While eyes were focused on the prime minister’s day of truth, reconciliation and revisionist history statement, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission quietly announced new regulations that will surely expand control over what Canadians will see, hear and broadcast over the internet.. Justin TrudeauPrime Minister Trudeau: "...with denialism sadly, on the rise." .As news, both stories are important. But was the one a cover for the other? Hard to say: The ever-present difficulty conservatives face when talking about the prime minister, is to overstate their case and by attacking a cartoon character of their own creation, actually create an alibi for him..One should be wary then, when making connections that don’t quite snap together tight..Nevertheless, if one did not notice that the anaconda of regulation had wrapped one more coil around free expression in this country, even as the prime minister was laying out in the clearest terms his government’s defined narrative regarding residential schools, one has no sense of irony..Veiled in bureaucratese, what the CRTC announced on Friday was first that under the powers vested in them by Bill C-11, online streaming services having annual revenues of more than $10 million would have to register with the CRTC..Second, with immediate effect they required “certain online streaming services” to provide the CRTC with information related to their content and subscribership..Subscribership is not necessarily a list of subscribers, but more disclosing how many people follow the site online to validate the claimed revenue declaration. Still, governments are intrusive when they feel they ought to be: Two years ago, they thought nothing of looking in your bank account and tracking your cellphone and we were all amazed the banks at least, didn’t push back. What happened to privacy and client confidentiality?.So who knows where that might go..However, there are two things of more immediate interest to take note of here..The first is that, from the user point of view, nothing changes today. Good..It’s what’s coming down the road that will squeeze free speech. Not so good..As one astute observer tweeted, “Reasonable people may find that the CRTC is only trying to register platforms, not regulate content. The underlying statute makes all video into “broadcasting”, hence regulated. The regulatory anaconda will squeeze slowly, but will squeeze tightly. What can be regulated will be.”.Indeed. You’ll never lose money taking that bet..The second thing is what is the government doing regulating the internet, anyway?.Whatever one thinks of having the CRTC regulate radio and television stations, the government does at least own the airwaves. And somebody has to run traffic control on the electromagnetic spectrum, or you’ll be dialling up Fox News and getting the CBC..However, the government does not own the internet, and there are no ‘traffic control’ issues that require its intervention. The internet has run without regulation from the start: Bill C-11 is therefore entirely intrusive. The government has no right there; it does what it does only because it can....Up until seven years ago, one might have said the same had the Trudeau Liberals required newspapers over a certain circulation to register with a government agency. But of course, by applying to Heritage Canada for financial assistance, that’s more or less what the Fourth Estate fell over themselves to do a few years ago..And so a precedent was established for government involvement in the media and from involvement, it is but a short walk to influence and then control..No doubt that would be established in a ‘soft’ way to begin with..You could still say what you liked, it’s just that it would be hard for anybody else to find. Precedent-seekers need only think how hard it was a few years ago to find any mention of what everybody knows today for a fact, that anti-COVID-19 vaccines were neither wholly effective, nor entirely safe..In that case it was social media that was blocking you..It’s no harder for the government..Which brings us to a third thing announced by the CRTC Friday..It will also be holding hearings later this year to decide what they will require of traditional broadcasters to support Canadian and indigenous content. Thanks to Bill C-11, online streaming services must now meet the same requirements..And that in turn floats back to the prime minister’s views of an official, defining narrative on Indian Residential Schools. Demands have been circulating in Ottawa to call an honest investigation of the facts, ‘denialism,’ and make that illegal..It may not happen of course. But it would be a very silly online streaming operator before the CRTC, who had jumped with both feet into that discussion on the wrong side, wouldn’t it?.As Elon Musk tweeted, “Trudeau is trying to crush free speech in Canada. Shameful.”.It does look that way.
