Big tech companies that offer online streaming services could soon be required to contribute to Canadian content as a controversial Liberal bill gets one step closer to becoming law.
The Senate has passed the online streaming act known as Bill C-11 with a dozen amendments following a lengthy study by senators.
The bill would update Canada's broadcasting rules to reflect online streaming giants such as YouTube, Netflix and Spotify, and require them to contribute to Canadian content and make it accessible to users in Canada -- or face steep penalties.
Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says he hopes the House of Commons will pass the bill next week after it reviews the Senate's changes.
Senators made amendments intended to protect user-generated content and highlight the promotion of Indigenous languages and Black content creators.
They also included a change that would prohibit CBC from producing sponsored content, and another that would require companies to verify users' ages before they access sexually-explicit material.
Rodriguez said Thursday that the Liberal government would not accept all of the Senate's recommendations, but he didn't say which ones he disagrees with.
"We'll see when the bill comes back. There are amendments that have zero impact on the bill. And others that do, and those, we will not accept them," the minister said Thursday during a Canadian Media Producers Association panel.
The Senate also removed a clause in the bill that Sen. Paula Simons described as giving "extraordinary new powers to the government to make political decisions about things."
Ian Scott, the former chair of Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, had told a Senate committee that some provisions in the bill did move the balance point "slightly closer to lessening the independence" of the regulator -- though he insisted that it would remain independent.
The CRTC, now under the leadership of Vicky Eatrides, will be tasked with enforcing the bill's provisions.
The Senate passed the bill on the anniversary of its introduction in the House of Commons.
Between the House of Commons and Senate, there have been approximately 218 witnesses, 43 meetings, 119 briefs and 73 proposed amendments, said Rodriguez.
"It's the longest bill," he said.
The proposed law has come under intense scrutiny amid accusations from companies and critics who said it left too much room for government control over user-generated content and social-media algorithms.
Rodriguez said tech giants can get creative with ways they promote Canadian content, such as with billboards, advertising or, if they so choose, tweaks to their algorithms.
The bill has also caught the attention of the United States. Its embassy in Ottawa recently said that it is holding consultations with U.S. companies that it is concerned could face discrimination if the bill passes.
Last week, two U.S. senators called for a trade crackdown on Canada over Bill C-11, saying that the prospective law flouts trade agreements.
"I'm not worried, because we think it complies with trade obligations," Rodriguez said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 2, 2023.
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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu late Tuesday said his country's intelligence agency Mossad helped Greece prevent a terrorist attack planned against at least one Jewish site in Athens.
Another American community is reeling after a shooter killed three 9-year-olds and three adults at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville. These are the three children and three adults whose lives were taken by the shooter.
Nashville police have released security camera footage of a suspected shooter entering the private Christian elementary school. The shooting claimed the lives of three children, all aged nine, and three adults.
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Six people were killed at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building containing about 200 students, police said.
In the 2023 federal budget, the government is unveiling continued deficit spending targeted at Canadians' pocketbooks, public health care and the clean economy.
The federal budget proposes an across-the-board three per cent spending cut for all departments and agencies, a belt-tightening move after years of massive growth in the federal public service.
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A new report investigating discrimination towards Muslim women in health-care settings has revealed a lack of Canadian data on the topic.
Shoppers Drug Mart Inc. is moving away from its medical cannabis distribution business and preparing to transfer patients to a platform run by biopharmaceutical company Avicanna Inc.
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An Australian company lifted the glass cloche on a meatball made of lab-grown cultured meat using the genetic sequence from the long-extinct pachyderm, saying it was meant to fire up public debate about the hi-tech treat.
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Five-time Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell and Estonian composer Arvo Part have won the 2023 Polar Music Prize, a Swedish music award.
Prince Harry returned to a London court Tuesday for a second day of hearings to see if the phone hacking lawsuit he brought with Elton John and other celebrities can withstand a challenge from the publisher of The Daily Mail.
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The brother of the late New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez is facing criminal and motor vehicle charges in Connecticut, accused of throwing a brick onto the ESPN headquarters campus and eluding police during brief pursuits in other towns.
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U.S. highway safety regulators have opened yet another investigation into problems with Teslas, this time tied to complaints that the seat belts may not hold people in a crash.
California lawmakers on Monday approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump, voting to give regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from the type of gas price spikes that plagued the nation's most populous state last summer.
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