Moved second reading of Bill C-10, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

He said: Honourable senators, I rise today to introduce you to Bill C-10, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

As you know, we were not expecting to get to second reading today, and since we are now expecting to sit next week, I hope we can send this bill to the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications as soon as possible. Negotiations are ongoing for when the committee will meet, but for now I will concentrate on having the bill sent to committee.

Bill C-10 deserves much attention and scrutiny, and we need to perform our duties as the chamber of sober second thought. It was never the intention of the government to ram the bill through at the end of the session. I am happy to speak to it today.

I wish to inform honourable senators that the Department of Canadian Heritage will organize briefings on this bill on Monday of next week — you will receive details later today or tomorrow — at 11:30 in French and 11:45 in English. I will be presenting a speech.

In June 2018, the Government of Canada appointed a panel to review the broadcasting and telecommunications legislative framework. They received over 2,000 written submissions and heard directly from many people through conferences across the country. The Yale report was released in January 2020, which made recommendations based on this intensive study and created the framework for Bill C-10 and the modernization of the Broadcasting Act.

Bill C-10 was tabled on November 3, 2020, and spent 112 days at committee stage at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, with over 40 meetings and close to 50 witnesses, not counting departmental briefings. As the bill reaches us, there have been over 100 amendments, with numerous subamendments.

The Bloc and NDP do not hide their contempt for this chamber and they would like us to trust their analysis of the bill and accept it blindly, rubber-stamp it and not give it the sober second thought it deserves.

Let us examine the bill, what it aims to do and why this is such important legislation.

Honourable senators, Canada has a long history of supporting Canadian film, music and television. I will read what I said in the other place in 1982:

The policy initiative is designed to give Canadians increased choice in television and radio broadcasting and to develop greater appreciation for Canada’s rich social, historic and cultural heritage.

I emphasized the fact that we have to regularly modernize the Broadcasting Act, which hasn’t been modernized for 30 years. This is long overdue.

Although the Broadcasting Act was originally enacted in 1936, it has not been significantly revised since 1991. Needless to say, this bill has been a long time coming, since the last revision was before everyone had a cell phone in their pocket and the internet was fast enough to stream TV shows.

This bill would expand the legislative and regulatory regime to include online broadcasters by confirming that the CRTC has regulatory jurisdiction and authority over these services.

The bill would also provide for greater diversity and inclusion in the broadcasting sector. More specifically, the bill would specify that online broadcasting falls within the scope of the act.

Broadcasting and regulatory policy will be updated, including better reflections of Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities and Canadian diversity.

This bill will provide strong support for original French-language content.

I would now like to talk about the issue of support for francophone creators and French-language content, including content produced by minority francophone communities. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Minister Joly for recognizing Quebec as a French state.

First, it is important to recognize that this is a key issue and that the concerns expressed by stakeholders are entirely legitimate.

We must not forget about the minority status of francophones in North America. It’s safe to assume that in a world dominated by English, online broadcasting giants like Netflix and Spotify won’t necessarily consider the needs of Canada’s francophones, whether they live in Quebec or in a minority community elsewhere in Canada. However, we know that radio and television are vitally important to the language, culture and identity of the only francophone minority in North America.

It goes without saying that measures are needed to support and promote francophone stories and music. I think we’re all agreed on that, especially since the arrival of online broadcasters turned Canada’s broadcasting sector upside down, and the French-language market was no exception.

Online broadcasters present unique challenges regarding the availability and promotion of online French-language content, including content produced by our francophone minority communities.

It’s important to note that 47% of francophones currently watch primarily English content on Netflix. That is a major departure from traditional television, where 92% of the francophone market tunes in to French-language programming.

Similarly, while the average production budget for English-language films and videos has been increasing for many years, as has funding from foreign investors, we note that the average production budget for French-language content has decreased, and funding from foreign investors remains low. On the music and digital platforms front, it is important to note that in 2017, there were just 6 French Canadians in the top 1,000 most popular streaming artists in Canada. I repeat, 6 out of 1,000.

Honourable senators, Bill C-10 will renew Canada’s approach to regulation in order to ensure fair and equitable treatment between online and traditional broadcasters. It will modernize enforcement powers through a new administrative monetary penalty regime.

Bill C-10 will update oversight and information-sharing provisions to reinforce the CRTC’s role as a modern and independent regulator, ready for the 21st century.

Bill C-10 will benefit our Canadian artists and creators across the country. The bill will allow more opportunities for Canadian producers, directors, writers, actors and musicians. They will be empowered to create high-quality audio and audiovisual content, and they will be able to make that content available to Canadian audiences.

The regulatory framework will be both equitable and flexible, and comparable broadcasting services will be subject to similar regulatory requirements. It will also take into account their distinct business models.

Canada’s broadcasting system will be more diverse and inclusive and will be reflective of Canadian society. More importantly, Canadian music and stories will be more available through a variety of services.

Let’s look at some of the technical aspects of the bill. Currently, as a condition of licence, TV programming services are required to spend a percentage of their revenues on Canadian content each year. Cable and satellite companies are required to pay a percentage of their revenues and levies to production funds and contributions to local programming that support the development and production of Canadian content. Commercial radio broadcasters and satellite radio carriers contribute a portion of their revenues to support Canadian content and development initiatives, including musical content. These contributions totalled $3.4 billion in 2019.

However, digital disruption and competition from online broadcasters threaten this support. Increasing competition from online broadcasters is leading to diminishing revenues for traditional services, with traditional broadcasting revenues declining by 1.5% from 2018 to 2019. Ultimately, this will lead to less funding for Canadian music and programming.

The shifting market dominance is illustrated by Netflix, which is now present in most Canadian households — 62% — and generated $1 billion in revenue in Canada in 2019. Internal Canadian Heritage projections find that falling commercial broadcasting revenues are expected to lead to a decline in the production of Canadian television content by 34% between 2018 and 2023.

If the CRTC requires online broadcasters to contribute to Canadian content at a similar rate to traditional broadcasters, online broadcasters’ contributions to Canadian music could amount to as much as $830 million per year by 2023.

Social media services have become an important place for accessing programming, including both music and audiovisual programming. YouTube has become the most widely used music-streaming app across all ages, with weekly active usage highest among 16- to 19-year-olds at 70% of penetration.

Confirming that the act applies to social media platforms will allow the CRTC to ensure that these services contribute to an equilibrium in the distribution system. Social media services have also become a venue for self-expression. Bill C-10, as passed in the House of Commons, includes special safeguards to ensure Canadians’ freedom of expression is secure. Trust me, cat videos will still be permitted, and the CRTC will not stop you from doing them — for those who like that.

For example, users of social media services will not be regulated and shall not be considered broadcasters, contrary to what has been said numerous times over the last few weeks and months.

Moreover, the CRTC will be authorized to gather information about social media services and their users, seek financial contributions from social media services to support the Canadian creative sector and require the social media services to make Canadian creators discoverable online. These regulatory requirements will be imposed on the service itself, not on users of social media services.

The CRTC is required to interpret the Broadcasting Act in a way that is consistent with the freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence enjoyed by broadcasting undertakings. The Department of Justice reviewed these changes and determined that they support the continued consistency of the bill with the Charter.

Bill C-10 will improve the representation of all Canadians in the programs they watch. When most of the programming available to Canadians does not reflect their actual lived experiences, something needs to change.

That is why Bill C-10 makes advances to ensure that the Broadcasting Act promotes greater diversity. Programming that represents Indigenous peoples, ethnocultural minorities, racialized communities, francophones and anglophones, including those who belong to the LGBTQ+ community — who have been the subject of other speeches today — and people with disabilities will no longer be provided only “as resources become available for the purpose.” The offer and availability of such programming is essential for self-actualization.

The policy objectives set out in the Broadcasting Act will ensure that our broadcasting system reflects Canadian society and that diverse and inclusive programming is available to everyone. That is essential to ensuring that the Canadian broadcasting system can help broaden people’s perspectives, spur empathy and compassion for others and celebrate our differences, while strengthening the common bonds that unite our unique Canadian society.

Colleagues, after we have done our duty and considered Bill C-10, the Minister of Canadian Heritage intends to ask the Governor-in-Council to issue a policy direction to the CRTC to guide its use of the new regulatory tools provided by the bill.

After that, and in consultation with stakeholders, the CRTC will develop and implement new regulations to ensure that both traditional and online broadcasting services offer meaningful levels of Canadian content and contribute to the creation of Canadian content — obviously, in both official languages.

Bill C-10 will benefit our artists and creators across the country. There will be more opportunities for Canadian producers, directors, screenwriters, actors and musicians. They will be empowered to create high-quality audio and audiovisual content and will be able to make it available to Canadian audiences.

The regulatory framework will be both equitable and flexible, because comparable broadcasting services will be subject to similar regulatory requirements. The framework will also take into account their different business models.

Honourable senators, I spoke about these points earlier in my speech, but they bear repeating and must be clear. Right now, in order to obtain a licence, television programming services must spend a percentage of their revenues on Canadian content every year. Cable and satellite companies are required to contribute a percentage of their revenues and levies to production funds and contributions to local programming that support the development and production of Canadian content. Commercial radio broadcasters and satellite radio carriers give a portion of their annual revenues to support Canadian content development initiatives, including music content. These contributions totalled $3.4 billion in 2019.

However, digital disruption and competition from online broadcasters are threatening this support. The growing competition from online broadcasters has resulted in declining revenues for traditional services, with traditional broadcasting revenues dropping by 1.5% between 2018 and 2019. Ultimately, this means less funding for Canadian music and programming.

Netflix is an example of how market dominance is shifting, as the service is now in 62% of Canadian households and generated $1 billion in revenue in 2019. Internal departmental projections show that declining commercial broadcasting revenues are expected to lead to a 34% drop in the production of Canadian television content from 2018 to 2023.

Honourable senators, I want to stress this important point once again. If the CRTC requires that online broadcasters contribute to Canadian content at a rate similar to that of traditional broadcasters, those online broadcasters could contribute as much as $830 million a year to Canadian music and stories by 2023.

Social media services have become an important place for people to access programming, including music and audiovisual programming. YouTube has become the most widely used music streaming app for all ages, with weekly active usage being highest among 16- to 19-year-olds at 70% of penetration.

Esteemed colleagues, as I pointed out earlier, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP are not hiding their disdain for this place and would like us to rely on their analysis of the bill, blindly go along with it and not give this bill the sober second thought it deserves.

I think we have to do it.

In debate at committee in the other place, there has been much raised about the freedom of expression. I want to address this point. The Broadcasting Act includes a specific clause that it must be interpreted in a way that respects freedom of expression, and journalistic and creative independence. This has been there for 30 years. At the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, the government added a further clause that repeats that this protection applies specifically to social media companies.

The Charter Statement and the amendment analysis from the Department of Justice Canada confirms that Bill C-10 does not infringe upon freedom of expression. Bill C-10 levels the playing field and requires web giants to contribute to Canadian shows and music. I repeat again: It does not infringe upon freedom of expression.

Bill C-10 will benefit Canadian artists and creators across the country. This bill will also update oversight and information-sharing provisions to strengthen the role of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the CRTC, as a modern and independent regulator, ready for the 21st century.

The Minister of Canadian Heritage will be setting up an information session next week.

I want to give you a list of some of the organizations that support this legislation, because it does have very wide support from the stakeholders involved in the industry: Peter Grant, counsel and past chair of Technology, Communications and Intellectual Property at McCarthy Tétrault; Janet Yale, Chair of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel; Pierre Trudel, law professor at the University of Montreal and first head of the L. R. Wilson Chair in Information Technology and E-Commerce Law; the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions; L’Alliance nationale de l’industrie musicale; L’Association des distributeurs de livres en langue française; the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association; and the list goes on.

So I urge you to support sending this to committee so it can be further analyzed and so that we can do the sober second thought revision that I think it deserves.

Thank you.

Senator Dawson, we have a couple of senators who would like to ask questions. Would you take questions?

Yes, Your Honour.

In a minority government and when you’re in a minority situation in a committee, you make compromises. There was a request from several parties, including the Conservative Party, to look at this issue and try to frame it. Along the way, some of the amendments — I think that’s one of the reasons we have to give it sober second thought — came in and came out, and I think they will deserve a new look.

Trust me: It does not apply to people. It applies to organizations. People’s freedom of speech and expression will not be altered by this bill.

We’ve had the same rules. We’re basically applying to social media the same rules we have applied to broadcasting and radio transmissions for the last 50 years. The CRTC has been doing it forever and has never stifled free speech. It’s not because it will now be used by American companies that we should be preoccupied with free speech.

Again, I repeat that this was a process of amendments in committee. As you know, the government amended its own bill because it was getting pressure from the outside to clarify certain amendments, and that was one of them.

Again, the CRTC does not get new powers to control the content of free expression. Yes, there is a reestablishment of equality between broadcasters and companies like Netflix and Google. If you’re sending kitten videos on Google, you will not be subject to this control. The companies that do use those things — if they’re making money off of you and those revenues are not being shared by Canadians — the new rules will be applied to them, and they will participate in the financing of — I think it’s quite normal — Canadian artists and producers.

Senator Wallin, there is another senator who wishes to ask a question, and if there’s time, I’ll come back.

Thank you, Senator Dawson, for your speech.

There is very little in it that I’m in concurrence with, but I do recognize you’re the sponsor of the bill, not the architect. We will have to address this legislation and, hopefully, try to strengthen it, clean it up and make it achieve its original objective.

Before we get into the actual content of the bill, senator, I want to talk about process. I know you’re a long-time member of this chamber and a former member of the House of Commons as well. I have been very concerned with the process of what has basically become secret lawmaking or legislation-making in the House of Commons. Have we ever seen a House of Commons committee behind closed doors, in camera, propose amendments to legislation that the Speaker of the House of Commons had to rule out of order?

Senator Dawson, I know you appreciate the supremacy of Parliament. Can you comment? Do you share the concerns that I know Senator Wallin, other colleagues and I have about the process that was utilized in the other place to come to the end result, which is that this legislation is crawling to come to a finish line here in the Senate?

I have to correct you, Senator Housakos. These amendments were done in public on the broadcast CPAC and in the parliamentary broadcast; they weren’t done in an in camera meeting. Obviously, since the Speaker had to overturn the decision the committee had made to tell the chair to do it that way, obviously the rules were applied. That’s why the Speaker did it, and they reassessed the amendments and passed them again in respect for the structure of amendments in the chamber.

Obviously, since there was time allocation, they weren’t going to debate all of the — they had five hours to debate, I told you before — 100 amendments. There was no way they could debate each one of those and respect the five hours since — and I’m not being partisan — but the Conservatives obviously had the objective of filibustering the adoption of these amendments. They succeeded. The communications were broken between the chair of the committee, who was overturned by the committee, and the Speaker overturned the decision of the committee.

It was not done in secret, and since you’re talking about it, because there was nothing secret about it.

Senator Dawson, this is not a question of partisanship. This is a question of how, for the first time in the history of Parliament, we’ve had a Liberal chair of a parliamentary committee overruled by his own members in trying to steamroll, in an in camera process, amendments. You are absolutely right; thank God for a point of order called by the Conservatives. Again, the Speaker of the House did the appropriate thing.

My question, to turn to content, is about the Minister of Canadian Heritage, who has constantly claimed that Bill C-10 will result in $830 million per year in additional investments in Canadian culture. Consistently he has refused to provide any calculations explaining what formula he used to come up with those numbers.

In the House debate this week, the parliamentary secretary claimed that Bill C-10 needed to pass for the government to find out how much money the streaming services are making in Canada. If that’s the case, how do they even know how much money the bill will raise? What are the bases of their promises to the arts sector to come up with figures like that?

Obviously, since the streaming services are not subject to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, or the CRTC, disclosure arrangements, some of this is speculation. Again, I will invite you to listen to the briefings on Monday.

More importantly, one of the reasons we’re sending it to committee is so you have the opportunity to ask the minister to clarify how he has come to that number. Basically, one of the reasons the numbers are being contested is that we know how much some of the companies make, but how much of it will be redistributed to Canadian content will depend on how much Canadian content is not being paid for at this time.

Senator Dawson, it seems this whole legislation is based on some form of speculation. The numbers don’t seem to jibe, because we don’t know what formula is being used. We have constantly heard, and we heard it again in your speech, to trust you and that freedom of speech will not be at risk.

I also heard in your speech how this bill is going to strengthen diversity in minority groups. I, for one, believe that currently the Broadcasting Act doesn’t do that for minority voices, including multicultural communities. We often hear from the Prime Minister and others in this government that diversity is our strength, and I agree. We keep hearing that this legislation will protect it — Indigenous voices, LGBTQ voices. However, the irony with Bill C-10 is that it will actually attack diversity, in my definition. What is constituted as Canadian content will, therefore, force Indigenous and LGBTQ creators to conform their content to work with whomever the government or the CRTC thinks they should work with.

How is that helping these minority voices, Senator Dawson?

The first reality is that much more money will be at everybody’s disposal, and they will be getting an identified fair share of it for the first time. Obviously, a lot of these laws on broadcasting that were written 30 years ago need to be modernized. That’s one of the objectives of this legislation.

I’m trying to find the chapter, but I will be issuing directives to the Privy Council about giving clear mandates to the CRTC on how it will apply, after consultation, to the groups, industries and the people involved, basically the artists.

I’m surprised the question would come from someone who was involved in broadcasting for so long.

Could you give me examples of when the CRTC issued you directives on what you were allowed to say or not say? That’s just not what happens.

The only thing the bill will do is to apply the same rules to internet content that they applied to you. It’s not stifling free speech. You will have the same liberties you had when you were a broadcaster broadcasting from home. A good example is your podcast. Nobody will stifle it, but if Canadian podcasts are going to start making money off products that Canadians are producing, the CRTC wants its fair share of the revenue. That’s the only objective of this addition to the bill.

You say many people this and many people that. The reality is this legislation was adopted by the House of Commons, so the majority of parliamentarians in the other place arrived at the conclusion that this was the way.

Everybody has mentioned, since the beginning of this debate, that this is the first step. We have to look at the Telecommunications Act and all other legislation, but this was the first step in modernizing the Broadcasting Act. I repeat that it didn’t have the context of the internet, because it was written before the internet had the power it has today.

Some of that evolution will mean more people will receive revenues because we’ll be getting money from organizations that have not been giving any. Again, this is not just a taxation issue. It’s not giving the money to the Governor-in-Council. It’s to give it to the artists, because they’ll get their fair share when these revenues come in.

Honourable senators, it’s great that we’re going to have another briefing from the government. I did ask the parliamentary secretary back in April about this, before all the amendments had broken out, and she promised that it would happen. I look forward to that.

I have a question for Senator Dawson about Canadian content. One of the things we heard from some of the broadcast representatives who came to speak to the Independent Senators Group and others about this was that they are looking for relief from Canadian content regulations. They were looking to this bill or the process down the road to relieve them of some of their current requirements.

I wonder if you could comment on that. Do you think this is something that will happen? How does that fit with the regulation of the online services with respect to Canadian content? Thank you.

Thank you, Senator Dasko. I could continue to list the people who support the bill and don’t agree with you. I don’t know whom you invited to your briefings, because I know I met with a lot of these organizations and everybody recognizes the bill is flawed. Nobody is saying this is a perfect bill. This is a step forward. However, if all of these organizations that survive on the existence of this legislation and if all of these people believe this is the solution and are supporting it, I don’t know why we should be preoccupied. Obviously, there will always be people who have a different opinion.

On the definition of Canadian content, again, it’s a compromise. You’ll have the opportunity on Monday to listen to the briefing. Since you are a member of our Committee on Transport and Communications, I’d be more than happy for you to ask those questions.

First of all, since I’m not a member of your caucus, I was not invited to those briefings, so I don’t know what they said.

The things that we heard are not things that are secret. These are positions that have been made public by stakeholders who have come and spoken to us and others, and have spoken publicly and so on.

I’m just asking about their seeking relief from Canadian content regulations as we go forward. That’s all I was looking for. This is not private. These are public positions that they’ve taken.

They’re looking for relief from Canadian content regulations because of, they say, the onerous conditions now, given the economic environment that they’re in and that you articulated in your speech. I’m just asking if you are envisioning this down the road, that’s all.

First of all, I’ll be modest and say I’m not part of the government, so I have to limit what I can promise you.

These people who supported it, I can give you a copy of the list. I don’t know who made that statement. I’m not objecting to the fact that you had briefings, obviously. I’m encouraging as many people to know as much as they can about this bill, but I cannot comment on people when I wasn’t there. I know how much effort was made to get consultation on this bill, and I appreciate it. I think we will have an occasion to use all of that consultation in the future, and you will get answers appropriately.

As I mentioned, because it’s true, some of these loopholes were mentioned at the committee in the other place, but in the end, with its flaws, the majority of parliamentarians in three parties out of four in the other place supported the bill and sent it to us for study. I think that there must be something that answers your question, if they accepted it.

Senator Housakos, do you wish to ask another question?

Yes. Senator Dawson, I have a couple more questions.

Senator Housakos, how can I say no?

You’re always benevolent, Senator Dawson.

I don’t want to put blame on you. You’re not the architect of this. I do appreciate you recognize that this is a bill that requires study.

You have pointed out on a number of occasions that we have nothing to worry about regarding freedom of speech, that the CRTC will continue to do what they’ve always done and essentially extend and apply these rules, of course, to other platforms.

The truth of the matter, as you’ve acknowledged, is this is an antiquated Broadcasting Act, and times have changed radically. The approach is very different. It’s not a question of the CRTC regulating traditional, classic broadcasters. It’s regulating new platforms. Twitter is a new platform. YouTube is a new platform. Young Canadians — not our generation, Senator Dawson — have become part and parcel of these platforms, and they are concerned about having their freedoms protected.

I would like to hear your comment about how the CRTC will continue business as usual, and that we just have to trust that they will not infringe upon the freedom of expression of individual use of the various platforms.

Brian Wyllie from Calgary is an expert gamer who has over a million followers on Twitch. Montrealer Kiana Gomes created a whole business using TikTok. Justin Bieber, I think we’ve heard of him, Canadian content but worldwide exposure. Shawn Mendes, Lilly Singh. These are all successful Canadians who gained that success through YouTube, through that new platform of which traditional broadcasters in Canada are so terrified. Today, they likely would not be Canadian enough under this new legislation, and this CanCon attempt to narrow things.

Could I have your comment on those two points, Senator Dawson?

First of all, I repeat that modernization does not apply only to new broadcasters. It applies to traditional broadcasters as well. The CRTC will get directives from the minister clarifying these issues. It’s going to be part of a process that’s in the bill of consultation with the players. This will be clarified.

As far as the hypothetical question of who would have won or lost, had they not invented the internet, obviously a lot of these people would not have had the coverage they have had. Had they been involved in the beginning and they had their revenues guaranteed during the years that this law was not applying to the internet, the billions of dollars that were lost in revenues by Canadian broadcasters, Canadian artists and Canadian distributors would not have been sent to American companies, but would have been sent to the artists, the producers and the organizations here in Canada.

Senator Dawson, I wonder if you could just go back in history for a minute. I happen to have the 1951 Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences in front of me in which they’re saying that television was a dangerous rival to other mass media and voicing the importance it could prove for artists.

I just wonder if you feel that some of the issues being raised today were, in fact, raised with that new technology of television back in the late 1940s.

I’ll again quote myself from the 1982 interview on this same issue:

Unless new policy initiatives are introduced, the industry is at risk in the face of new technological and global competition which could destroy the infrastructure of Canadian program production.

This is not the first time that these issues have been brought up. The 1991 modernization was to act on this part. Now, after 30 years, they need to update the regulations. We would not have the cultural industry we have in Canada had both parties that have been in power not used these tools to help the Canadian production industry and the Canadian culture industry.

I hope people will support this going forward because, as we speak, money is going out of Canada that could be used for Canadian artists, producers and distributors.

Honourable senators, I would like to take a few moments to speak at second reading of Bill C-10, a bill that seeks to modernize the Broadcasting Act. One of the major objectives of this bill is to bring businesses that provide audio or audiovisual content online within the scope of the act and provide the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission new powers to regulate this content.

As you know, the Broadcasting Act was established in 1991. Back then, we had no smartphones, Mario Lemieux won his first Stanley Cup and Canadians were introduced to the GST. We’ve come a long way. Mario Lemieux now has five Stanley Cups.

The way we watch, listen and consume audio and audiovisual content has changed dramatically over 30 years. The internet and digital technologies have developed at warp speed, and there have been major consequences for traditional broadcasting. There’s no doubt that the Broadcasting Act was seriously due for an update, and I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on Bill C-10.

My intention today is not to comment on some of the controversial issues that have been raised since this bill was first introduced in November of last year, namely the provisions that some have argued will censor the internet or restrict free speech. I am in no position to offer commentary on these issues at this early stage of the Senate’s consideration of the bill. I have every confidence that our colleagues who serve on the committee that will study this bill will do an outstanding job and thoroughly review this piece of legislation.

I agree that this bill deserves an in-depth review in committee. I think now, more than ever, the Senate has an opportunity to cut through all the noise and take the time needed to review this bill, using an independent and non-partisan approach.

Today, I want to focus my remarks on an issue that has generated little interest in the other place and, I would humbly suggest, deserves the Senate’s attention. In its backgrounder on Bill C-10, the government states:

The Bill recognizes that the Canadian broadcasting system should, through its programming and the employment opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests of all Canadians — including Francophones and Anglophones, Indigenous Peoples, Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and ages.

Despite this laudable goal, there are some individuals and groups within Canada’s ethnocultural and racialized communities that feel the Broadcasting Act does not properly include and reflect their contributions to the Canadian broadcasting system. And Bill C-10 does not fully address this issue either.

Some have argued, including the Canadian Ethnocultural Media Coalition, which includes the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, the Canadian Ethnic Media Association, the Ethnic Channels Group and TLN Media Group, that the Broadcasting Act and Bill C-10 fail to provide full and equal participation of Canada’s racialized communities as operators in the broadcasting system.

Bill C-10 proposes an amendment in subparagraph 3(1)(d)(iii) of the act that specifies that the Canadian broadcasting system:

. . . through its programming and the employment opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests of Canadians – including Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds . . .

However, Bill C-10 only addresses the issue of programming and employment, not of operators and owners of broadcasting services targeted to ethnocultural and racialized minorities. In my assessment, this amendment wants to ensure diversity is reflected on screen, on the airwaves and in the workforce, but it does not provide any specific support, protection or equal status to ethnic media outlets. I believe this needs further consideration in committee.

Additionally, Bill C-10 proposes a new section in the act, subparagraph 3(1)(d)(iii), which stipulates that the Canadian broadcasting system provide opportunities to Indigenous persons to produce programming in Indigenous languages, English or French, or in any combination of them, and to carry on broadcasting undertakings.

I strongly support this provision. But I feel it may not go far enough and leaves behind an important segment of our population that may wish to produce content that is not in French, English or an Indigenous language.

Representatives from Canada’s ethnocultural broadcasting and media sectors that I’ve spoken to feel that a similar amendment is warranted that would ensure the creation of and access to content by and for ethnic communities. There are so many media outlets across the country that offer great quality, insightful and entertaining programming in other languages that deserve formal recognition and protection within the Broadcasting Act.

Furthermore, one of the amendments in Bill C-10 proposes to change subparagraph 3(1)(k) of the act that addresses the overarching broadcasting policy for Canada. This section formally declares that “. . . a range of broadcasting services in English and in French shall be extended to all Canadians.” There might be an opportunity here to further extend this policy statement and include diverse languages. Again, I think this is something worth pursuing in committee.

Projections indicate that visible minorities could represent approximately 30% of the Canadian population by 2031, and Canada wants to welcome over 1 million new immigrants in the next three years. In my view, this justifies the need to, at the very least, give consideration to what the ethnocultural organizations are suggesting in terms of amendments to the Broadcasting Act on matters of inclusion and diversity.

Colleagues, it was important for me to briefly raise this matter at second reading in the hopes that it will pique your curiosity and, hopefully, it will put the spotlight on an issue that was drowned out by all the controversy surrounding Bill C-10.

I hope the committee that will be empowered to review Bill C-10 will give serious consideration to addressing this issue and extend an invitation to any relevant witness who could speak to it. I think it’s the least we can do, since they did not have an opportunity to appear before the House of Commons.

Thank you, meegwetch.

Senator Housakos, would you like to ask a question?

Would Senator Loffreda take a question?

Yes.

Senator Loffreda, thank you for your thoughtful speech, and particularly for zeroing in and recognizing how narrow in scope this bill is and actually impedes the ever so important minority voices in this country, like the ethnocultural communities, Indigenous peoples and other groups.

I also want to touch upon another issue. I understand that the government would like us to believe that the removal of the famous clause being discussed back and forth, clause 4.1, is relevant because individual users are protected elsewhere. How many times has Senator Dawson said, “trust me,” and I do trust, of course, Senator Dawson. But I don’t trust the CRTC, and I wouldn’t trust bureaucrats who are not accountable to anyone but the executive.

But the truth is that the content isn’t protected, thanks to discoverability and the power this legislation gives the CRTC to force platforms to develop and use algorithms that give priority to content based on what should be prioritized. Again, it’s right there: It’s in black and white when you read this legislation. Content will appear at the top of suggested viewing, not based on what the consumer typically watches or searches but based on what the CRTC thinks they should watch.

How is that neutral? Would you agree that it isn’t neutral, as they claim?

Thank you for the question, Senator Housakos. As I said today in my speech, my intention today is not to comment on some of the controversial issues. There have been many; we all know what has gone on with this piece of legislation.

But I strongly agree with what was put forward and what Senator Dawson put forward: an in-depth review is required in committee. The Senate, once again, has that opportunity to bring the added value it always does to look at this piece of legislation, as it should be looked at, invite the witnesses who should be invited to pursue, your question and your concerns and the concerns I’ve raised with this bill. I fully trust the committee. We have great senators who do great work, and let’s wait for the committee to get back to us with their report.

Thank you, Senator Loffreda.

Thank you.

Honourable senators, today we’ve begun our debate on Bill C-10, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts.

As the rather long name implies, Bill C-10 is a collection of significant amendments to Canada’s Broadcasting Act. The act has not been amended in a major way for 30 years. Back then, we all watched shows on television, listened to music on the radio and rented movies at Blockbuster. The internet was still in its early, experimental stages, with a few early adopters using dial-up connections. Our phones were attached to the wall and were used for making phone calls. At the same time, we had strict Canadian content regulations and Canadian ownership requirements for commercial radio and television broadcasters whose programming was regulated by the CRTC.

Today, conventional broadcasters are facing an existential crisis. Private radio and television stations across the country are in dire financial straits, with many on the brink of closure and collapse, creating potential news deserts in parts of rural Canada. They have lost their advertising clients to websites such as Google and Facebook, and their audiences to streaming services such as Spotify, to video-sharing sites such as YouTube and to so-called over-the-top video services, including Netflix, Disney, Prime, BritBox and others. The CRTC does not regulate any of those international streaming giants. Technically, they have been granted an official exemption, but it remains a somewhat open question whether the CRTC has the legal authority to regulate them at all.

At the same time, ironically, production of Canadian film and television has never been more robust, with pre-COVID 2018-19 production levels at all time highs. Netflix, for example, though it has no regulatory obligation to produce Canadian content, funds a surprising and substantive amount of original Canadian production. It also exposes Canadian-made films and television shows such as “Schitt’s Creek,” “Kim’s Convenience” or “Funny Boy” to broad international audiences.

On the other hand, other specialty streaming services, such as BritBox, have little or no Canadian content or production. Disney, for example, does produce shows here, but not shows that have identifiable Canadian themes or settings.

Bill C-10 creates a broader regulatory framework for the CRTC. It retains a system of broadcast licences for conventional broadcasters but creates a separate category of registered undertakings that capture streaming services such as Prime and Spotify, which would be subject to CRTC regulation under this new framework.

But Bill C-10, in theory at least, does not micromanage that system. It is meant to be a broad regulatory framework which would leave many — indeed, most specific — decisions to the regulator, the CRTC.

Updating the Broadcasting Act was never going to be easy. There are so many competing interests and stakeholders with different visions of what and who the bill is for. Then there is the larger question: Should Canada seek to regulate or micromanage online undertakings hosted on platforms outside of Canada at all?

The whole idea of broadcast regulation springs from the earliest days of radio, when Canadian policy-makers worried that Canada would be swamped with radio signals from across the American border. That was the genesis of the Aird Commission, formally known as the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting, created in 1927. In 1929, it came back with its recommendations, which eventually led to the creation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the establishment of the Board of Broadcast Governors, which would evolve to become the CRTC as we know it today.

The logic in 1929 was relatively straightforward: There was only a limited amount of broadcast spectrum and only so much room on the AM radio dial. That spectrum was a public good, and there wasn’t much of it to go around, so the Crown, through the broadcast regulator, took on the role of gatekeeper. It decided which radio stations were approved and what their general content would be to make sure that Canadian listeners were exposed to a wide range of on-air content. That philosophy carried over into the realm of television and was the philosophical basis for the muscular Canadian content rules championed by Pierre Juneau in the early 1970s. The Canadian content, or CanCon, regulations did so much to bolster and promote Canadian music, film and television production at a time when, once again, Canada faced the prospect of Americans steamrolling over our popular culture sectors.

But it is not 1927. It’s not 1971. The technologies we are dealing with today are not radio and television. Back then, the Crown had a clear legal nexus to regulate and control radio and television content. It was, after all, responsible for rationing out the limited number of Canadian TV and radio stations. It was responsible for managing the spectrum in the national and public interest.

Digital disruption has totally overthrown that old order. Instead of limited over-air spectrum or limited cable services, we now have access to what sometimes feels like an infinite number of options: news and information that we can stream on our laptops, phones and tablets. The technology and the zeitgeist are changing every moment. Just a couple of years ago, it seemed we were wrapping our heads around innovations like YouTube, Facebook and Netflix. Now they are the old establishment players and the cool kids are migrating to TikTok, Discord and Disney+, et cetera.

And we don’t just have access to American services next door. People can get their content from content providers in India, Taiwan, Britain or France just as easily. If the service you want isn’t technically available in Canada, that’s what your virtual private network, or VPN, is for — to travel the world without ever leaving your chesterfield or back deck. Or your internet protocol television, or IPTV, subscription, which lets you access — or perhaps even pirate — a world of global content.

So here and now, precisely where does Canada find the legal authority, the moral right and, most importantly, the practical power to regulate the content of international streaming services that are not broadcast over Canadian airwaves? What is the legal nexus to regulate or curate programming from international companies? In a borderless digital world, should Canadian consumers be free to choose to watch whatever they like from around the world without government interference? Or should companies that operate in Canada and take money from Canadian customers be subject to Canadian regulation? That is the fundamental question at the heart of Bill C-10. Does it even make sense to try to regulate the internet? Are we trying to impose a cookie-cutter model from the 1970s on a quicksilver medium that defies walls, barriers and national borders?

As my fellow Edmontonian, the great communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, famously said, the medium is the message, by which he meant that the medium itself changes the way we absorb and respond to the information we receive. In the same way you cannot regulate a digital medium the way you regulate conventional broadcast or cable television, you cannot accurately regulate digital forms with analogue tools. Digital media is consumed in a different, less passive and more interactive way — a way that privileges viewer choice, consumer choice and consumer engagement above all.

A digital generation has come of age, confidently seeking out precisely the online audio and visual content it wants from around the world. The days when we sat back, read the TV Guide and tamely consumed whatever was scheduled are gone. And, of course, there will be a generational schism if we attempt to tell younger viewers that online prefects and proctors are going to be managing what they watch and hear.

Over the last few months, weeks, days and hours, the political rhetoric around Bill C-10 has become somewhat unmoored from reality. Let me take a moment to discuss what the bill does and does not do. Bill C-10 does not impose Canadian content quotas on international streaming services. It does not require that a specific percentage of Canadian revenues of a streaming service be invested in Canada. Despite what you might have heard — and Senator Housakos is absolutely correct about this — it does not set up some kind of wondrous, billion-dollar-a-year production fund provided by international services to underwrite Canadian production. Instead, the bill gives broad latitude to the CRTC to work out appropriate arrangements with each streaming service based on their unique programming models. Don’t be misled into thinking this is some kind of instantaneous cash bonanza for Canadian producers.

Bill C-10 does not directly regulate the content of internet streaming services. It does not prohibit or regulate hateful content, fake political news or pornography. It does not give the Crown the power to take down your YouTube videos, your tweets or your Facebook posts because they’re not Canadian enough or not pure enough. Despite what you may have read or heard, this is not an act about censorship. It does not limit your free speech.

However, the bill does dramatically increase the potential for regulatory gatekeeping. It may, especially as recently amended, limit the services to which we’re able to subscribe. We can rightly debate the merits and demerits of that model. The bill, as very recently amended, imposes an absurd level of direction and specificity about how streaming services curate and display Canadian content. I think those amendments are fundamentally wrong-headed, and I think they misunderstand the meaning of discoverability and the functionality of algorithms, but that is not state censorship in the conventional meaning of the word.

Bill C-10 does not reduce or change the obligations of conventional broadcasters. Nothing in the bill absolves them of their current CanCon quotas or their mandatory obligations to invest in Canadian TV and film production. Nor does the bill do anything to address the economic stresses leading to the closure of regional radio and television stations — stresses that are largely rooted in the collapse of advertising markets and the near-monopoly companies such as Facebook and Google hold on Canadian advertising dollars. Despite all the language about levelling the playing field, the bill does little to redeem Canadian broadcasters or cable companies, or to prevent the development of growing news deserts.

In short, after all the flurry of last-minute amendments and all the misunderstandings and misinformation, this bill is in desperate need of a thorough Senate study and revision because there are serious questions that need to be addressed. How do we best strengthen and support Canada’s film and television industry? How do we do the same for Canada’s music industry? How do we ensure that Canadian screenwriters, songwriters, actors, directors and producers get the chance to tell Canadian stories? How do we prepare our entertainment industries to compete with the best in the world and find audiences outside of Canada as well as within? How do we ensure that all communities in Canada — Indigenous, francophone, ethnocultural, rural, disabled communities — get access to the information and the entertainment choices that they need and deserve? At the same time, we need to take care that we don’t accidentally set up a regulatory regime that smothers innovation, that discourages or squelches emerging online artists or puts them at a competitive disadvantage with legacy players.

Here is the core question: Is cultural protectionism still the fundamental model we wish to employ in 2021, or do we need a paradigm shift that puts the emphasis on preparing our tech and cultural sectors to be robust players on a global stage, taking outstanding Canadian content created in French, English, Mandarin, Inuktitut, Punjabi, et cetera, to the world?

I hope that we can send this bill to committee as quickly as possible, not because I am a full-throated champion of this legislation but because our Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications needs time to do a proper study and hear from witnesses, including consumer advocates and new media producers who were not heard in the other place, and taking the time to figure out the real impact of all these recent amendments on this important legislation. Thank you very much, hiy hiy.

Would Senator Simons take a question?

I would be delighted to take a question.

I would like you to comment on a couple of things. First, you’re absolutely right that this legislation doesn’t give the CRTC the power to take down content, but you would agree it gives the power to the CRTC to order platforms to bury content or take it down?

We all recognize how powerful the web and the new platforms are today. On reflection, does this legislation show the divide between the archaic ways we have regulated broadcasting and where younger generations around the world and Canadians are in terms of content?

I will answer the second question first because it’s easy. Yes, it does. That is absolutely what it does. No one under 30 watches television the way you and I did when we were growing up. You and I are of an age, and we consumed media in a completely different way than our children do, and goodness knows how our grandchildren will be consuming it. We need to have a regulatory framework that is nimble enough to respond to the quickly evolving technical platforms we have.

This bill reminds me a little bit of the Maginot Line, the way the French dug trenches so the cavalry horses would fall in the ditches, and then the Panzer tanks came along and the Maginot Line didn’t do them much good. We’re regulating to catch up with where we should have been 10 years ago instead of looking to where we need to be 10 years from now.

With respect to your first question, it is indeed my concern, not that the CRTC can take things down, but that the legislation as currently written compels the CRTC to compel the streaming services to privilege specific kinds of Canadian content, with a degree of granular specificity that I think is completely, frankly, out of reach of most of the platforms. It’s just not how they work. Their algorithms can’t be set to work that way.

It’s important to differentiate. I don’t think this bill censors or regulates speech, but I think it imposes nigh on impossible conditions for streaming platforms, some of which may simply pull out of the Canadian market, denying us choice. We all know that anyone under 30 will use their VPN to get the choice they want anyway, so what are we doing?