NEITHER THE CAPACITY NOR THE COMPETENCE TO REGULATE STREAMERS

 As the Liberal government’s Online Streaming Act moves through the House of Commons, controversy over the legislation is emerging again, a year after the previous version of the bill died on the order paper.

The Conservatives attacked the bill in the House of Commons this week, accusing the Liberals of wanting to choose what Canadians watch online and allowing the CRTC to regulate “wide swaths” of social media content. Bill C-11, like its predecessor C-10, sets up the CRTC to regulate streaming platforms.

After Bill C-11 was introduced in February, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez maintained that the government listened to concerns over regulating user-generated content that erupted over the previous version of the bill, and that it “fixed” them.