Week 4: An Overview of the Witnesses of the Bill C-18 Hearings Drew Wilson | May 31, 2023 We take a look at the witness lists for the Bill C-18 senate hearings. This is for the 4th week of the hearings. Week 4 of the Bill C-18 senate hearings is upon us. Already, we heard from some of these witnesses. Still, we thought we’d offer up the entire weeks scheduled hearings. The Communications and Transport (TRCM) has had a very busy and eventful set of hearings so far. While it is unclear how long these hearings will go, we do know that they are still continuing. Yesterday, on May 30th, there were the following witnesses: Bill C-18, An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada Jesse Brown, Publisher Canadaland Phillip Crawley, Chief Executive Officer and Publisher The Globe and Mail Paul Deegan, President and Chief Executive Officer News Media Canada Jeff Elgie, Chief Executive Officer Village Media Jen Gerson, Independent Journalist As an Individual Pierre-Elliott Levasseur, President of LaPresse and Director of News Media Canada News Media Canada Brian Myles, Director Le Devoir If you’d like to watch that hearing in full, it is now available here. Today, on May 31st, we’ll hear from the following witnesses: Bill C-18, An Act respecting online communications platforms that make news content available to persons in Canada Sue Gardner, Member, Policy Committee Internet Society Canada Chapter Lawrence Gibbons, Group Publisher, Star Observer and City Hub and co-chair of the Public Interest Publishers Alliance Star Observer Chris Gogos, Publisher of Neos Kosmos and Director of the Independent Multicultural Media Association Star Observer Matthew Hatfield, Campaigns Director OpenMedia Randy Kitt, Media Sector Director Unifor Emma McDonald, Senior Policy Adviser Minderoo Foundation Philip Palmer, President Internet Society Canada Chapter Rod Sims, Professor, Australian National University As an Individual Names that stand out immediately are Sue Gardner and Philip Palmer of the Internet Society Canada Chapter. They are definitely known for pushing back against this bill because of the threats it poses to the internet. Next is Matthew Hatfield of OpenMedia. He advocates on behalf of individual users and digital rights already, so it isn’t a surprise he would be opposed to the bill. Randy Kitt is from Unifor, a well known lobbyist organization pushing for this bill. So, it’s widely expected that he will be for this crackdown on the internet. Lawrence Gibbons is known for supporting the link tax, so he’ll also be pushing for this bill as well. He’ll be joined by Chris Gogos as well. Emma McDonald of Minderoo Foundation was part of the lost hearing, but we don’t exactly know where she will stand on the issue. Rod Sims, as we noted in the lost hearing, is a known foreign backer of this bill. So, this is what the current week looks like with the Bill C-18 hearings. We’ll continue our coverage of the hearings soon. Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook. Share this:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)MoreClick to print (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading...