Bill C-11 enacts the Online Streaming Act. It aims to update the legislation so that online platforms that make programs available to Canadians are bound by obligations similar to those imposed on other companies that derive significant revenue from the broadcasting of programs on Canadian territory.
Last Wednesday, in these pages, professors from the University of Ottawa recalled the importance of this bill for ensuring the viability of our cultural industries. It is sad that senators are abusing their prerogatives by dragging out the study of this bill. Such an attitude is contemptuous of Canadian creators.
The opponents mobilized influencers and individuals active on YouTube, who came to try to make believe that the bill will force them to innumerable formalities in order to comply with the rules on Canadian content. Others claimed that the bill would allow the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to “manipulate” the algorithms used by major platforms to recommend shows to their subscribers and promote them to viewers. ‘them. As if the algorithms used by these companies were in themselves “neutral”. Some have gone so far as to claim that the bill would allow the government to “censor” the Internet!
This misinformation masks a refusal to recognize the need to apply rules to online platforms that guarantee the availability of content that reflects Canadian diversity and especially linguistic duality. Historically, in Canada, there have been groups that have opposed the implementation of policies to promote cultural diversity. In some circles, Anglocentrism and subservience to American visions lead to opposition to measures intended to guarantee what distinguishes Canada from the United States.
An erratic CRTC
Admittedly, the CRTC’s blunders contributed to fueling concerns about Bill C-11. The Council has rendered decisions that cast doubt on its ability to adequately apply the legislation it is mandated to implement. For example, it recently eliminated rules aimed at ensuring minimum thresholds for French-language production.
His ability to understand the issues of freedom of expression was questioned when he rendered a draconian decision, where he neglected to consider the French meaning of the words to condemn the broadcast of a radio segment mentioning the title of a book by Pierre Vallières. On the part of an organization that for decades tolerated the worst excesses on the radio waves, such a lack of rigor undermines the
public trust.
But when you take the trouble to read it, you see that Bill C-11, like the act it amends, expressly orders the CRTC to respect freedom of expression and to take into account the contexts of the French speakers. Similarly, the legislation does not target individuals who operate online. It applies to undertakings whose activity has a demonstrable effect on the achievement of the objectives of the broadcasting policy set out in the law.
This policy aims to guarantee that Canadians have access to a diversity of content, including content that comes from creators here and that is in French or Indigenous languages. Applied by a CRTC capable of understanding the challenges of online services as well as the realities of Francophones and minority communities, the law introduced by C-11 should make it possible to ensure real diversity in the Canadian connected space.
Unnecessary amendments
Several amendments have been made to Bill C-11 in an attempt to address the objections of opponents. Unfortunately, some of these amendments do nothing but limit in a finicky way the capacities of the CRTC to put in place effective measures to guarantee the accomplishment of the objectives of the broadcasting policy enriched by Bill C-11. For example, the Commission’s ability to require the use of software tools for regulatory effectiveness has been removed. The CRTC is confined to old ways to regulate state-of-the-art situations. And then we’ll break sugar on the regulatory processes of another age!
Even if the study of Bill C-11 is dragging on, its adoption seems assured, as long as the three political parties that are in favor of it raise their voices. But the implementation of this law will only be the beginning. This will initiate a vast project to put in place rules to ensure the availability, promotion and discoverability of programs from French-speaking creators, but also from diversity and First Nations peoples.
The CRTC will have a lot of work to do. It will have to stop confining itself to the visions of majority circles. Above all, it will have to equip itself with the means to understand the issues of Francophone communities and minority communities.