Stop messing with free speech on the internet

When it comes to communications regulation, let’s be clear: the election did not give Justin Trudeau’s government a mandate to continue messing with free speech on the internet.

For those who missed it, in the last go-round, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault introduced Bill C-10. It very specifically pandered to the demands of a lobby group representing those in the creative industry whose business plans are designed to access government funds and help the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) achieve its regulatory goals. They wanted the CRTC to have authority over the entire global internet — that’s right, the whole, infinite enterprise — and to order social media companies to suppress and remove posts by the tens of thousands of Canadian creators who flourish by pleasing consumers. Posts by ordinary citizens would also have been under the guise of the regulator.

Guilbeault, to put it kindly, struggled to explain both the intent and the specifics of this thuggish legislation, which appeared designed primarily to please Montreal-based cultural interests. He made this particularly obvious when, in the election campaign, his tweet promoting the continued commitment to C-10, which died in the Senate upon the dropping of the writ — was posted only in French. Clearly, there was an awareness that the issue had become divisive.

If the Liberals had been convinced by the pro-c-10 lobby that the bill would be wildly popular, the election outcome should have ended that ruse. There is no evidence Guilbeault’s approach delivered any benefits — not even in Quebec — and given the issue’s low profile beyond la belle province, it was likely seen as a vote loser elsewhere.

It makes no sense therefore, for a government in power on the basis of having the support of less than one in five Canadians (32 per cent of the 58 per cent who voted) to contemplate anything as sweeping as the radical and regressive measures in C-10.

What would be welcome is for a new government to get its communications priorities in order and address the nation’s most pressing needs.

Let’s start with ubiquitous access to affordable high-speed internet. By the time any new legislation is tabled early in 2022, Canadians will be heading towards their third year in a pandemic. Their top priority

is not whether the first 15 movies that pop up on Netflix are certified Canadian content. Not at all. Not even their 50th priority, for most people.

What they need is access at a price they can afford to high-speed internet so they can: work from home, find a job, get unfiltered health information, verify their vaccine records and get the QR code they need to participate in society. What they really want is access to a mobile device and a subscription of the quality they need at a price that fits their budget and doesn’t squeeze out travel or going out to a movie or a game.

Those are issues around which consensus can be built — not only from sea to sea to sea among Canadians but within Parliament itself. These are matters that, if wisely dealt with, will make the nation stronger, more competitive and even grateful.

These should be the priorities of this new government, which should reflect on how its past misadventures on the communications file may have fuelled

the skepticism regarding its competence and intentions that resulted in yet another minority.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t other important communications issues — such as the need to ensure large streaming companies aren’t strip-mining the Canadian economy. And there are clearly matters at hand regarding the transitioning of some companies from outdated technologies and making sure the Internet works for Canadians and not vice versa. But these are not the first things. They are the next things.

In other words, the path towards a sound national communications policy won’t be found by trying to revive Bill C-10 and the divisive political thinking that produced it. Instead, this new government must prioritize Canadians’ needs and think hard upon the words of one of its own appointees, Sen. David Richards of New Brunswick.

“I will always and forever stand against any bill that subjects freedom of expression to the doldrums of governmental oversight, and I implore others to do the same,” Richards, a novelist and screenwriter, said in June when Bill C-10 arrived in the Upper Chamber. “I don’t think this bill needs amendments; I think, however, it needs a stake through the heart.

Let these be the final words on Bill C-10. And let us never have to speak of it again.

POSTS BY ORDINARY CITIZENS WOULD ALSO HAVE BEEN UNDER THE GUISE OF THE REGULATOR.