#NoSiteBlocking

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canadians! #NoSiteBlocking!

Canada's Bill C-10 is a federal regulation of Canadians' online expression, from podcasts, social media and blogs to other user-generated content.

Despite claims from the ruling Liberals that opposition to this bill is Tory partisanship, this is a universal issue.

As always, Michael Geist has had the best analysis of how C-10 goes well beyond the government's claims of modest and sensible rules of the road, instead empowering the CRTC to order blocks and takedowns of otherwise legal content.

Here's Geist on why the bill does not pass muster with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2021/05/failing-analysis-why-the-department-of-justice-updated-charter-statement-doesnt-address-bill-c-10s-free-speech-risks/

On why it covers user-generated content:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2021/05/think-regulating-user-generated-content-in-bill-c-10-is-just-an-inadvertent-mistake-think-again/

On the true scope of the bill, including "News Sites, Podcast and Workout Apps, Adult Websites, Audiobooks, and Sports Streamers."

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2021/05/not-just-big-techbillc10/

On the inevitability of site-blocking under C-10:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2021/05/the-bill-c-10-effect-why-canadian-consumers-face-a-future-of-cancon-surcharges-and-blocked-services/

On the incompatibility of C-10 with Net Neutrality:

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2021/05/why-bill-c-10-undermines-the-governments-commitment-to-the-principle-of-net-neutrality/

and on the bad faith, Trumpian cries of "fake news" by the Liberal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault.

https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2021/05/who-is-wearing-a-tin-foil-hat-now-heritage-minister-steven-guilbeault-suggests-corporate-inspired-misinformation-campaign-the-cause-of-bill-c-10-criticism/

Contrary to M Guibeault's smears, opposition to C-10 isn't a Tory conspiracy. I have never carried water for the Tories - I've rung doorbells to campaign against them federally, provincially, municipally, and internationally, when I lived in the UK.

The Liberals' track record on internet regulation is terrible (remember Sam Bulte's jeremiad against "user-rights zealots"?), but the Tories are even worse. Long before Tony Clement was caught sending pictures of his junk to random women, he was ramming through Canada's DMCA.

Indeed, it's precisely because I know how Stephen Harper would have weaponised C-10 that I want it staked through the heart.

(And if you think Harper's C-10 would be bad, imagine PM Doug Ford wielding it - or PM Faith Goldy)

The Heritage Ministry is accepting comments on C-10 until May 31. Today is the #NoSiteBlocking national day of action, organised by Openmedia.ca.

They've got a page of bilingual resources for filing your comments:

http://www.dontblock.ca/

Bill C-10 is a gift to Canada's outrageous telecoms monopolies: Bell, Shaw and Rogers. Canada has spent decades treating telecoms and internet laws as political conveniences, ignoring the digital divide, monopolism and the consequences of mass surveillance.

It's time the country treated the care, maintenance and growth of its digital nervous system with the gravitas and public interest it warrants - even if that means slight reductions in profits to the monopolists who have served Canadians so poorly.