Possible Implications of an Election for Tech Regulation

The Canadian government is experiencing a Conservative party filibuster. So, what would an election mean to the various tech policies?

Currently, the Canadian government is going through a filibuster. This has delayed legislation dead in its tracks. What’s more, the House of Commons is going to have a last sitting day for the year on December 17th. Additionally, an election is largely expected to happen sometime next year. At what part of the year that happens is certainly open for debate (personally, I’m thinking late next year, but plenty of analysts seem to think it would happen early this year).

Throwing a wrench into things is the fact that there are two parties that are likely to take power – and the minority or majority question adds another layer of complexity. This has a number of implications for the existing legislative efforts.

So, today, we thought it would be a fun little exercise to talk about what happens if there is no additional movement on existing legislation and an election is called. Lucky for you, I’ve been through this whole song and dance a few times now. As a result, I can offer some insight as to what would likely happen and offer some thoughts on what could happen if the Conservative party takes over or the Liberals hold on to power. So, let’s go through the various bits of legislation.

The Online Streaming Act

This legislation, previously known as Bill C-11, has already received royal assent. Currently, it is going through a consultation process at the Canadian regulator, the CRTC. If an election is called, the process will continue anyway because the CRTC can independently implement this legislation.

The Conservative party has said that they would repeal this legislation, so if they take power, there’s a possibility that they would start the process to repeal it. Otherwise, this legislation simply marches ahead unimpeded.

The Online News Act

This legislation was previously known as Bill C-18. It is also a bill that has received royal assent. Currently, elements are in the process of being implemented at the CRTC while some consultations are happening at the moment – largely focused on which undeserving legacy media group deserves the free money more than the other. Either way, it will continue to undergo the implementation process even if an election is called.

The Conservative party has said, like with their general opinion is of the Online Streaming Act, that they would repeal that. If they take power, there is a good possibility that they would start that process. Otherwise, the law would likely continue to get implemented.

The Digital Services Tax

Like the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act, the Digital Services Tax is also something that has received royal assent. This one is a little weird because there has been stops and starts with the constant threat of trade retaliation from the US. The last we heard, the US has already started the process to initiate a trade dispute panel back in August, but we haven’t heard much since then. Either way, consumers can expect to get hit with this any time and an election wouldn’t necessarily stop it at this point.

To our knowledge, the Conservative party wasn’t necessarily a fan of this. So, if they do end up taking power after, it’s entirely possible they could undergo a process to reverse this. I would wait to see it actually happen, but if it does get reversed, I wouldn’t be surprised should they take power.

Age Verification

The Age Verification bill known as Bill S-210 has been stuck in legislative limbo, right on the cusp of becoming law. Unlike the previous three examples, this one hasn’t received royal assent. If there is some give in the schedule somewhere along the line right before the election, it’s possible it could receive royal assent. Otherwise, it would die on the orderpaper. Canadian’s can breathe a sigh of relief because it would mean that the free and open internet in Canada dodged a bullet.

If the Liberal party retains power, it’s entirely possible that this piece of legislation would, mercifully, face an uphill battle. If the Conservative party takes over, however, they have long made their commitment to crack down on free speech known in this manner. They would likely ram this bill through the next time around. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they expand this to include things beyond pornographic content and include things like social media and video games on top of it all. Who knows? They may even include app stores as well for all we know. So, the next round could, theoretically, be even worse than the current push.

Online Harms Bill

This bill, that was once basically the nuclear option to the free and open internet, that then became a concern for general human rights debated on criminal law circles, is still in the legislative process. It is known as Bill C-63. If an election were called, then this would die on the order paper. In fact, as of today, it only really reached second reading in the House of Commons. It had a LONG way to go still.

If the Liberals were to retain power, this would likely get reintroduced and start the process all over again. If the Conservative party were to gain power, they have said that they would never go along with this bill, so I suspect that they won’t table a bill like this, but if they do (entirely possible), it would be much different than the current iteration. To my knowledge, there are multiple trains of thought on this bill in the party itself.

Privacy Reform

This is definitely a very tragic story. This is known as Bill C-27. Since at least 2018, Canadians across the political spectrum have been fully supportive of this legislation. However, in the more than half a decade since, the Canadian Liberal party has shown very little interest in passing this legislation. Instead, this bill, seen as merely a half measure, has been slow walked through the legislative process for years. It is very likely this will die on the orderpaper, meaning that Canadians will carry on with even more years without meaningful privacy protections in the current digital environment.

The Liberals have expressed very little interest in this legislation. It’s possible they’ll reintroduce it, but even if they do, they will likely drag their feet even more. The Conservative party, to my knowledge, has also expressed little interest in these efforts as well. It’s entirely possible they’ll never table a replacement bill at all and Canadians will simply do without modern privacy protections for that much longer.

Consumer Digital Bill of Rights

For two elections now, the Liberal party had promised this thing called a consumer digital bill of rights. Supposedly, it was supposed to do things like allow people to exit unfavourable ISP/carrier contracts and give protections to consumers that are long overdue. The problem was that every time the Liberals took office, this vague wide ranging promise would be immediately shelved, never to see the light of day.

Obviously, since there isn’t even a bill, nothing will come of it – yet again. What’s more, I am not familiar with the Conservative party trying to formulate an alternative in the first place. Ultimately, this has long been vapourware legislation.

AI Bill

This is the same bill as the privacy reform bill. That, specifically, is Bill C-27 (which is arguably part of the problem – being stuck together in the same bill). It would cover a wide variety of things related to artificial intelligence. I haven’t really covered this legislation partly because it was clear that lawmakers had little interest in passing this bill in the first place. With so many other pressing things happening in the world of digital rights, it made sense to just not bother talking about something like this because there were so many other higher priority issues to talk about.

Either way, this bill is likely going to die on the orderpaper as well. If an election were called today, it would die on the orderpaper. It could get tabled again if the Liberals take power, but I’m not sure how much of a priority it is. If the Conservatives take power, I’m not sure how interested they are on this particular area. If they are, I haven’t really seen it. So, it’s entirely possible that it wouldn’t see the light of day for all I know.

ISP Competition and Consumer Pricing

There isn’t really a bill associated with this as far as I know. Still, it’s worth bringing it up simply because nothing was done about this critical issue. In fact, Canada has moved in the opposite direction of what would benefit consumers by approving the Rogers Shaw merger. Beyond that, though, there’s nothing really substantive that moves the needle on that.

Both Conservative and Liberal parties have said that they’d tackle issues like this (expanding broadband to rural and indigenous communities is a similar issue). So, if an election were called, the lack of movement on this would continue to be nothing. No matter the party, I don’t see this issue moving forward, either.

Conclusions

So, that’s it from my perspective on matters. The only real open question at this stage is whether the Age Verification/censorship/invasion of privacy bill becomes law or not. Otherwise, what’s passed is passed and what isn’t is dying on the orderpaper. Either way, I hope this is a good snapshot of where things are today at the very least – at least where I see things anyway.

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.