Negative reaction to the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) is perplexing, says music professor In the early 1990s, rock musician Bryan Adams became a lightning rod for what many people said was wrong with Canadian content rules. His international hit song, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, didn’t adequately meet the definition of…
A cash grab by cable and satellite providers?
The federal government is on the verge of further empowering the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as our regulator of Internet content, including as it pertains to streaming companies. To really appreciate the all-encompassing grasp of Canada’s soon-to-be online regulator, look no further than its history of managing religion and pornography. It all goes…
Coalition they helped create will advocate, share ideas and shape policy aimed at improving access to broadband
Two University of Alberta professors are working to improve internet services for Albertans living in rural and remote communities as members of a new coalition. The Alberta Rural Connectivity Coalition (ARCC), which U of A digital technology experts Rob McMahon and Michael McNally helped found last fall, is working with steering committee members to bring together Alberta communities to explore ways…
We must free internal trade, reform banking and telecommunications and increase incentives for retraining
By Sara MacIntyre and Marco Navarro-Genie Frontier Centre for Public Policy Canadians want change. It’s been more than a generation since we’ve felt the kind of overreaching power of government we’ve experienced in the past year. Daily freedoms have been curtailed, millions of livelihoods impaired, savings drained and countless fines and arrests created for new…
So culture lobby can rake in more dough
The Trudeau government is throwing freedom of expression under the bus so the entertainment and culture lobby can pocket more dough. The proposed law, Bill C-10, opens the door for unelected bureaucrats to put online content under their microscope. These ramifications led Peter Menzies, former vice-chair of Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications, to refer to the…
Canadians can choose to watch virtually anything from anywhere in the world online. And they can share virtually any opinion globally through their cellphone. It’s astonishing freedom. But the federal government sees a problem. Canadians aren’t watching enough of the right stuff and sometimes they say the wrong things. So, the Liberal government introduced Bill…
The goal is less about the interests of consumers and more about funnelling money to special interest groups
Were the consequences not so serious, Canada’s chaotic venture into the regulation of content on the Web might be consigned to the realm of thigh-slapping farce. The government’s goal, it was learned last week, will be to focus programming funding on the needs of ethnic, racial, language and sexual identities in a fashion so ill-defined…
The RCI controversy shows CBC’s primary purpose is the acquisition – at the expense of private broadcasters – of audiences and money
An uprising backed by former prime minister Joe Clark and actor Donald Sutherland is trying to force the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. to hit pause on its plans to dismantle Radio Canada International (RCI). If successful, the move to save CBC’s once-vaunted service that took Canada to the world will throw a wrench into the CBC’s…
Many Canadians are fleeing cities only to realize how poorly serviced rural regions are in terms of internet access
They say food connects us all. So does the internet these days. Along with the provinces, the federal government says it is now on a path to give 98 per cent of the Canadian population access to high-speed internet by 2026. This is a much more ambitious target than the previous goal of 95 per…
It’s a common religious philosophy. The secular world calls it the ethic of reciprocity. It’s the ultimate social no-brainer
The go-to car radio station for people of my demographic profile in Regina is Rawlco Radio, home of the John Gormley Show, The Hour of Rage and, on Sundays, replays of Montreal’s popular Roy Green Show. This is red meat programming for grumpy old guys. You know – men who look like me and who,…