton that there is a difference between “permitted or licenced speech” -- as in traditional broadcasting where permission of the state is required before issuing content -- and “permissionless speech” as in print media where liability comes after publication. He argued that with the internet, there is no need to regulate speech as there is no technological scarcity online. “The limitations of broadcasting technology in the 1930s meant there were few speakers and many listeners. The rationale for this degree of government control was the limitation imposed by the propagation characteristics of broadcasting --understood as a technical system of signals generation, transmission and reception. This was the basis of the rationale for limitation and constraint,” he said. Denton said in the broadcasting industry there is a “false battle” being fought “by declaring the large programming suppliers are both within Canadian jurisdiction and that they, and most people using video across the internet, are broadcasters and ought to be regulated to the level to level the playing field.” He said as a result that Bill C-10, by taking this approach, expands the range of government control of speech even though there has been a lack of consultation from Canadians. “Whether the scheme of regulation called broadcasting should spread to the internet, to computer networks generally, has not -- so far as I can see -- ever been placed squarely before Canadian society. And every step, a very small set of policymakers in government or the courts, have taken incremental steps to expand the legal scheme called broadcasting, -- by which I mean state regulated communication -- until it is now detached from any technical conception whatsoever.” He further argued that not everything in video needs to be subject to government licensing and regulation, saying that even at times the CRTC has dialled back on its broadcasting policies. -- Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca. UPDATE: A previous version of the story described the conference as solely a PIAC event. It was organized by PIAC and the FRPC.

C-10 creates ‘false battle’ amongst broadcasters: former CRTC commissioner

News | November 3, 2021

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C-10 creates ‘false battle’ amongst broadcasters: former CRTC commissioner

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