OTTAWA – Last Friday, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage heard from CRTC chair Ian Scott and the heritage minister, Pablo Rodriguez on Bill C-18, the Online News Act, but representatives from Meta, Facebook’s parent company were still notably absent.
The CRTC chair appeared to reassure the committee the Commission can handle implementing the bill. As with C-11, the Online Streaming Act, one of the questions that has been asked again and again is whether the CRTC will be able to handle its new responsibilities should the bill pass.
While many have doubts about the Commission, Scott told the committee he believes they “have the necessary skills – and more so than any other existing regulatory authority – to perform these functions.”
According to an English translation of comments he made in French, Scott explained: “Our mandate is to regulate in the communications sector and we have extensive experience overseeing mediation and arbitration processes, as well as those relating to undue preference, complaints and codes of conduct. We also have experienced conducting public proceedings, issuing exempt and exemption orders and maintaining ongoing monitoring systems.
“Just as importantly, we recognize the opportunities and challenges created by new players and have a proven track record of implementing policies and adapting approaches over time that enabled traditional media, including local broadcast news outlets to respond to changing market conditions,” he added.
Bloc Québécois member Martin Champoux stressed the importance of the decisions made regarding C-18, pointing out there are a lot of countries looking to Canada to see what happens with it (and C-11).
In French, he asked whether the bill should take a stricter, more rigorous approach and have higher requirements for which news media are eligible under it considering concerns about foreign propaganda, disinformation, misinformation and journalistic integrity.
Pablo Rodriguez, the heritage minister, responded (also in French) to say it is not up to him to decide. “The objective of this bill is to be as much an arm’s length entity as possible,” he said, adding what Champoux said “is extremely important.”
“Canada is a leader and countries are seeing that if such a thing is possible in Canada, it can be possible in other countries as well,” Rodriguez went on to say. “Our bills in Canada are being discussed by all the other countries to see if they’ll be able to apply the same rules because everywhere, independent and free, nonpartisan press is important.”
During his appearance, the minister also told the committee they want small media organizations to be included and insisted the bill supports them. Noting C-18 is based on Australia’s News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which has benefitted small media, the minister said he is not excluding anyone with the bill, rather, he is “only setting up a table in the middle, where platforms and media outlets come and negotiate.”
“The government is not picking winners or losers,” he emphasized.
But he also pointed out there are other programs designed to help small media, which he argued small players are more interested in than C-18.
It is also worth noting the “losers” may ultimately be Canadians as Facebook, which has not appeared before the committee, reportedly said it is considering blocking access to news sites on its platform in Canada. According to the Globe and Mail, this is because Facebook has not been invited to give evidence.
A blog post from Facebook’s parent company Meta indicates it is unhappy about not being invited to speak before the committee, which is reportedly done hearing from witnesses on the matter. “We have always approached our engagement with Canadian public authorities on this legislation in the spirit of honest and fair debate, and so were surprised not to receive an invitation to participate, particularly given public comments by lawmakers that this law is targeted at Facebook.”
The post goes on to argue C-18 “presumes that Meta unfairly benefits from its relationship with publishers, when in fact the reverse is true,” explaining the company does not “scrape content or links to news” and that news articles are less than 3% of what comes up on Facebook feeds. News publishers, however, promote the work of their publications on the platform.
Facebook previously blocked news content in Australia for about a week over an initial proposal for its news code.
