We continue our series of platform analysis through the lens of technology and digital rights by checking out the Liberal party platform.
Our series of party platform analysis is continuing. Previously, we did an analysis of the Green Party which is, at the very least, a really good start. Today, we are going ahead and examining the Liberal party platform.
You can get the Liberal Party platform by checking out the Liberal party website – specifically, this page and downloading the platform. Alternatively, you can check out the platform here (PDF).
Right away, I can say that the design isn’t as good as the Green Party. This is thanks to a lack of an index page, so we are just going to have to quickly scroll through everything in the hopes of getting as much as humanly possible out of this. So, let’s get right into this.
On page 6, we did see the following:
Provide an initial $150 million boost in annual funding while directing CBC/Radio Canada to develop a strategic plan consistent with this new mandate. We will work towards bringing CBC/Radio Canada’s long-term funding levels in line with the average funding of other national public broadcasters over time
This is generally a major break from the previous Liberal party which advocated that the CBC should go advertisement free and increasing funding. This would definitely strengthen the CBC and make it become more useful. Unfortunately, it looks like the new Liberal Party greatly rolled that back by just dumping more money towards the CBC and just leaving everything else well enough alone. Unfortunate to say the least, but that’s the “expect less” direction that the Liberal party took in this area.
Also on page 6, we saw the following:
Support Canadian artists and creators by increasing funding to agencies such as the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm, the Canada Media Fund, and the National Film Board, recognizing the economic importance of Canada’s creative industries and creators. The more of our perspectives that are brought to life, the better we understand Canada, and the more we can show the world what makes Canada strong.
If you have no idea how these organizations operate, then this, on the surface, sounds like a great idea. More funding to the development of the arts and content creation? What could possibly be so bad about that? The reality is that at least some of these organizations have spent considerable amounts of time locking out Canadian creators in the first place and ensuring that a lions share of what funding is dispersed is going to the single largest players. Think highly profitable organizations like Bell Media or even the CBC itself which already receives truckloads of money from the government. I know this because I put the Canada Media Fund specifically to the test and they failed spectacularly on that front by completely ignoring my messages altogether.
Of course, the problems with these organizations go far beyond just ignoring Canadian creators and dumping money into already profitable conglomerates. The Canada Media Fund, for instance, set up a separate fund for online creators and “experimental” projects. Again, this sounds good on the surface. However, as you dive deeper into the details, you realize more and more just how fundamentally flawed the program actually is. For one, it extracts billions from online platforms, then takes a vast majority of that funding and sends it directly to the conglomerate corporations operating in Canada. From there, it takes a pair of tweezers to set aside a tiny pittance of $500,000 for the very creators that are contributing they are getting all that funding from in the first place.
Worse yet, the Canada Media Fund also set insane requirements that pretty much excludes virtually every online creator out there. Literally anything you can think of that would make great content on YouTube gets excluded from that list. Want to create a YouTube channel where you show off your latest hauls from the stores? Denied. Want to create a channel where you review different video games? Denied. Want to create a channel where you hold contests and challenges? Denied. Denied, denied, denied, denied, denied.
The reality is that these funds are set up, in part, with the 70s era in mind where television is this massively popular magical entertainment medium that everyone is obsessed with. This when the reality is that television is rapidly becoming a sunset industry with more and more people cut the cord as they realize that they are paying more and more for worse and worse content – also at a time when online offerings continue to be dramatically superior than their traditional counterparts.
So, the real question is, what good is it to pour money into these organizations that operate on a fundamentally flawed system? It doesn’t. It is the equivalent of announcing an increase in funding towards programs that bolster the buggy whip manufacturing companies during a time when the flying car has become readily available to consumers for many years now. It makes no sense and you might as well be throwing that money into a nearby river. This is because the money is doing literally no good when poured into operations like the Canada Media Fund. Until these organizations start actually supporting innovative and forward thinking Canadian creators – especially those who are, say, Digital First Creators, this is little more than a colossal waste of money.
On page 18, we did catch this:
Increase penalties for the distribution of intimate images without consent and sexual assault on summary conviction.
This has long been something being pushed by the Liberals. While the idea itself is not controversial by any means, so often, this idea is tied to a whole lot of other horrible ideas. This can include massive wiretapping programs that track all Canadians across the board, unconstitutional requirements being thrown on websites that make it impossible to maintain a website presence at all (ala the 24 hour takedown requirements for anything considered “offensive” by any anonymous user for all websites – not just the large platforms), and a whole bunch of other horrendously bad proposals for the internet. That is one of the many reasons why such an idea hasn’t actually been implemented – because they so often shoehorn this idea with a huge list of bad proposals.
Similarly, this was found on page 18:
Introduce legislation to protect children from horrific crimes including online sexploitation and extortion and give law enforcement and prosecutors the tools to stop these crimes and bring perpetrators to justice.
Again, on the surface, this sounds great, but then you get into the details of how the heck you would go about waving a magic wand and making this bad kind of activity go away. One way that has been proposed off and on to carry this out is the mass surveillance of all Canadian’s without warrants or court oversight – which is generally seen as unconstitutional. That’s just one example of how the Liberals take an idea that sounds good and use it as a weapon to ensure no one questions the blatantly unconstitutional crap they are trying to pull in the name of fighting such things. Particularly noteworthy is that the platform, in those sections, conveniently never elaborated on any of the details, either.
After considerable scrolling to find anything at all, we did finally find as mall scrap on page 48 which read as follows:
Incentivize investment in innovation, especially in Canada’s startups, to help them grow and scale by introducing flow-through shares to our Canadian startup ecosystem, supporting companies in AI, quantum computing, biotech, and advanced manufacturing to raise money faster.
I guess that’s something at least. I mean, it’s not really offensive what is in there by any means. I would have liked to have seen similar commitments to content creators online which is driving considerable economic growth in North America, but investing in AI that may or may not produce much value in the end is, well, something I guess. There are worse gambles to be making to be sure such as NFTs.
The push for AI, which is the current buzzword in some media circles, continues with this section found on page 49:
To grow the strongest economy in the G7, Canada needs to build a modern, tech-enabled economy. Making sure Canada takes advantage of the opportunities presented by Artificial Intelligence (AI) is critical for our competitiveness as the global economy shifts – and for making sure we have a government that actually works.
Canada is where some of the most important developments in AI happened. We used to lead the world but have fallen behind in important ways. Artificial Intelligence is the key to unlocking productivity, higher paying jobs, and new prosperity that will benefit everyone. AI reduces the repetitive tasks workers have to do so they can focus on other more valuable aspects of their jobs, including for workers in the public service. AI can lead to advances that make our companies more competitive, especially our small and medium-sized businesses.
We will be relentless in looking for ways to make government more efficient. The potential of AI to improve services and delivery must be included in that work. In 2025, a modern, industrialized economy must integrate these technologies—it is how government improves service delivery, it is how government keeps up with the speed of business, and it is how government maximizes efficiency and reduces cost.
All this adds up to higher productivity, which is about more prosperity for Canada’s middle class.
This was followed up by points about building data centres, procurement, and tracking economic impacts of AI as well. I mean, to be fair, there is evidence that AI is currently in an economic bubble right now that some wonder if it’s going to pop, so there is definitely risk associated with focusing on this particular technology. After all, despite the hype, AI really hasn’t proven to be the revolutionary technology that the backers have long proclaimed it to be, so this is all just a gamble. After all, it was only a few years back when blockchain was supposed to be this big game changing technology that would one day be the backbone of everything – and we can all see now how well that panned out. I’m not saying it absolutely would not pan out, but I’m saying that there is risk associated with focusing on such technology.
On page 50, there is this acknowledgement:
Researchers, scientists, and leading thinkers are under attack around the world. Idealogues are attacking their work, undermining evidence-based research and scientific frontiers, and attacking rights to freedom of expression and freedom of thought. Discoveries made by scientists and researchers have the potential to seed massive companies and new jobs. The current U.S. administration has had a chilling effect on research, including in high-demand fields like STEM, and many of those affected are Canadians.
This is absolutely an accurate observation. In the last few months, the Trump administration has taken aim at organizations like NOAA, the CDC, and other science based organizations because ideology dictates that science is wrong and gut feelings are correct. This includes science denial and suggesting that home remedies are better suited to handle the measles outbreaks as opposed to scientifically proven vaccines. These are all very well known issues in the US, so the platform is not wrong in pointing out these problems.
Page 53 has AI mentioned again:
Launch a new training and upskilling benefit worth up to $15,000 for workers in the middle of their careers. This benefit will be targetted to workers in priority sectors including manufacturing, health care, construction, AI, and technology. In the face of the economic uncertainty and volatility many Canadian businesses are facing, we will collaborate with employers to support retention and upskilling within their companies.
At this point, I’m wondering if the Liberal party thinks AI is the cure-all for everything. If that’s the case, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it is not.
Two bullet points later and AI is seemingly held up as a cure-all and a problem at the same time:
Futureproof the workforce by ensuring federally funded training programs better align with labour market needs, which means meeting the needs of employers today, and the employers of tomorrow. To secure Canada’s future, we need to build up the domestic skills and capabilities of our workforce in sectors like AI and cybersecurity, to spur innovation in Canada. We will track labour market impacts of AI to rapidly adjust training programs, so workers are continually ready for the jobs of the future.
Also on page 53, we see this:
For decades, the U.S. has been our partner, but their unjustified tariffs have ruptured that relationship, and we must focus on other, more reliable, partners moving forward. Thankfully, the rest of the world wants and needs what Canada has to offer. It’s the Saskatchewan potash that farmers use to feed the world; and the Canadian energy that is powering economies around the world. This trade is essential to our prosperity, and in order to build the fastest growing economy in the G7, we need to double down on our advantages and strengthen our relationships with reliable partners, taking full advantage of our existing trade agreements, such as CETA. We need to diversify our supply chains so that we can have a more resilient, prosperous economy that isn’t dependent on any one country.
This point was echoed on page 54 with the following:
Help Canadian businesses diversify their markets by expanding the CanExport program and pivoting it to focus on diversifying from the United States and fully take advantage of our existing trade deals, such as CETA and CPTPP.
CETA has been hugely controversial as it faced numerous legal problems. There are a number of reasons for that including the corporate sovereignty provisions. It’s been years since I covered CETA, but the gist of that angle is that if a corporation feels that a law is getting in the way of their profits, then they have the right to sue the government for the losses that law caused.
A great example of why this is bad has to do with cigarette packaging. Numerous countries mandate health warning labels on packaging because cigarettes have been known to cause multiple different kinds of cancers. Under the corporate sovereignty provisions, cigarette companies would then be able to sue different countries for mandating such packaging, arguing that the health warnings are deterring people from buying their cigarettes and, therefor, causing losses in profits. This is far from the only example, but it shows one of the many different reasons why these trade agreements are so bad. It means that corporations are basically above the law and are not bound by the laws of the country they operate in.
CETA was pushed by the Liberal party and it’s kind of scary that they are continuing to push these agreements further.
Conclusions
After scanning the rest of the platform, I couldn’t find anything more related to technology and digital rights. So, the above is absolutely it. So, I can safely say that this platform is, at best, wafer thin on ideas that would actually benefit Canadians on this front. In fact, apart from using the buzzword “AI” in a couple of places, there is very little to nothing related to technology and digital rights. As a result, this platform is shockingly bad on this front. There are many issues facing Canadians on the digital and technological front and the Liberal platform offers next to nothing.
The Good
- Offering more money towards startups
The Mixed
- Fighting non-consensual imagery (mishandled in the past by shoehorning really bad policies. No details on how to accomplish this.
- Focusing largely on AI as if it’s a magic bullet solution for everything (it is not)
- Pouring money into cultural organizations for redistribution (typically, these funds largely go to large conglomerates and already profitable organizations. Without significant reform with these organizations, it will do nothing to bolster culture.)
- Combating online exploitation (again, no details on how to accomplish this and this effort is usually used to shoehorn terrible policy ideas.)
The Bad
- No plan to reform Canadian privacy laws
- No plan to expand broadband to rural and indigenous communities
- No plan on helping digital first creators that are currently driving economic growth in the online space
- No plan to break up advertising monopolies of tech giants
- No plan to tackle abusive market practices of various carriers
- No plan to increase competition in the cellular and internet space
- No plan to bring back the so-called “Digital Charter”
- Doubling down on the controversial CETA trade agreement
- No plan to crack down on scam calls
- No plan to modernize the definitions of Cancon
- No plan to fix the Online Streaming Act
- No plan to fix/abolish the Online News Act
- No plan to fix the problem of the Digital Services Tax
- No plan to combat digital frisking at the border (US border patrol demanding passwords to devices, etc.)
So, overall, this is an absolutely horrendous platform. Almost no thought was brought forward with respect to digital rights or technology other than to throw around the AI buzzword here and there. It’s a bad platform and the people behind the platform should feel bad for cranking out this dud.
Overall Rating: F-
