Commentary
Canada’s efforts to harness the changes and challenges posed by the internet age may just have come a cropper.
Predictably, both the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act have been targeted by U.S. President Donald Trump as his country heads into renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on trade.
Both pieces of Canadian legislation were passed in the spring of 2023 when Justin Trudeau was prime minister. His successor, Mark Carney, was forced by Trump to cancel the implementation of a third folly, the Digital Sales Tax, last summer.
The Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) put all video and audio internet content under the authority of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) by amending the Broadcasting Act and has preoccupied the regulator ever since. While both the Heritage Minister of the day, Pablo Rodriguez, and CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides expressed confidence that it would be largely implemented by the end of 2024, that has not happened. Instead, and as predicted by those of us with experience in these matters, the CRTC has lumbered through the process, provoked three separate court challenges from the offshore streaming companies and, as 2025 concludes, still isn’t close to spiking the ball in the end zone (although it did just declare that streamers will have to begin providing described video)….