Liberals shut down debate on Bill C-10 amendment
Review of charter rights in broadcasting
Liberal MPS voted Friday to shut down debate on a Conservative motion to review whether an amendment to broadcasting Bill C-10 violates charter rights.
The controversial amendment would allow regulation of social media content and critics say it amounts to an attack on free speech.
On Friday, a motion by Conservative MP Rachael Harder called for the Heritage committee to send the amended bill back to the justice minister for an updated “charter statement.”
Charter statements are issued by the justice minister and look at the potential effects a government bill might have under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The existing charter statement, which states that C-10 is “carefully tailored” to be consistent with the right to freedom to expression, specifically cited a clause that was removed by the committee last Friday.
“The removal of Section 4.1 from Bill C-10 fundamentally changes the legislation, and dissolves the ground on which the charter statement stood to justify charter compliance,” Harder said. “The original charter statement should be considered null and void.”
Section 4.1 had exempted content posted by Canadians to platforms like Youtube from CRTC regulation.
Conservative MP Scott Aitchison argued that the motion to “ask a Liberal justice minister” to review the bill is a “very reasonable compromise to make sure that as we proceed … that we’re doing so ensuring that we are not in any way infringing on Canadians’ fundamental freedom of expression.”
Liberal MPS said that the committee is in the process of amending the legislation clause-by-clause, and it wouldn’t make sense to send the legislation for another review in the middle of that process.
Under the legislation, “charter statements reflect the bill at the time of introduction and are not updated,” Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said. He added that if that charter statement “were to be updated at any point, for whatever reason if that was permissible, it would only make sense to do so at the end of debate of the bill, when all the amendments had been adopted, and one knew what the legislation would look like.”
Liberal MP Julie Dabrusin proposed a motion to adjourn debate on the bill, effectively stopping the discussion. The five Liberal MPS on the committee and the sole NDP MP voted in favour of stopping the debate. The four Conservative committee members and one Bloc Québécois member voted against.
On Twitter following the Friday afternoon meeting, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault accused the Conservatives of delaying work on the bill and “putting the interests of big foreign streamers over those of Canadian creators.”
The Liberal government has argued that it has no interest in regulating Canadians’ social media content, and that the bill is about supporting the cultural industry by ensuring the CTRC can impose the same Canadian content requirements and contributions on digital services like Netflix as it does on traditional broadcasting.
A coalition of 40 organizations representing the cultural sector, including the film, TV and music sectors, issued a press release Friday afternoon condemning the Conservative Party for “sacrificing culture on the altar of partisanship.”
The Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions pointed out that the Conservatives have changed their position on the issue, after initially criticizing the bill for not including social media such as Youtube in its scope.
Worries about the bill’s potential to harm Canadians’ free expression charter rights emerged a week ago, after the committee removed section 4.1.
Critics said that would give the broadcast regulator control over much of the content Canadians post online, with former CRTC commissioner Peter Menzies saying that move doesn’t “just infringe on free expression, it constitutes a full-blown assault upon it and, through it, the foundations of democracy.”
Guilbeault’s office has argued there are still adequate safeguards to ensure Canadians’ rights are respected. The CRTC has to abide by the charter, “and any action contravening this would be considered unconstitutional,” press secretary Camille Gagné-raynauld said in an emailed statement.
She added that C-10 also explicitly says “it has to be construed and applied in a manner that is consistent with the freedom of expression,” and noted the focus of the bill is “professional series, films, and music.”
But critics have said giving the federal government regulatory authority over social media content is dangerous, even if the current government doesn’t want to use that power to regulate Canadians’ online videos.
Aitchison said at committee it’s “very concerning that the CRTC, while maybe wouldn’t do it, would have the ability and the authority to start regulating individual Canadians’ content that they post on social media.”
He added: “This is the fear that I have. Freedoms aren’t taken away in one fell swoop in societies. They’re chipped away, bit by bit by bit, all under the cover of, you know, some important protection of Canadians from some fear that we should have.”