Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals’ amendment of the Broadcasting Act attempts to classify podcasters and musicians as “broadcasters” and subject them to national broadcast rules. Bill C-11, or the Online Streaming Act, which has passed through both the House and the Senate and gained Royal Assent on February 2, 2023, will control what content search engines like Google and YouTube recommends to Canadian users.The Canadian Taxpayers Federation in an in-depth analysis on the legislation earlier compared Bill C-11's censorship to "authoritarian nations like China and North Korea."The bill also compels podcasters to register under the national broadcast regulator Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and requires media giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify to promote Canadian content and pay 5% of their revenue to support Canada’s legacy broadcasting system, according to Music Canada’s Patrick Rogers.Of that 5%, 30% is to be allocated to “a new fund to support commercial radio news in smaller markets.”“It’s frankly bewildering that the CRTC would divert funding from music streaming platforms away from the music industry to subsidize commercial radio news. Put simply, digital platforms are being asked to subsidize a totally different, struggling industry,” said Rogers. .Netflix in September 2023 in retaliation announced it would pull funding from multiple Canadian arts institutions, as the Western Standard earlier reported. Since 2017, Netflix has spent more than $25 million on Canadian audiovisual programming. The CRTC, which is responsible for concocting a framework to implement the Broadcast Act amendments, is workshopping a “modern” definition of what exactly constitutes a Canadian movie, television program, or song.The commission required all social media and streaming services that earn more than $10 million in annual revenue to register with the CRTC by November 2023, with plans to consult on audio content registration in the first quarter of 2025. In the spring of 2025, the CRTC will hold public hearings on “Canadian content for TV and online streaming services,” “market dynamics and sustainability” and “audio policy.” DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion) consultations will carry over to 2026. .Vancouver-born musician Bryan Adams in May targetted Trudeau for his attempts to arbitrate whether songs are “Canadian enough” — therefore impacting how musicians get paid. He described an instance where he collaborated with musicians internationally but under the CRTC “modernization,” would not get paid for the songs because they didn’t meet the “Canadian” requirements. “If an artist decides to work with collaborators from other countries, then those songs might not be considered Canadian. And if songs aren’t Canadian enough, they might not be prioritized on streaming services,” wrote Adams in the caption of a video informing Canadians on Bill C-11. “The Canadian government should just take a step out of the music business entirely.”Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge in response to Adams’ message defended her predecessor, Pablo Rodriguez (who now sits as an independent). “Don’t worry. This modernized system being implemented by the CRTC won’t prioritize certain artists or songs — it just helps create more music in Canada,” wrote St-Onge in the comments of Adams’ post. .WATCH: Bryan Adams calls out Trudeau for trying to be arbiter on whether songs are ‘Canadian enough’.According to the CRTC policy, the commission will dictate how “Canadian works are played on Canadian radio stations.”“Each licensed station is required to devote a percentage of its weekly music broadcasting to Canadian content,” the CRTC website states. "With the adoption of the (Bill C-11), the CRTC is working towards modernizing Canada’s broadcasting framework and ensuring that online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content. Creators will have opportunities to tell their stories and Canadians will have access to a greater variety and diversity of content.”.Controversial Online Streaming Act delayed to late 2025.Canadian psychologist and renowned podcaster Dr. Jordan Peterson, who recently announced he has moved to the United States — in part due to legislation like Bill C-11, commented on some of the consequences of Trudeau’s streaming Act in 2022. “Let's say that the new media, which is the internet itself, was capable of producing some of the opposition to the globalists and Trudeau that the legacy media have abandoned,” said Peterson at the time. “What Bill C-11 has done is basically, it defined all internet content of any sort as subject to the same CRTC — they’ve defined them as broadcasters that are equivalent to, let's say, to CBC, or CTV.”Peterson explained broadcasters are different because airtime is limited, and “the government had to parse up the airwaves.”The internet, on the other hand, “is not a scarce resource,” said Peterson.“And now, if a small business person like me, let's say, doesn't broadcast in French and English and in indigenous languages and to any diverse range of people with disabilities, and highlight Canadian content, then the government can do what it needs to do, to deprioritize their distribution."“And they'll do that by putting pressure on the search engine providers like YouTube and Google, or just stopping them all together.”. Peterson further noted “the bill is couched in all this diversity, inclusivity and equity (DEI) terminology.”“So not only do we have this massive press collusion with the government, we also have now the government clamping down more viciously than in any other developed country on the freedom for Canadians to get access to all of the information on the internet, not just that produced by Canadians,” he said. “And one of the other terrifying things about Bill C-11, Canadians won't even know what information is being hidden from them, because the laws will take the form of invisible algorithms that merely de-prioritize at the listing of content that doesn't meet the impossible criteria that have been laid down.”“Bill C-11 is basically written in a way that allows the government to interfere with the promulgation of any information that they deem unacceptable for any reason, because there are so many restrictions on what you're allowed to do now that there's no possible way that that any member of the alternative media can meet the criteria. It's just not possible.”.Heritage Minister wants Online Streaming Act quickly implemented.Consumer Choice Center’s David Clement told the Western Standard Ottawa is “applying very outdated regulations to an ecosystem that doesn't need it.”“These regulations for Canadian content essentially tell consumers that they want, or should want, to consume Canadian content — and then force companies to create and promote content based on that silly assumption,” said Clement. “Not only that, there's no guarantee that the creation of any of this Canadian content is actually viewed or listened to. Just because something is created doesn't mean doesn't mean that there's demand for it.”“There is a mechanism to figure out where there is demand for things, and that's the market mechanism.” “If Canadians want Canadian content, they can certainly go and seek it out, especially in the context of platforms like Spotify and YouTube.”“The ecosystem exists for Canadian talent to be found.”“We don't need the government getting involved here.”CRTC spokesperson Leigh Cameron earlier this year called the Online Streaming Act and the policy direction “complex and multi-faceted.”“We have announced an ambitious set of public hearings and proceedings to address all of the elements they contain,” said Cameron. “The CRTC anticipates that by 2026, it will have both had the opportunity to consult widely with Canadians and to have put in place the key elements of the new broadcasting framework.”
