A move by the Liberals to invoke closure on a bill to regulate the internet was worse than anything Stephen Harper did while in power, says a Green MP..The Commons voted 174 to 146 on Monday to shut down debate, says Blacklock's Reporter..“Ask how this place would react to a motion like this had it been brought forward in the period of time when there was a Harper majority government,” Green MP Elizabeth May (Saanich-Gulf Islands, B.C.) told the Commons..“I cannot think of a time that a motion this egregious was put forward in that era.”.Bill C-11 An Act To Amend The Broadcasting Act would see the CRTC regulate commercial internet programs as if they were radio and television shows. Legislators disagreed on whether the reach of Canadian Radio Television and Telecommunications Commission regulations would extend to user-generated YouTube content..The House motion compels the Commons heritage committee to pass the bill by 9 p.m. EST Tuesday night..It followed “the procedural games, the obstructionist tactics, the filibusters and the like,” said Liberal MP Sean Casey (Charlottetown)..Conservative MPs opposed to internet regulation expressed outrage..“They are censoring the censorship of their own censorship bill,” said MP Blaine Calkins (Red Deer-Lacombe, Alta.). “That is what is happening.”.The Canadian chapter of the Internet Society in a submission released by the heritage committee said it opposed Bill C-11 as so broad it was as if “Parliament could declare email to be broadcasting” subject to regulation..“When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail,” wrote the Internet Society..“C-11 is based on the tragic illusion all audio and audio-visual content on the internet is a program and that any person who transmits a program on the internet is a broadcaster rather than a communicator. It fails to differentiate between a podcast produced in a residential basement and a major release motion picture on Netflix.”.“The society is fundamentally opposed to the regulation of the internet as broadcasting. It is neither possible nor beneficial. Internet streaming services are simply not broadcasting.”.Two of four board members at the Internet Society are former CRTC commissioners including Konrad Von Finckenstein, ex-chair of the Commission. Bill C-11 would see “the tiny Canadian broadcasting system, tiny in the scheme of things, take on the world of the internet by the mere trick of redefining ‘broadcasting,’” it wrote..The bill follows an earlier Bill C-10 An Act To Amend The Broadcasting Act that was introduced in 2020 but lapsed in the last Parliament amid widespread opposition. “This Act does not apply to what individual Canadians and creators post online,” Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez told reporters February 2..Canadian Taxpayers Federation Ontario Director Jay Goldberg was angry with the Liberal's latest move..“Governments should never unnecessarily rush legislation through the House of Commons, let alone legislation that could serve as a gateway to government censorship..“The Liberals and the NDP decided to give only one day at committee for the consideration of amendments for Bill C-11, a bill that would impact what Canadians can say, see and listen to online..“As University of Ottawa Professor Michael Geist has said, such an approach means MPs will be ‘voting on amendments with no understanding of what they’re even voting on.’.“The government shouldn’t be deciding what Canadians can say, see and listen to online. And the government definitely shouldn’t be rushing through legislation when experts are warning it could put fundamental freedoms at risk..“The fight against government censorship will continue in the coming weeks as the Senate begins to consider Bill C-11.”
