Bill C-18

A conversation with Canadian Heritage Minister about Bill C-18

Newly appointed heritage minister Pascal St-Onge says that Bill C-18 is a step in the right direction despite Meta and Google blocking Canadian news. Photo by Alexandre Tétreault.

By Taylor McClure
Townships’ Daily News Bits
CIDI 99.1 FM
Published on 30/08/23

Now that Meta has followed through on its threat to block Canadian news content on its Instagram and Facebook platforms, people who work in the media and others who care about Canadian news have been asking the question "What next?".

Pascale Ste. Onge is the newly appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage. She is also the MP for the riding of Brome-Missisquoi in Quebec's Eastern Townships, which is also the home to CIDI, the Township's community radio station. The station had the opportunity to ask the Minister directly.  The station also spoke to Paul Deegan from News Media Canada and Alex Freedman of the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

Meta and Google are proceeding to block Canadian news across their platforms after the technology giants decided to reject the Canadian government’s Bill C-18 legislation, which will require digital platforms to compensate Canadian media organizations for any news content that they make available to Canadian citizens. As a number of new outlets close their doors, more recently newspaper publisher Metro Media, Meta and Google's decision comes at a vulnerable time for the Canadian news industry.

The federal government is currently in the midst of drawing up the regulations for Bill C-18, otherwise known as the Online News Act. Newly appointed Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge described Meta and Google’s quick decision to block Canadian news content on their platforms as a “cowboy move to make” considering that Bill C-18 has yet to be applied.

“The phase that we are in right now is a regulatory process. The regulations will come out in the next few days or weeks. Stakeholders, including Facebook and Google, but also citizens and our news media, will have 30 days to give us their comments on this proposal and then once we collect those comments, suggestions, or ideas, we’re going to publish the official regulations and the law will start being applied,” she explained. “When I met with them, I asked them to keep an open mind, to participate in the regulatory process, and to give us their ideas and opinion. (…) I truly believe that what we are proposing not only to both [Meta] and Google, but also to our news media section, is something that is totally viable, respectful of their business models, and it will provide predictability for all players. ”

Bill C-18 officially became law in June of this year and it proposes a framework that encourages “digital news intermediaries,” which includes search engines and social media platforms, to enter into agreements with news outlets to compensate them for the news content they benefit from as advertising revenue shifts to these platforms. The intentions behind Bill C-18 is to establish more “fairness” in the Canadian news market to ensure a thriving media landscape in the country. 

As the federal government moves forward with the regulatory process, St-Onge noted that it will be keeping an open dialogue with Meta and Google with hopes of eventually reaching an agreement that is suitable for all parties.

“Of course I’m going to maintain an open discussion with Meta and Google and I have met with them already. I feel like those conversations were not only extremely positive and constructive, but also very honest. I explained, and I re-expressed, our position which is more than 500 new media have closed across the country since the creation and arrival of those two platforms in Canada,” she said. “We’re not going to back down from making sure that everyone participates in making our news media market a sustainable one, it’s at the forefront of our democracy. (…) But, at the same time, [Meta] has decided to prevent users from sharing journalistic information to family and friends.”

Alex Freedman, executive director of the Community Radio Fund of Canada, said that Meta and Google’s position to Bill C-18 is “tragic” during an “age of disinformation” where “trustworthy news” is critical for communities. 

“This is becoming a different conversation. News is not a commodity. Information, democracy, our intelligence is not a commodity and it should never be that way. Meta is proving that they are more than willing to hold all of these critical elements to our society hostage for their own financial gain,” Freedman emphasized. “(…) What they’re doing is that they’re trying to send a message to Canada and the world that they are more powerful than our governments. That they can stand against legislation that governments, not just Canadian but globally, are trying to pass to support news media.”

Freedman described Meta as “a profit engine” that does not want to pay to serve the role that it does for media organizations whom use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to grow and engage audiences, leaving the news world in “a very bad spot with this conversation.”

“We haven’t really had meaningful conversations with [Meta]. From a community radio stand point, what we want to see is not a transfer of money from Meta to our stations. What we want to see is a way that we can collaborate so that they can support stations in terms of news gathering, generating online news content that would benefit Facebook. This does not have to be a punitive situation. This is a way of saying that we need to work together to make sure there is funding across the board,” he explained.

Canada isn’t the only country to pursue something like Bill C-18, added Freedman, and there is a “global movement” right now to ensure that there is an existing “structure” for those creating any news content to be compensated by digital platforms. 

“The European Union is also working on a piece legislation like this, we know that there are states like California and others that are doing it in the United States,” he said. “(…) The entity that is Meta is now concerned that there will be a global push to make sure that this happens and they are trying to use the Canadian market to get out in front of it. This goes far beyond the idea that this is just an attack on Canadian news outlets, this is an attack on global information,” he highlighted. 

St-Onge reiterated that Meta and Google know that this is the direction that “democracies are going” in because “we need to have journalistic articles and radio and television broadcasters so that we can debate on facts instead of opinion and disinformation” and to hold those in decision-making positions accountable. 

“Quite frankly, when you look at Facebook’s model it’s based on trust and a relationship between users and the platform. That trust was based on the fact that people could post and share with their family and friends what they care about. Now, [Meta] has decided that users can no longer  share information that they care about with family and friends,” she explained. “This, in my opinion, infringes on the social contract that the platform has. For that, I don’t think that their position in Canada right now, and elsewhere in the world, is sustainable in the long term.”

Recognizing the potential follow-out of Meta and Google’s position to Bill C-18, St-Onge highlighted that there are existing financial aid programs that the Canadian government makes available to news organizations, such as a tax-credit for a journalist’s salary, and that it is taking a number of steps to support Canadian news outlets during this time, including the halt of federal advertising with Meta to reinvest those funds back into local journalism initiatives. 

However, she is hopeful that the federal government will reach an agreement with Meta and Google “because it’s what’s better for all of us.”

“As a country, we need to stay confident that we are moving in the right direction because this is not only a challenge that Canada is facing, protecting and ensuring the survival and sustainability of our journalism. It’s something that all democracies are talking about right now and we are talking to each other. (…) We need to stay strong and confident that we are doing the right thing. We’re fighting for who we are, we’re fighting for our democracy, and we’re fighting for our freedom of expression,” she said. 

CIDI reached out to Meta Canada for comment but they did not get back to us for press time. 

To hear more on Bill C-18 from Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada;  the Honourable Pascale Ste. Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage; and Alex Freedman, Executive Director of the Community Radio Foundation of Canada, listen to the full program below: