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Bill C-10, An Act to amend the Broadcasting Act and to make related and consequential amendments to other Acts
SUMMARY YOU BE THE JUDGE…
This enactment amends the Broadcasting Act to, among other things,
(a)āadd online undertakings ā undertakings for the transmission or retransmission of programs over the Internet ā as a distinct class of broadcasting undertakings;
(b)āupdate the broadcasting policy for Canada set out in section 3 of that Act by, among other things, providing that the Canadian broadcasting system should serve the needs and interests of all Canadians ā including Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds ā and should provide opportunities for Indigenous persons, programming that reflects Indigenous cultures and that is in Indigenous languages, and programming that is accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities;
(c)āspecify that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the āCommissionā) must regulate and supervise the Canadian broadcasting system in a manner that
(i)ātakes into account the different characteristics of Indigenous language broadcasting and the different conditions under which broadcasting undertakings that provide Indigenous language programming operate,
(ii)āis fair and equitable as between broadcasting undertakings providing similar services,
(iii)āfacilitates the provision of programs that are accessible without barriers to persons with disabilities, and
(iv)ātakes into account the variety of broadcasting undertakings to which that Act applies and avoids imposing obligations on a class of broadcasting undertakings if doing so will not contribute in a material manner to the implementation of the broadcasting policy;
(d)āamend the procedure relating to the issuance by the Governor in Council of policy directions to the Commission;
(e)āreplace the Commissionās power to impose conditions on a licence with a power to make orders imposing conditions on the carrying on of broadcasting undertakings;
(f)āprovide the Commission with the power to require that persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings make expenditures to support the Canadian broadcasting system;
(g)āauthorize the Commission to provide information to the Minister responsible for that Act, the Chief Statistician of Canada and the Commissioner of Competition, and set out in that Act a process by which a person who submits certain types of information to the Commission may designate the information as confidential;
(h)āamend the procedure by which the Governor in Council may, under section 28 of that Act, set aside a decision of the Commission to issue, amend or renew a licence or refer such a decision back to the Commission for reconsideration and hearing;
(i)āspecify that a person shall not carry on a broadcasting undertaking, other than an online undertaking, unless they do so in accordance with a licence or they are exempt from the requirement to hold a licence;
(j)āharmonize the punishments for offences under Part II of that Act and clarify that a due diligence defence applies to the existing offences set out in that Act; and
(k)āallow for the imposition of administrative monetary penalties for violations of certain provisions of that Act or of the Accessible Canada Act.
The enactment also makes related and consequential amendments to other Acts.