After a one week break, we see two more hearings have been scheduled. We take a look at the schedule.
The senate hearings are continuing next week. This would be week 8 of such hearings. As always, the hearings can be found on the Senate website.
For the first hearing, we see the following:
November 15, 2022 9:00 AM ET
Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts
Shannon Avison, Assistant Professor, Indigenous Communication Arts, First Nations University of Canada As an Individual
Vanessa Brousseau, (Resilient Inuk), Digital Content Creator As an Individual
Bert Crowfoot, Chief Executive Officer Aboriginal Multi-Media Society of Alberta
Margaret McGuffin, Chief Executive Officer Music Publishers Canada
Jesse Wente, Co-Executive Director Indigenous Screen Office
So, we definitely see a slate with a number of first nations being represented. The first name that jumps out to us is Vanessa Brousseau. Brousseau was mentioned in a previous article we published about online stars considering the idea of fleeing the country. She commented that she would find it “insulting” to have to fill out 30 page forms to prove that she is Canadian given that her ancestors have lived here for thousands of years. So, it’s easy to assume she is against the bill.
Admittedly, when looking for other past comments made by anyone else on this list, we turned up nothing.
For the next hearing, we see this:
November 16, 2022 6:45 PM ET
Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts
Rachelle Frenette, General Counsel and Deputy Executive Director Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Ian Scott, Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
Scott Shortliffe, Executive Director, Broadcasting Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications CommissionConsideration of a draft agenda (future business)
This is the hearing that has gotten a lot of observers excited over. They are bringing back the CRTC for questions. Supporters of Bill C-11 are at a point where they are wishing that the CRTC would stop spilling the beans on what Bill C-11 actually does. Already, they confirmed that Bill C-11 regulates user generated content. The CRTC also confirmed that Bill C-11 gives them the power to manipulate outcomes of algorithms. Also, for good measure, they confirmed it again that Bill C-11 regulates user generated content by encouraging digital first creators to watch for rulings coming down from the CRTC (as if they have the knowledge or time to do that in the first place).
For Bill C-11 supporters, having the CRTC confirm what critics have been saying all along repeatedly has been a nightmare scenario prior to the passage of such a disastrous bill. They want to pretend that critics have it all wrong, that they misinterpreted things, and that this is only about the premium platforms, not regular platforms. At least one called the confirmation of what critics have been saying all along as ‘muddying the waters’ while trying to dismiss what was said. So, at this point, C-11 critics are probably going to be bracing for truth bomb impacts over this one.
So, quite a lot to look forward to next week. We’ll do what we can to keep you up to speed on what is going down in those hearings.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
