Sidewalk Labs, civil liberties group register to lobby

Alphabet Inc.’s Sidewalk Labs kicked off the new year by registering to lobby the federal government, while telecom and broadcasting communications in November grew significantly from the month before. Joshua Sirefman of Sirefman Ventures, Inc. registered in early January to lobby on behalf of Sidewalk Labs, a new project in Toronto. The company is building a high-tech neighbourhood with smart city infrastructure on an 800-acre piece of Toronto’s eastern waterfront. The registration says Sirefman plans to communicate with government, specifically Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, “about potential collaboration between Sidewalk Labs and the federal government in the areas of transportation and renewable energy.” In December, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group registered to lobby for the first time on several bills, including Bill C-23, which deals with preclearance areas at the border, and Bill C-59, which reforms national security legislation. Various privacy and public interest groups have identified potential privacy and security issues with aspects of the bill. The registration is under its national coordinator, Timothy McSorley. The group describes itself as a “Canadian coalition of organizations that works to monitor, analyze and advocate on the defense of civil liberties in Canada in ...the context of national security laws and anti-terrorism activities.” November — the last full month for which data is available — was a busy one for those looking to bend the government’s ear on telecom and media and issues. Telecom-related communications reports jumped from 37 in October to 79 in November, while broadcasting was also up from 20 reports in October to 87 in November. Those numbers were closer to the busy lobbying activity the government saw in May of this year than the lower numbers from late summer and this fall. Telus Corp. representatives reported 10 communications in November, with a number of MPs, including Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains and staff from Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED), as well as Innovation deputy minister John Knubley, NDP Heritage critic Pierre Nantel, and Liberal MPs Francis Scarpaleggia, Jati Sidhu, T.J. Harvey and David Graham. Graham was behind the creation of the digital infrastructure caucus in 2016. Representatives from the company also communicated with the Prime Minister’s Office policy advisor Maxime Dea and deputy director of policy Sabina Saini, as well as Heritage Minister Melanie Joly’s chief of staff Leslie Church. Meanwhile, BCE Inc. had a less active month, submitting five communication reports, with Bains, CRTC chairman Ian Scott, Christopher Berzins, policy director at Global Affairs Canada, and Innovation policy advisor Parvinder Sachdeva to talk telecom. On the broadcasting side, it also met on two occasions with Canadian Heritage’s senior policy advisor Kelly Wilhelm and senior advisor Soraya Martinez. Representatives of Rogers Communications Inc., which had seven reports, also communicated with Scott and Bains, as well as finance minister Bill Morneau, senator Peter Harder, Jillian White, a special assistant in the Foreign Affairs minister’s office, Kristina Mollory, a director of policy in the Office of the Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities, and Dev Saxena, a senior policy advisor in Bains’ office. Shaw Communications Inc. logged 10 communications that same month, also reaching out to Church, Bains and Sachdeva, as well as Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux, Gianluca Cairo, Bains’ chief of staff, Liberal MP Lloyd Longfield, Carlene Variyan, director of communications and issues management at Employment and Social Development Canada, and Ben Chin, policy advisor in Morneau’s office. Shaw also looked beyond Canadian borders in November, meeting with Global Affairs’ Berzins, as well as Sriram Raman, policy advisor to the minister of international trade, Yanique Williams, policy advisor in the office of International Trade Minister François-Philippe Champagne and Jillian White, a special assistant in the office of Foreign Affairs minister Chrystia Freeland. Cogeco Inc. logged one report, with the CRTC chairman, executive director of broadcasting Scott Hutton, and vice-chairwoman of broadcasting Caroline Simard. On the media side, Corus Entertainment Inc. reported 14 communications, including with Liberal MPs Bob Bratina, Andy Fillmore, Greg Fergus, Michael Levitt, Robert Oliphant and Bernadette Jordan, NDP MPs Cheryl Hardcastle, Guy Caron and Pierre-Luc Dusseault, and Conservative MP Bob Benzen. When it came to lobbying among telecom and broadcasting industry and advocacy groups, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting was the most active, filing 20 reports. The watchdog group communicated with MPs including Heritage committee members Nantel, Julie Dabrusin and Kevin Waugh and senators Jim Munson, Frances Lankin and Dennis Dawson, among others. The Association of Canadian Advertisers was also busy, filing 17 reports. Most of those communications were with officials from Health Canada, mostly with policy advisor Travis Gordon, though the group also reached out to Canadian Heritage’s policy director Caroline Seguin, policy advisor Kelly Wilhelm and director of parliamentary affairs Ben Carr. Meanwhile, the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) communicated with the CRTC’s Scott and commissioner Chris MacDonald, as well as Bains, filing three reports, the same number as the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), who communicated with a number of MPs, including David Graham. Advocacy organization OpenMedia had two reports, meeting with Scott and ISED’s Sachdeva. — With reporting by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca and editing by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca

Sidewalk Labs, civil liberties group register to lobby

Broadcast | January 8, 2018

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Sidewalk Labs, civil liberties group register to lobby

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