Weekly Newsletter: July 5, 2022

Weekly News (July 5, 2022)

Compiled by Fizza Kulvi, Meaghan Wester, and Nick Gertler with Sara Bannerman, Fenwick McKelvey, Guillaume Dandurand, Marek Blottière, and Kevin Morin
McMaster University, Communications Governance Observatory

The Communications Governance Discussion Group meets every few weeks by Zoom.  Email organizer Derek Hrynyshyn <derekh@yorku.ca> for details.

(June 28 – July 4, 2022)

Canadian News 

·         [PRIVACY] Supreme Court upholds key protections for alleged sex-assault victims(Globe & Mail)

·         [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/BROADCAST REGULATION] CRTC orders Radio Canada to apologize for using N-word in 2020 program (Montreal Gazette)

·         [TECH LOBBYING] Amazon beefs up lineup of lobbyists in Ottawa as feds tighten Big Tech regulation (Ottawa Citizen)

·         [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/BROADCAST REGULATION] Front commun contre le blâme du CRTC pour l’utilisation du «mot en n» à Radio-Canada (Le Devoir)

·         [PRIVACY] This Canadian is surrendering his voting rights to keep his data away from political hate groups (The Star)

·         [ONLINE HARMS] Kids are confronting hate content online. Ottawa is taking the fight to Canadian schools (The Star)

·         [ONLINE HARMS] Snapchat. Instagram. The ‘plug’ emoji. Illegal drugs are being targeted to kids online, and parents are fighting back (The Star)

·         [CYBERSECURITY] Cyberspy agency launched operation to protect federal election from foreign attack (National Post)

·         [PRIVACY] Enviros train drone pilots to find and pursue pollution (The Star)

·         [DEFAMATION] Judge tosses $30M defamation lawsuit against city councillors and Catholic board trustees (The Star)

·         [PRIVACY] OPINION: Ifill: The problems with the federal data-privacy bill will disproportionately hurt marginalized Canadians (Globe and Mail)

·         [ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE] OPINION: Schoenherr: Rather than focus on the speculative rights of sentient AI, we need to address human rights (The Conversation)

·         [TELECOM POLICY] OPINION: WILLIS: Sale of Freedom Mobile to Quebecor is the best outcome for cellphone users (Globe and Mail)

·         [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/PUBLIC BROADCASTING] Opinion: Couinard: Le mot en n et la bêtise du CRTC (Le Devoir)

·         [FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION/PUBLIC BROADCASTING] Opinion: Hachey: Radio-Canada doit résister (La Presse)

International News

·         [PLATFORM REGULATION] Ruling could dampen government efforts to rein in Big Tech (USA Today)

·         [PLATFORM GOVERNANCE] TikTok tells Republican senators how it plans to keep American data away from China. (NYT) 

·         [PRIVACY] Tech companies in spotlight as US abortion ruling sparks privacy threat (The Guardian)

·         [MISINFORMATION] People searching for abortion online must wade through misinformation (Washington Post)

·         [PRIVACY] Hacker claims to have obtained data on 1 billion Chinese citizens (The Guardian)

·         [CRYPTO CURRENCY] Bill to grant crypto firms access to Federal Reserve alarms experts (Washington Post)

·         [FACIAL RECOGNITION] Australian retail giants named in facial recognition tech complaint (Reuters)

·         [PLATFORM REGULATION] OPINION: RIEKELES: I saw first-hand how US tech giants seduced the EU – and undermined democracy (The Guardian)

(June 28 – July 4, 2022)

Supreme Court of Canada

Canadian Heritage

Communications Security Establishment Canada

Innovation, Science and Economic Development

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

Google

Meta

Amazon

CRTC

    Broadcasting Decisions

·         2022-175 – Société Radio-Canada – Montréal, Quebec – Complaint against Société Radio-Canada on the use of an offensive word on air

·         2022-180 – Various licensees – Across Canada – Applications to renews the broadcasting licences for the large English-language and French-language television ownership groups set out in the appendix to the decision

·         2022-179 – Various licensees – Across Canada – Renewal of the broadcasting licences for the terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings set out in the appendix to the decision

·         2022-178 – Various licensees – Across Canada – Renewal of the broadcasting licences for the independent television stations set out in the appendix to the decision

·         2022-176 – South Asian Television Canada Limited – Across Canada – Application to renew the broadcasting licence for the third-language ethnic discretionary television station ATN South Asian Television (SATV)

Supreme Court of Canada

The Supreme Court of Canada announced that judgments in the following leave applications will be delivered on Thursday, July 7, 2022

  • [SEARCH AND SEIZURE] Clinton Jordan Frank McKenzie v. Her Majesty the Queen (Man.) (Criminal) (By Leave) (40082)

Senate of Canada

  • No further sitting days this week; next sitting day: September 20, 2022

Canadian House of Commons

  • No sitting days this week; next sitting day: September 19, 2022

CRTC

The CRTC plans to issue the following decisions and/or regulatory policies in the week 4 to 8 July 2022. This is subject to change without notice.

Broadcasting Decisions

·         Various Licensees
Various independent television programming undertakings – Administrative renewals

·         Various licensees
Various terrestrial broadcasting distribution undertakings – Administrative renewals

·         Various licensees
Various large English-language and French-language television ownership groups – Administrative renewals

Telecom Decision:

·         Updates to the Canadian International Mobile Subscription Identify Assignment Guideline
Public record: 8621-C12-01/08

Public Consultations

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