Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge’s Internet Regulation Misinformation Problem
Fact checking the Minister on Bills C-11 and C-18 is a lot of work.
The temperature over the government’s Internet legislation has increased this week as many Canadians wake up to the consequences of Bills C-11 and C-18. CRTC regulations on mandated registration requirements arising from the Online Streaming Act and the possibility that Google will follow Meta’s lead and remove news links for search results in Canada due to the Online News Act have placed the spotlight on harmful effects of the government’s approach. In response, Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge has become more vocal on both social media and mainstream media in defence of the government’s approach. Unfortunately, her comments included repeated errors (suggesting that independent media has not reached any deals with Internet platforms which is not remotely accurate), maligned digital creators (saying that Bill C-11 wasn’t about them), were contradicted by the CRTC, or featured outright misinformation. I posted a pair of threads fact-checking the Minister, which are posted below. There can obviously be different views on the Internet regulation, but the Minister ought to know her file and stick to the facts.
Thread on her Bill C-11 thread:
Thread on her Bill C-18 FAQ in the Montreal Gazette:
Post originally appeared at https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2023/10/canadian-heritage-minister-pascale-st-onges-misinformation-problem/
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Everything the Government is saying about this is misinformation. The truth is the EXACT opposite. Good job debunking Professor Geist. You are correct. It looks exhausting.
Thanks for your excellent analysis and critiques.