After years of political pushback and considerable parliamentary scrutiny, the final vote to pass the federal Liberal government’s Online Streaming Act known as Bill C-11 is slated to take place in the Senate on Thursday evening.
If Bill C-11 clears this final legislative hurdle — seeing senators agree to bill sponsor Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s take-some-and-leave-some approach to amendments made by the upper chamber — the path will be clear for this contentious bill to come into effect.
Should Bill C-11 pass as a result of the 5:30 p.m. ET vote, as is expected based on the way recent votes on procedural motions related to this legislation have gone, royal assent will follow Thursday evening.
Seeing the first substantive reforms to Canada’s Broadcasting Act since 1991 become law, will be a long-awaited political victory for the Liberals and will bring to an end the current parliamentary charge against Bill C-11 led by the Conservatives.
Bill C-11 is aimed at ensuring increasingly popular and profitable social media platforms and streaming services such as Netflix, Crave, Spotify, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and YouTube are subjected to Canadian content requirements and regulations comparable to traditional broadcasters. The policy change comes with a requirement for these platforms to spend millions investing in Canadian content and creators.
While the NDP and Bloc Quebecois, as well as many in the “CanCon” music, film, and television industries, have backed Bill C-11, alarms have been sounded by critics. This includes lobbying and public campaigns led by those facing new regulations and digital media advocacy groups, who have argued the Liberal proposal could have knock-on censorship implications for content creators and what everyday users see online, due to provisions that would require platforms to promote Canadian content.
As a result of this divide, this piece of legislation has been under the parliamentary microscope in both the House and Senate for more than a year, following a failed attempt prior to the last election.
Between the more than 100 amendments contemplated by the House of Commons, and the longest study ever conducted by a Senate committee, the minister responsible for Bill C-11 has repeatedly emphasized the important contributions of parliamentarians to the final wording of the legislation, while asserting that the time had come to “move on.”
Over the last two weeks, the Senate has been mired in a largely procedural battle over whether to assert itself and insist on the substantive amendments made by the upper chamber that were rejected by the House. Attempts to have the Senate stand its ground on certain amendments were unsuccessful, seeing the majority of senators vote against related motions on Wednesday evening.
The version of the motion that senators will be voting on this evening will inform the House that the Senate agrees with the version of Bill C-11 the majority of MPs passed last month, while acknowledging the Liberals’ “public assurance” is that Bill C-11 “will not apply to user-generated digital content.”
Complicating the back and forth over what the impact of Bill C-11 will be, is that a lot is being left to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as the regulatory body to determine how the new rules are enforced.
Only once Bill C-11 passes, can that regulatory work begin.
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