Commons heritage committee to resume analysis of Bill C-10 Wednessday

The House of Commons’ heritage committee will resume its clause-by-clause analysis of Bill C-10 on Wednesday.

Justice Minister David Lametti appeared before the committee Tuesday, telling MPs that it’s not his role to give legal opinion on a bill that aims to regulate internet platforms.

That declaration didn’t stop opposition MPs from grilling Lametti about removing a section of the bill last month.

If passed, Bill C-10 will give the CRTC additional powers to regulate streaming services like Netflix, Crave and Amazon Prime.

It originally exempted user-generated content posted to social media sites but that section of the bill was removed, a move has been described by some academics and other experts on internet law as an assault on Canada’s protection of free expression on social media.

None of the opposition MPs seemed satisfied with what they got from Lametti, but the Liberals had enough support to set the debate aside.

If the bill passes in an eventual vote, it will mark the first major updates to the Broadcasting Act since social media platforms became a major source of communications.