The Web giant has defended itself from cutting access to news to about a million users in Canada in reaction to Bill C-18, which would force it to share part of its revenues with the media. His Canadian representatives tried repeatedly to dodge questions from elected officials on Friday, to such an extent that they decided to swear them in in the middle of their testimony.
This is a rarely used procedure. Members of Parliament from all parties have made no secret of their exasperation with the attempts of the vice-president and national director of Google Canada, Sabrina Geremia, to evade their questions. Liberal MP Chris Bittle reminded her that she could be charged with perjury.
From the outset, M.me Germia and Google Canada’s director of public policy and government relations, Jason J. Kee, have defended themselves from cutting access to news to 4% of their users in Canada.
“I want to emphasize that these are only tests,” said Mr. Kee, at the beginning of his testimony. He added that they were made in anticipation of the application of the bill which would force the Web giant to conclude agreements for the sharing of its revenues with the media.
PHOTO SEAN KILPATRICK, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Public Policy Manager for Google Canada, Jason J. Kee
Rather, it is “unfair pressure tactics,” argued Bloc Québécois MP Martin Champoux.
“You have exceeded the limits, warned the Conservative MP, Kevin Waugh. We have no idea what your tests consist of”. He asked them to provide a list of what Google is testing in Canada.
The parliamentarians who sit on the standing committee on Canadian heritage had summoned the senior executives of Google, Sundar Pichai, Kent Walker and Richard Gingras, but they instead delegated their representatives in Canada, Sabrina Geremia, and Jason J. Kee.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather noted that the big bosses of Google had nevertheless traveled to Canada to lobby elected officials against Bill C-18. “So they are ready to put pressure on us in private, but not to answer our questions in committee,” he stressed.
Google’s representatives in Canada had a rough time during their visit to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. The chair of the committee urged them on several occasions to answer questions. “It was very clear that this committee was not convened to discuss testing,” she reminded them.
Google opposes Bill C-18, which the company says would create a precedent by putting a price on links to news sites in its search engine. This legislation would force Web giants like Google and Facebook to enter into revenue-sharing agreements with media outlets whose content is used for free by these platforms.
Google’s revolt comes as Quebecor, Global News and Postmedia, which owns the Montreal Gazette, cut in their workforce. Web giants like Google and Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) capture the vast majority of online revenue. This loss of ad revenue is hurting newsrooms.
Google representatives in Canada were to answer questions from elected officials by videoconference on Monday, but the meeting was finally canceled after being delayed for more than an hour due to technical problems related to interpretation.
The emergency committee meeting was called at the request of the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Québécois who denounced this bullying tactic.