C-11 committee sets March 29 deadline to finish copyright study

The House of Commons legislative committee studying the Conservative government's omnibus copyright bill has agreed to a new witness list and a rigorous meeting schedule to finish up with the bill by March 29. The committee will meet four days per week starting Feb. 27. Bill C-11, the government's copyright reform legislation, was referred to committee last week after the government passed a time allocation motion to end debate at second reading. Introduced in the House last September, Bill C-11 was under debate since Oct. 18. The government accused the opposition parties of intentionally delaying the bill at debate stage and said the opposition NDP had made 75 speeches about it. The NDP opposes the bill, saying it does not provide enough support for artists and will harm innovation by implementing strict legal protection for the digital locks on software and content. Bill C-11 is identical to its predecessor, Bill C-32, which was studied at a legislative committee in the last Parliament until an election killed all legislation. The Conservative government has said it intends to pick up the committee study on C-11 where the committee on C-32 left off. In procedural meetings this week, the committee—which is governed by Conservative members who have a majority vote—agreed to meet three hours per day, four days per week Monday through Thursday, effective Feb. 27, 2012. On a motion from Tory MP Mike Lake, the parliamentary secretary to the industry minister, the committee also agreed to start the clause-by-clause, or amendment stage of the bill, “no later than Wednesday, Mar. 14, 2012.” The committee also set a deadline for its study of the bill by agreeing that if it does not finish its clause-by-clause amendments by March 29, the committee chair “shall interrupt debate and put the question on all remaining clauses and amendments, as well as all other questions necessary to dispose of this stage of the bill forthwith,” and report the bill back to the House of Commons for a final vote. The committee agreed that members proposing changes to the legislation for the clause-by-clause stage should submit their amendments to the committee 24 hours before clause-by-clause starts March 14. On Thursday, the committee agreed to a final witness list of about 60 witnesses ranging from copyright collectives and technology companies to legal experts and radio stations. The full list of witnesses is published in the committee minutes from Feb. 16. news@thewirereport.ca

C-11 committee sets March 29 deadline to finish copyright study

Broadcast | February 18, 2012

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