Kootenay-Columbia MP Rob Morrison and his fellow Canadian Conservative Party members are pushing back hard against controversial Bill C-10.

“Weeks ago, (Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau’s government withdrew the section of their own bill that protected individual users’ content, making Canadians subject to broad government powers to regulate their use of the internet, including social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

“Since then, my Conservative colleagues and I have fought daily to protect the freedom of speech of Canadians, while the Liberals have gone so far as to use extreme tactics, not used in Parliament in decades, to silence the Opposition,” Morrison stated.

“We were able to slow down the process; however, at 1:30 a.m. EST in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a series of votes, the Trudeau government, with the support of the NDP and Bloc separatists, rammed Bill C-10 through the House of Commons.

“Let’s be clear, Jagmeet Singh sided with separatists and an unethical Liberal government by voting in favour of restricting your freedom of speech and expression,” Morrison pointed out.

“My Conservative colleagues and I sided with the Canadian Constitution and voted against this dangerous legislation that will provide the CRTC power to regulate your voice and what you can discover and share on social media. I was proud to vote NO and will always stand up to protect and defend the freedoms of Canadians.

“This bill now moves to the Senate. If C-10 becomes law, my Conservative colleagues and I will run to repeal it.”

The following is a summary of the bill sponsored by Steven Guilbeault Liberal MP for Laurier—Sainte-Marie (Québec).

“This enactment amends the Broadcasting Act to, among other things,

(a) add online undertakings — undertakings for the transmission or retransmission of programs over the Internet — as a distinct class of broadcasting undertakings;

(b) update the broadcasting policy for Canada set out in section 3 of that Act by, among other things, providing that the Canadian broadcasting system should serve the needs and interests of all Canadians — including Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds — and should provide opportunities for Indigenous persons, programming that reflects Indigenous cultures and that is in Indigenous languages, and programming that is accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities;

(c) specify that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the “Commission”) must regulate and supervise the Canadian broadcasting system in a manner that

(i) takes into account the different characteristics of Indigenous language broadcasting and the different conditions under which broadcasting undertakings that provide Indigenous language programming operate,

(ii) is fair and equitable as between broadcasting undertakings providing similar services,

(iii) facilitates the provision of programs that are accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities, and

(iv) takes into account the variety of broadcasting undertakings to which that Act applies and avoids imposing obligations on a class of broadcasting undertakings if doing so will not contribute in a material manner to the implementation of the broadcasting policy;

(d) amend the procedure relating to the issuance by the Governor in Council of policy directions to the Commission;

(e) replace the Commission’s power to impose conditions on a licence with a power to make orders imposing conditions on the carrying on of broadcasting undertakings;

(f) provide the Commission with the power to require that persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings make expenditures to support the Canadian broadcasting system;

(g) authorize the Commission to provide information to the Minister responsible for that Act, the Chief Statistician of Canada and the Commissioner of Competition, and set out in that Act a process by which a person who submits certain types of information to the Commission may designate the information as confidential;

(h) amend the procedure by which the Governor in Council may, under section 28 of that Act, set aside a decision of the Commission to issue, amend or renew a licence or refer such a decision back to the Commission for reconsideration and hearing;

(i) specify that a person shall not carry on a broadcasting undertaking, other than an online undertaking, unless they do so in accordance with a licence or they are exempt from the requirement to hold a licence;

(j) harmonize the punishments for offences under Part II of that Act and clarify that a due diligence defence applies to the existing offences set out in that Act; and

(k) allow for the imposition of administrative monetary penalties for violations of certain provisions of that Act or of the Accessible Canada Act.”

There is another way the bill can be killed; if there is an election called before the Senate can pass it.

e-KNOW

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