Court rules that House proceedings must be distributed in both English and French

A recent Federal Court of Canada ruling means that the House of Commons Broadcasting Service (HCBS) will likely have to change its agreement with the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) to ensure that broadcast distributors provide both the English and French feeds of House proceedings. The HCBS currently provides three versions of the televised proceedings of the House: the floor feed of what is actually said, an English feed, and a French feed. But due to capacity constraints, some cable operators carry only the floor feed, which means the French segments may not be understood by Anglophones, and the sections of the debate carried out in English may not be understood by Francophones. The court found that the House did not absolve itself of its linguistic obligations under the Official Languages Act by subcontracting the distribution out to CPAC. The public affairs channel provides the three feeds, but does not force cablecos to carry both the English and French audio tracks. In a decision released June 5, Justice John A. O’Keefe ordered the HCBS and the federal Board of Internal Economy to take the necessary steps to comply with Section 25 of the Act within one year from the date of the decision. Given the complexity of the matter, the judge declined to "spell out the nature of the steps to be taken." He also stated, "In my opinion Section 25 of the Act requires that any agreement between the House and CPAC, based on the facts of this case, must ‘ensure’ that the eventual broadcasting of the proceedings already provided by the House be in both official languages. By way of example, in the contract between the Speaker of the House and CPAC, if CPAC undertook to negotiate in its agreements with BDUs (broadcast distribution undertakings) that the latter would broadcast CPAC programming in both official languages, then the problem facing the applicant would be avoided." The judge did not buy HCBS’ argument that such a requirement would cause BDUs to refuse to distribute CPAC. Currently, distributors don’t have to carry CPAC, but Class 1 and 2 cablecos that do opt to carry the signal must do so in their basic package. The court decision followed a lawsuit filed against the House by Louis Quigley, a New Brunswick resident who receives CPAC via Rogers Cable Inc. At the time the suit ws filed, Rogers carried only the floor feed. Unable to understand the French parts of the floor feed, Quigley filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages and the House. Following an investigation, the commissioner released a report in October 2000 concluding that HCBS should have taken steps to ensure the ultimate delivery of House proceedings in both official languages. The commissioner intervened in the court proceeding and called for a "broad and purposive interpretation" to ensure full and equal access to Parliamentary debates. The court agreed, ruling that although the House system for production of its debates for broadcast meets the requirements of the Act, the House failed to ensure the broadcasting and delivery system also met those requirements. The court decision gives teeth to a Nov. 6, 2001 ruling by the CRTC that ordered all Class 1 and 2 cablecos to make available a separate video channel of the proceedings of the House and its committees in the official language of the minority – Public Notice 2001-115. The CRTC also stated that Class 3 cablecos with capacity of more than 440 MHz and using digital technology would be subject to the same requirement. The CRTC decision followed an April 2001 call for comments on whether carriage in both official languages should be mandated – Public Notice 2001-46 (CCR, May 10/02). Both the cable and broadcast industries suggested that CPAC use a secondary audio programming (SAP) signal to ensure both the English and French feeds would be available (CCR, June 7/01). In its submission to the CRTC, CPAC committed to investing in SAP and to bolstering viewer awareness of its availability.

Court rules that House proceedings must be distributed in both English and French

Broadcast | June 21, 2002

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