Although telecommunications are under federal jurisdiction, a committee believes that Quebec has the power to legislate to regulate online listening services, such as Netflix and Spotify. He also recommends that the Legault government adopt its own law in order to promote French-speaking content on platforms.
The group of experts, which includes, among others, the former PQ minister Louise Beaudoin, was mandated last spring by the Minister of Culture, Mathieu Lacombe, to study possible solutions to improve “discoverability” Quebec content in the digital age.
The government was then alarmed by the fact that Quebec’s cultural offerings were struggling to find their audience on the platforms. In fact, only 8% of the music listened to online in Quebec is Quebecois. Certain giants of online audiovisual viewing, such as Netflix and Disney, are also regularly singled out for the lack of interest they give to local series and films.
In his report presented on Wednesday, and of which The duty has obtained a copy, the committee of experts formed by Quebec takes note of it. “Real fears exist regarding the vitality of our cultural ecosystem and the French language in the long term,” we can read.
To remedy this, it is suggested that “at least one cultural content of original French language expression” should appear in the suggestions of Quebec users on the platforms. The committee cites the example of France, where platforms must respect certain requirements regarding the promotion of French and European content.
It is also interesting to note that the committee speaks in its report of “cultural content of original expression in the French language”, and not of Quebec content.
Does this mean that future Quebec regulations should, for example, favor a foreign song in French over a title by a Quebec artist who sings in English? The four members of the committee were not available to answer questions from the Duty before the unveiling of the report on Wednesday morning.
Quebec specificity
The group of experts presents its recommendations to Quebec a few months after the federal government’s adoption of Bill C-11. This aims to integrate digital platforms into the Canadian regulatory framework which already applies to traditional broadcasters, such as Quebecor or Radio-Canada.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which recently heard from various industry players on this subject, must soon determine requirements that will apply to the digital giants. In its report, the committee of experts appointed by Quebec does not only contest federal jurisdiction in the area. He judges the CRTC competent to establish the guidelines that will apply to the entire industry in the country.
But experts, including constitutional law professor Patrick Taillon, are urging the Legault government to adopt an agreement with Ottawa so that Quebec’s specificity is taken into account in the development of the new regulatory policy. A potential agreement that the committee compares to that which applies to immigration, a federal area of jurisdiction, but where Ottawa grants Quebec the right to select a portion of the new arrivals on its territory.
“Quebec must exploit this balance of power with the federal government in order to negotiate, as is the case in other areas of shared jurisdiction, a federal-provincial agreement likely to strengthen the action of both parties. . However, in the event of failure of negotiations, Quebec should consider undertaking a legal challenge to the most centralizing provisions of the new legislation,” mentions the report.
Fundamental right
In addition to being able to conclude an agreement with the federal government, the Quebec government also has the legitimacy, it is emphasized, to adopt its own bill, which would be complementary to C-11. This should aim to guarantee “the fundamental right of Quebecers to access and discoverability of cultural content of original expression in the French language in the digital environment”. The committee goes so far as to propose including this provision in the Quebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The idea of adopting a fully Quebec law to tighten the screws on digital giants had already been mentioned, even before the formation of this committee, by Minister Mathieu Lacombe almost a year ago.
Conversely, large foreign platforms warn of strict regulations affecting them. During hearings before the CRTC last November, Netflix executives insisted that an overly rigid framework would dissuade them from investing more in Canadian production. The world leader in online listening had argued that the countries whose content is most successful abroad, such as South Korea and Spain, are also those with the fewest rules.