Newly declassified cabinet records reveal two Liberal ministers were calling for government controls over internet content as early as 1995, when Ottawa was still trying to understand the emerging technology and its potential impact on Canada.Minutes from a confidential June 13, 1995 cabinet meeting show Government House Leader Herb Gray and Secretary of State for Multiculturalism Sheila Finestone raised concerns about regulating material distributed online.The discussion took place as then-Industry Minister John Manley presented a federal strategy for developing what was widely known as the information superhighway.Blacklock's Reporter said Gray questioned how governments would enforce privacy laws and restrict certain online material.He “noted the challenge for governments in enforcing privacy laws and controlling the dissemination of hate literature and pornography on the information superhighway,” according to the cabinet minutes.Gray also asked what other governments were doing to support and control the rapidly developing technology.Finestone went further, stressing what she considered the need for federal oversight of online material.She “emphasized the important role of government in regulating the content of the information highway,” the records stated.The comments came during a meeting primarily focused on the economic opportunities presented by the internet, including job creation, international competitiveness and the expansion of digital communications.Manley told his cabinet colleagues the emerging technology offered enormous economic potential without requiring substantial government spending.“As a government we don’t have to throw a lot of cash in at this to make it happen,” Manley said.“The private sector is going to pay for virtually all of it. We have to be involved to channel it in directions to fit our policy objectives and to demonstrate the reality of our commitment to good economic management, jobs and growth.”.Manley presented a report titled The Canadian Information Highway Strategy, outlining how digitization would transform communications by allowing sound, video and data to travel through interconnected networks.He offered ministers an example of how dramatically transmission speeds were expected to improve.“Over regular telephone lines, the time required to transmit a 2-hour movie is 325 and a half days,” Manley explained.“At the broadband speeds soon to be rolled out, the same movie could be transmitted in less than two minutes.”Cabinet minutes described digitization as the technological breakthrough making the internet possible.“The Minister emphasized the key technological change was digitization, the conversion of all forms of information (sound, video, data) into a universal language of zeroes and ones,” the records stated.Manley also highlighted how satellite communications could effectively eliminate the disadvantages of geographic distance.“In the age of satellite transmission the distance from Halifax to Vancouver is only a few kilometres further than from Halifax to Dartmouth and the speed of transmission is essentially identical,” he said.However, he acknowledged the technology would create challenges involving affordable access, regional fairness, cultural sovereignty, privacy and copyright.Manley did not specifically advocate controlling online content during his presentation.Instead, he identified three responsibilities for Ottawa: establishing policies and rules, encouraging technological development and demonstrating how government could use the technology itself.He also pointed to the rapidly expanding global information technology market, estimated at US$1 trillion in 1995 and projected to double by 2000.Other cabinet ministers welcomed the economic and social opportunities..Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin argued the internet could help Canadian businesses compete internationally, describing the technology as an important equalizer in global markets.Finance Minister Paul Martin agreed information technology could contribute to the Liberal government's employment and economic growth objectives.Sen. Joyce Fairbairn, then-Government Leader in the Senate, suggested electronic communications could help combat illiteracy.Prime Minister Jean Chrétien did not comment during the recorded discussion.The question of internet regulation continued beyond the cabinet meeting.A 1995 Department of Industry report, Final Report Of The Information Superhighway Advisory Council, considered legislation to establish rules governing the internet and mechanisms to enforce them.However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rejected regulating legal internet content in 1999, concluding such oversight was unnecessary.That approach remained federal policy for years before the Liberal government introduced Bill C-10, An Act To Amend The Broadcasting Act, in 2020.The legislation proposed extending federal broadcasting oversight to online streaming services, marking a significant shift from the earlier hands-off approach to internet content.The newly released cabinet minutes show debates over Ottawa's authority to regulate online material began decades before internet streaming and social media became central to Canadians' daily lives.
