Internet Censorship Bill (C-10) in the Senate with Sen. Pamela Wallin

In November of 2020 Canadian Heritage Minister, The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, introduced Bill C-10 to extend similar regulations to internet media - such as Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime - that currently govern Canadian television and broadcast stations.

Canada’s current broadcasting act is a few decades old and many acknowledge that an update is indeed in order as it has not kept up with the changing world of public communications - namely digital and social media content.

This bill passed through the House of Commons at 1:30am prior to the House rising for the summer in late June. MPs voted down section 4.1 the portion of the bill which would have protected user generated content. This means that if this bill receives royal assent that user generated content will become regulated by the government. This is the precise point that is alarming many Canadians on all sides of the political spectrum. The concern in this is that every day Canadians, or grass roots journalists, could become increasingly censored and that this would be a massive encroachment on individual free speech.

It is particularly hair raising that this type of legislation is being pushed in what many believe will be a federal election year.

After being passed through the House of Commons Senators were asked by the government to rubber stamp it before they rose for the summer without significant study in the Senate. This is the point where the discussion becomes two fold — not only about potentially flawed legislation that could impact the charter right of all Canadians to free speech, but also the undermining of our democratic institutions — namely the Senate which is tasked with being the chamber of slow second thought on important legislation like this.

One of a growing number of Senators speaking out about this is Senator Pamela Wallin. Prior to her appointment to the Senate, she had a thriving career as a media entrepreneur and journalist with CTV and host on Canada AM. Her media career had a focus on domestic and international politics. In the wake of 911 she was appointed Consul General of Canada in New York and served for 4 years, named to the Special Independent Panel on Canada’s Future Role in Afghanistan and was then appointed to the Senate in 2008. She joins us to discuss C-10.

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