QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Broadcasting Act
September 24, 2025
Senator Moreau, in 2023, this chamber adopted Bill C-11, which updated the Broadcasting Act, but we amended the bill with a specific interpretation clause in section 2 to protect the data privacy of Canadians. The amendment, proposed by Senator Miville-Dechêne, was suggested by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner and accepted by the government of the day.
I was shocked last month to learn that those privacy provisions have been stripped out of the Broadcasting Act by accident, we’re told, during debate in the other place over another bill, Bill C-13, which deals with official languages.
Can you please tell us what steps the government is taking to put those privacy protections voted on by this chamber back into the Broadcasting Act?
Senator, as I suggested to Senator Carignan, the minister will be here tomorrow, and I hope you will raise this question with the minister himself.
The government has recently been made aware of what appears to be an inadvertent oversight in a coordinating amendment and is looking into it. I’m confident that the government will bring the appropriate measures to correct this error.
Once again, the minister will be here tomorrow, and I am sure that he will be pleased to answer the question and to reassure you on that matter.
Thank you. I do hope I’ll be able to ask him that question tomorrow, but I wanted to ask you, sir: It is a bit disquieting to realize that an important Senate amendment could be deleted in this way and that the deletion was only brought to light two years after the fact by Professor Michael Geist at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law.
Can you tell us what steps the government is taking to ensure that the Senate’s work is not voided in this way in the future?
Thank you for the question. I think that it is one of my duties to make sure that what the Senate wishes is well understood by the government. This is 50% of my job. The other 50% is to represent the government here. Both tasks are equally important to me. I can reassure you that I will do everything I can to make sure that such an error won’t happen again while I’m Government Representative.
