By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA — The House of Commons Heritage Committee started considering amendments to Bill C-18, the Online News Act, today and dealt with only three amendments during the two-hour session.
Although they seem to have agreed not to filibuster, the Conservatives clearly used delay tactics that had the effect of angering Liberal and NDP members alike.
This became obvious once the committee took 20 minutes to deal with administrative issues that could have been avoided.
Given the text of the amendments and even the number of amendments are deemed confidential, it is difficult at this stage know how many there are, but it can be assumed that there are quite a few by the discussion held during the consultative process, as limited at it was.
The first amendment dealt with today was from the Conservatives who wanted to modify the definition of Digital News Intermediary by removing the legislative authority of Parliament and it is a question of jurisdiction. The amendment was voted down.
The next was from NDP to emphasize the role of Aboriginal media and their importance. It passed unanimously.
The third was from the Conservatives, and reaffirmed that the news entities would be Canadian. It also passed unanimously.
A fourth amendment, from the Conservatives, again was to ensure that only copy written content would trigger compensation and that hyperlinks alone would not be included in that.
Liberal Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Chris Bittle, mentioned that Spain had tried that approach and it “provided the giant tech companies a giant loophole to drive a truck through.”
The meeting was adjourned before that amendment went to a vote.
We remember that Parliament had adopted a motion that put a time limit on clause-by-clause discussions, back in June for Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, and it is likely that they will be tempted to do the same thing again.
The next scheduled meeting of the committee is on Tuesday, Nov. 22.
