Week 4: Inside the Senate Schedule on Bill C-11 Hearings

Two more hearings are scheduled for this week. We take a look at the schedules for both.

We are now in week 4 of these senate hearings. The pace seems to be continuing, though I think we are also running out of types of people that are going to be heard from. It’s hard to say when these hearings are winding down, but we do know that the pace is certainly not slowing down.

This weeks Senate schedule is up and we can take a look at who is scheduled to appear.

For the first hearing, we see the following:

October 4, 2022 9:00 AM ET

The subject matter of Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts

Frédéric Bastien Forrest, Radio personality and content creator As an Individual
Stéphane Cardin, Director, Public Policy Netflix
Michael MacMillan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Blue Ant Media
Wendy Noss, President Motion Picture Association – Canada
Justin Rebelo, Director Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters
Noah Segal, President Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters

In this, we see Quebec digital first creator, Frédéric Bastien Forrest. Scott Benzie of digital first Canada specifically mentioned him during his hearing and he said that he can be asked how he is finding an audience in Quebec. It’s also probable that Netflix is opposed to the bill, but it’s hard to say for sure because I haven’t seen anything about them.

It’s unclear where Netflix or the Motion Picture Association stands on the bill for me, but the Director Canadian Association of Film Distributors and Exporters is supportive of this terrible bill.

All in all, it looks like one panel that is for this legislation and one that is against. Of course, it’ll be interesting to see where that shakes down.

For the second hearing, we see this:

October 5, 2022 6:45 PM ET

The subject matter of Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts

Patrick Aldous, Senior Vice President, Business and Legal Affairs Nettwerk Music Group Inc.
Natalie Bernardin, Vice President Alliance nationale de l’industrie musicale
Nicholas Bouchard, Managing Director Believe Canada
Blayne Haggart, Associate Professor, Political Science, Brock University As an Individual
Clotilde Heibing, Chief Executive Officer Alliance nationale de l’industrie musicale
Emily Laidlaw, Canadian Research Chair in Cybersecurity Law and Associate Professor, University of Calgary As an Individual
Fenwick McKelvey, Associate Professor, Concordia University As an Individual
Audrey Meyrand, Attorney Alliance nationale de l’industrie musicale

One position I know about here is Emily Laidlaw. During the Bill C-10 debate, she acknowledged the problems with the removal of Section 4.1. Generally speaking, scholars have already been on board about the removal or scoping out of user generated content. It would be a surprise to me if this panel would be any different.

Nettwerk Music Group, for sure, is opposed to the legislation. I don’t know about the positions of others. Still, it’s possible that there will be agreement on both halves about scoping out user generated content or removing Section 4.1 and 4.2.

The first hearing for this week is set for tomorrow.

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.