It’s that time of year once again. We would like to wish everyone out there a happy holiday and happy new year!
It’s been a rather tough year this year. Between link taxes, the drama of Bill C-11, Elon Musk wreaking absolute havoc on Twitter,Putin’s war on Ukraine causing all sorts of problems both the devastating impacts on the people of Ukraine and the international issues that unfolded, 2022 has been quite the rough year. It’s really hard to look at hardly anything about 2022 and say that we can be truly thankful about [insert reason here] without sounding like we are really stretching things.
One way to look at things is that Putin has, thus far, remained unsuccessful in his attack on Ukraine. This has certainly defied virtually all expectations given that this is the Russian freaking army we’re talking about. So far, though, Ukraine has been quite successful in defending its territory all things considered.
Then there is the unexpected last minute fix in Bill C-11 that fixes the biggest problem in the legislation. Now, if there is a way to regulate user generated content, the government would have to find something else that I’m simply not seeing in the legislation. I personally didn’t see this coming because I never thought the Senate would have the votes to actually fix the bill. Yet, here we are with this aspect successfully removed from the bill. This fix was pulled off by Senators Paula Simons and Julie Miville-Dechene. While there is no doubt there are still serious problems (and even now has a brand new problem thanks to Senator Julie Miville-Dechene), I see it being possible that people can continue their careers on various platforms.
On the Bill C-18 link tax front, it is looking good that the legislation is going to have its own hearing just like Bill C-11. This raises the possibility that people will actually be properly be heard from and also raises the possibility that something can be fixed in Bill C-18. Hope is actually alive on that one.
Another positive spin one can put on things is that Canada’s nuclear option on the free and open internet, the online harms proposal, hasn’t, in fact, reared it’s ugly head yet. It was certainly more than possible that the Liberal Party could have just shoved this bill through the legislative process just like Bill C-11 and Bill C-18, but that didn’t happen this year as of this writing. So, that is reason to offer a thumbs up. Yay! Our digital selves aren’t all going to die just yet up here in Canada! That’s something.
Now, I’m not saying 2022 wasn’t a crummy year for a lot of reasons. It was. It’s not to say it’s impossible to put a positive spin on some things that happened this year. It most certainly is possible.
Maybe you can take something from the above. Sure, 2022 may not have been the greatest year out there. Yet, maybe there is some way you can find something to be grateful for in spite of it all. Maybe it is possible to have hope yet no matter how bad things seemed to have gotten this year.
I hope you can find some reason to be happy this holiday season. Enjoy the holidays and let’s all hope that a possible recession is the last kick in the rear 2022 has to offer. We can only hope that brighter days are ahead for the year 2023. Happy holidays and a happy new year!
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
