Trudeau appointee says Canadians can trust CRTC to regulate internet

https://tnc.news/2022/04/06/trudeau-appointee-says-canadians-can-trust-crtc-to-regulate-internet/

The head of Canada’s unelected broadcasting and telecommunications regulator has said that Canadians can trust the group to regulate the internet once the Liberal government’s Bill C-11 gives it that power.

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Chairman Ian Scott was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the position in 2021.

“Users of online and social media services expect freedom of expression, and they will continue to enjoy this under the new Broadcasting Act,” Scott claimed in a recent speech.

“Put another way, the CRTC issues about 250 broadcasting decisions annually. Not a single one has ever been successfully challenged on the basis that it somehow infringed Canadians’ freedom of expression.”

C-11 will revise Canada’s Broadcasting Act and expand the CRTC’s powers to include the digital realm. It is an updated version of Bill C-10, which failed to pass into law prior to the 2021 election.

Critics have blasted the bill as an affront to freedom of expression, allowing the government to regulate what Canadian users can post online or how said content will be promoted.

According to University of Ottawa Internet and E-Commerce Law Research Chair Michael Geist, the Liberals have misled Canadians on the scope of the bill. Concerns with the law include “virtually limitless jurisdictional, overbroad scope, and harmful discoverability provisions,” said Geist.