Mulcair denounces Glover statements on Netflix regulation

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Tom Mulcair on Wednesday denounced Heritage Minister Shelly Glover's statements that ruled out regulation for online video services such as Netflix and YouTube, which were made while a CRTC hearing considering the future of television was ongoing. Mulcair did not say what his position on the regulation of online video was when asked by The Wire Report after an NDP caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "What I found shocking was to hear a minister responsible for these files saying that she was going to determine, before the CRTC even had a chance to study it, that no matter what they said, she was going to ignore it," Mulcair said. "I think that, at the very least, Minister Glover should start showing respect for the autonomy of the CRTC to sit down and to study these questions completely." On Sept 8., the first day of the CRTC’s two-week Let’s Talk TV hearing, Glover issued a statement: "We will not allow any moves to impose new regulations and taxes on Internet video that would create a Netflix and YouTube tax." Glover's statement noted how a representative of Ontario's Liberal government had taken the opposite position before the CRTC hearing on that day. "Liberals like Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau have never seen an opportunity to regulate and tax that they wouldn't take, but Canadian consumers can rest assured that our government will continue to stand up for them," Glover said in the statement. On the last day of the hearing, following testimony from Netflix Inc. director of public policy Corie Wright, Glover released another statement that said: "We will not impose new regulations on Internet video.” Prime Minster Stephen Harper voiced support for the unbundling of TV services and opposition to new taxes for online services such as Netflix and Google Inc.'s YouTube in a speech that also happened while the CRTC hearing on the TV industry was ongoing. When Netflix refused to disclose subscriber numbers and other information ordered by the commission — even after CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais had threatened revoke the digital media exemption shielding it from regulation — Glover's office reiterated that introducing new rules and taxes on a company like Netflix would be a non-starter. On Wednesday, Mulcair brought up how the Reform party, the predecessor of the now-governing Conservative party, demanded the resignation of former Liberal heritage minister Michel Dupuy after he supported, in 1994, a licence application before the CRTC for a radio station in his constituency. "They went after him hammer and tongs because he tried to make a determination as a politician with regards to something that was before the CRTC," Mulcair said. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca

Mulcair denounces Glover statements on Netflix regulation

Broadcast | October 8, 2014

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Mulcair denounces Glover statements on Netflix regulation

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