Bill C-11 Becomes Law of the Land
A dark day for Canada, and therefore, the world.
Canadian Senators passed Bill C-11 into law last week, a move that has far-reaching implications for the future of the internet. As someone who has been following the development of this bill for months, I feel it is important to wrap up my coverage with a few thoughts.
The internet as we know it is over.
You know how in China, if they want to access the outside internet, they have to use a VPN? Yeah, it’s going to be like that in Canada now.
I am extremely pessimistic about the future of Canada. This is just one in a series of censorship bills that are being introduced, this is a nightmare scenario for anyone who values free speech. The government should be promoting competition, not putting up walls that force consumers to buy from certain nationalities.
User audiovisual content — the TikToks and podcasts you upload — can now be regulated as broadcasting by the CRTC And the CRTC can overrule your feeds and search results to show you content they consider officially “Canadian”.
—OpenMedia Campaigns Director Matt Hatfield
Put into practice, this means that when viewers come to the YouTube homepage, they’re served content that a Canadian Government regulator has prioritized, rather than content they are interested in.
— Neal Mohan, CEO of Youtube
Who asked for this?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their Google search results?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their YouTube feed?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their Instagram feed?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their Netflix feed?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their TikTok feed?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their Twitter feed?
Who wants Justin Trudeau curating their podcasts?
Who really wants this?
Less than four in ten Canadians are even aware Bill C-11 exists, and among those who are aware it exists, only 8% of them “Completely support” it, while "17% “Completely oppose” it.
Every online broadcaster that serves content to Canadians is subject to this regulation. This includes private and public broadcasters from every foreign nation which serves content to individuals residing in Canada. Every citizen, permanent resident, and foreign national residing in Canada that accesses a foreign broadcaster's services is under the scope of this law.That's spanish services like TeleSur, Peruvian services like TNP, asian-foused services like Viki, Filipino services like TFC, and so on. Even the BBC is subject to this regulation and must now conform to CanCon.
Pierre Poilievre, the conservative leader, has been vocal about his intention to repeal Bill C-11 if he wins the next federal election.
I do not find this credible.
First of all, he isn’t going to win against Trudeau.
Secondly, if he did somehow dethrone Trudeau, I think he would magically find himself a supporter of Bill C-11. I don’t trust Pierre Poilievre for one second to keep any promises. The guy is a total weasel.
There is nothing left to do other than to sit back and accept the fact that the magnanimous Liberal Party of Canada is now curating the internet for you. They will make sure what you watch aligns with their policy objectives. Entities found to be spreading "misinformation" (as per the CRTC's interpretation of the term) can be penalized, fined and de-platformed.
Welcome to the future.
Canadian democracy is fully broken. Governments can be formed without getting anything like the support of the majority of the populace, and then ram through wildly unpopular laws with no opposition. And the loyal opposition? Lol. It barely matters who we vote for. They're all on the same team. No actual alternatives.
I wish I had an answer to this but I really don't.
We, as a nation, are not as engaged in politics as our American cousins. As I see it there are a few reasons for this. The first is that while in the US the focus is on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, in Canada it is on peace, order and good government. Consequently Canadians are not used to questioning the government. There’s also the issue of media coverage. Canada does not have the breadth of media coverage that exists in the States and what we do have is partially focused on US news. Finally, in the case of the CBC, honest coverage should not be expected as it is essentially the PR arm of the (Liberal) government.