Juno News - Ottawa’s crackdown on independent media just escalated

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter i am your host chris sims we have got an action-packed show for you

00:00:10.660 we are going to be talking with jasmine lane yes for real the real jasmine lane and franco

00:00:17.020 terrazzano right after jasmine why well because the government again is trying to screw you over

00:00:24.960 with higher taxes while crushing your ability to find the news and entertainment you want.

00:00:32.060 Yeah, they're not satisfied with jacking up taxes elsewhere in your life. No, no.

00:00:37.900 Even when you get home, even when you're finished work for the day, even when you want to escape

00:00:42.880 and relax and maybe watch Netflix. I like watching ER because it's from the 1990s and the before

00:00:48.560 times and it doesn't make me crazy. Or watching The Crown, whatever you like watching on a

00:00:53.020 streaming show, the government is grabbing your wallet again. The CRTC just finished announcing

00:00:59.560 they're going to have a 15% streaming tax now. What that means is you're going to get nailed

00:01:06.380 with even higher fees. Why? Thanks to this federal government. But it's worse than that.

00:01:12.900 Not only are they coming after your entertainment dollars and not leaving you in peace even for a

00:01:17.240 couple of hours in the evening? No, no. They are trying or in succeeding in many cases to suppress

00:01:24.560 information. They're controlling what you can see, hear, and share on the internet. We warned you.

00:01:30.800 We warned you with Bill C-11. We've warned you with all these moves of censorship that the

00:01:36.040 government through regulation under the guise of Canadian content, right? Just trust them.

00:01:41.660 the government is suppressing what you're able to see including on shows like this

00:01:49.720 YouTube channels like this if you've actually found us thank you so much if you've just found

00:01:56.240 us now do yourselves and us a favor bookmark this like this channel share it with your friends

00:02:02.820 that will help more Canadians watch what's going on and this is a real thing folks because if the

00:02:09.100 government on one side is dumping money into the mainstream media and putting journalists on

00:02:15.160 government payroll, which is a direct conflict of interest, and at the same time crushing the

00:02:20.360 ability for you to watch independent news and journalism and entertainment shows that you want

00:02:25.840 to watch on here? How are you truly free to express yourself? How are you able to find information?

00:02:32.700 Don't let me stand in the way. Let's hear it directly from Jasmine Lane right now.

00:02:38.120 Joining me now is Jasmine Lane.

00:02:40.960 She is, of course, the host of her own show, Jasmine Lane, on YouTube.

00:02:45.060 You can find her everywhere online.

00:02:47.380 Be sure to go check out her show.

00:02:49.180 I'm so excited that we finally get a chance to talk directly on camera.

00:02:52.920 You and I have been texting back and forth.

00:02:54.720 For people who don't yet know your show, who've been living under a rock,

00:02:58.820 tell us a little bit about yourself.

00:03:01.480 Yeah, so I worked in traditional media for 11 years as a broadcaster,

00:03:05.980 award-winning broadcaster for several different categories of different things over my career.

00:03:10.740 And then close to two and a half years or so ago, I decided to go fully independent,

00:03:16.820 started talking about conservatism, started talking about economic policy a lot,

00:03:21.500 as well as U.S.-Canada relations are something that I'm pretty invested in, as I think all

00:03:26.660 Canadians should be, because it is such a huge impact on us. So I started doing that predominantly

00:03:32.600 on YouTube, found myself charting behind Joe Rogan at one point in time, which is still like

00:03:37.380 a fever dream. That's so cool. It's crazy. Um, I don't know why I'm a loser. So, but like,

00:03:43.720 no, I don't say that. No. And I must say, I must say, um, you talk a lot about things like

00:03:48.720 purpose and hope. And I think that really matters. Uh, we do a lot of in-person events

00:03:54.060 at the taxpayers federation and people really start to get to know you. Um, when you do stuff

00:04:00.000 like this. I mean, you're in their home, you're on their phones, you're there when they're walking

00:04:04.380 the dog. They really seem to connect to hosts. So thank you for focusing on hope and what people

00:04:10.720 can actually do. Like it really is translating. No problem. I wanted to get into the fact that

00:04:17.800 in my opinion, the government is trying to crush independent media, independent journalism. On one

00:04:25.820 side of the vice they're tightening is government money, taxpayers' money being dumped into mainstream

00:04:31.120 media. So they're putting journalists on government payroll. In my opinion, it makes them not

00:04:35.260 journalists anymore. But on the other side of things, they're trying to censor what we can

00:04:40.640 see, hear, and share online. And they're doing that in really strange, sneaky ways. Can you get

00:04:46.020 into that a little bit? How are they doing that so that people aren't visible as much as they used

00:04:50.020 to be? I mean, it started off with legislation that became law in 2023, and I actually recall

00:04:56.700 I was working on a morning show at the time, and myself, my co-host, everybody that I was working

00:05:00.700 with, when the first tranche of these bills, C-11 and C-18, the Online News Act and the Online

00:05:05.960 Streaming Act first came out, I remember even in the mainstream, everybody sounding the alarm over

00:05:12.400 how harmful this could be, and we saw the immediate effects of that as well. I mean, the number of

00:05:17.860 independent local organizations that had to close as a result of it was it's unbelievable and what

00:05:24.340 you saw instead was because of this you have to pay for canadian content thing which to be frank

00:05:31.140 you know i don't i don't quite understand the model to begin with i don't i don't get it um we

00:05:37.140 have to promote canadian content what does that mean isn't promoting canadian content happening

00:05:42.100 organically every single day that Canadians exist I don't understand that aspect of it in the

00:05:47.900 slightest but essentially what happened is in the actual legislation of these bills there are

00:05:53.360 incentives and mandates as well for payment from various platforms so many of us will recall in

00:05:59.380 the summer of 2023 how suddenly overnight you could no longer share news on meta platforms

00:06:05.560 facebook instagram now threads and the results of that i mean i remember shortly within a week

00:06:12.440 or two weeks of that legislation passing and that being the end result which the liberal government

00:06:17.080 knew was going to happen they ended up there was a big fire i think it was in rural alberta and

00:06:24.280 you had citizens who were trying to warn each other of evacuation notices and warn each other

00:06:29.160 of how this fire was spreading and they couldn't post what was happening because it was news

00:06:35.560 So, you know, the effects of that one were super bad as is. But then when it came to some of the other tranches of it, what you ended up having is, you know, in the legislation, it's written out as the CRTC, which is the Canada Radio Telecommunications Commission, is that they cannot, they're not in charge of algorithms or anything like that.

00:07:00.340 It's a fun little loophole that they have because in theory, duh, you cannot actually

00:07:06.380 promise an outcome, i.e. more Canadian content without manipulating algorithms.

00:07:12.980 And there are fines and penalties on platforms like YouTube, Google, you name it, if they

00:07:21.640 do not pump out enough Canadian content.

00:07:24.040 So what you have with that is the platforms themselves that have to manipulate their

00:07:28.340 algorithms to ensure that Canadian content, which is defined by DEI, um, you know, it has to be a

00:07:36.000 certain percentage of indigenous. It has to be a certain percentage of news. There's all of these

00:07:41.000 things in there and it's only from trusted sources and the model that they go off of is predominantly

00:07:45.260 the CBC. So it's, it's been really, really detrimental in a way that so many people, you

00:07:51.640 know, in Canada, you may think when you go on your phone that you have freedom to search for whatever

00:07:57.740 you want but you don't you have freedom to search from the selection that you are given

00:08:01.500 and it's something i've discussed several times as well if you even try to search a news story

00:08:07.980 doesn't matter what it is in most cases there's the odd time something will break through but in

00:08:12.220 the mo in most cases if you search anything at all into your google app or whatever

00:08:18.220 you will have to scroll to page three or four sometimes even further until you see a right of

00:08:23.740 center opinion even if that right of center outlet um had far more engagement was actually wildly

00:08:31.100 viral in comparison to to the the left-leaning one the cbc or you know other other stations that

00:08:37.580 claim to be neutral but they aren't so um it's it is really crazy a lot of people think that it

00:08:44.140 doesn't affect them but it does it affects everything that you see and i would also note

00:08:47.420 how fascinating it has been ever since that was published and those small little details and and

00:08:52.460 the impact that they have and how much more radicalized much of the canadian public has become

00:08:58.220 since then and i really do think that that has everything to do with a lack of access to

00:09:02.780 information and also the this insinuation that anything that isn't government funded is somehow

00:09:08.380 not truthful that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard in my life no because i don't want to put 0.81

00:09:14.940 words in your mouth uh but to me um government funding is a complete conflict of interest for 0.98

00:09:20.700 journalism absolutely without a doubt yeah you know and i it's interesting too because i've

00:09:25.500 worked for outlets that have been funded and there's a lot of different outlets where there's

00:09:29.500 a massive percentage of salaries that this funding goes towards for journalists and reporters but

00:09:35.500 i've worked i've worked for companies that that had that type of a funding model but i suppose my

00:09:41.580 my job at those companies was not one where i was actually you know well it's jasmine lane here

00:09:47.180 live at five uh so it was a little different but i i full-heartedly agree with that i really do and

00:09:54.380 i also think you know here's the biggest reason why i fundamentally just do not fit in with anybody

00:10:00.060 who supports this type of legislation either is that i i believe in merit a lot and i believe in

00:10:07.820 working really hard and and creating things and being met with challenges like not making enough

00:10:14.540 money because your product sucks and having to fix something or relaunch or whatever like i i think

00:10:20.460 all of that are is it's so strong to have that um and it builds a lot of character in you as well 0.97

00:10:26.140 individually and and i just i don't like handouts i don't like the easy street i want challenges i

00:10:32.060 want to rise above the ashes when nobody thought it was possible you know and yeah just have this

00:10:37.660 culture of the opposite and it's just it's it's not good for us i don't think long term mentally

00:10:43.180 either yeah exactly because it's real if you're actually on your own merits it's real doing sink

00:10:49.580 or swim whereas if you're just getting corporate welfare and handouts and pats on the head from the

00:10:55.180 government and manipulated algorithms it's so fake and can i also can i also add the fact that i just

00:11:04.460 it is so crazy to me because if you want to talk about c11 as an example um and having to having

00:11:11.180 streamers and all of these other things pay into a canadian fund that again the the recipients of

00:11:17.740 that are all hand selected by the guy i don't get that i would deny it if i was ever offered it but

00:11:22.380 i've never been offered it you know like the the recipients of that are not people like me it's not

00:11:27.900 the everyday person who has started their own business or anything like that and i just think

00:11:32.060 it is so absurd to to realize the fact that the reason why so so much of mainstream media was

00:11:41.100 dying in the first place had a lot to do with the over regulation of the system yes and to compensate

00:11:46.700 for that instead of deregulating you know instead of of getting rid of some of those barriers that

00:11:53.340 was causing them to lose money and that you know when it comes to subscription fees and all of this

00:11:57.340 stuff there's a lot of nuance there a lot of details but instead of getting rid of that they

00:12:01.340 They were like, we're going to keep all of that same stuff that was causing you hardship in the

00:12:04.800 first place. And we're just going to make somebody else pay for it so that you guys shut up. We're 0.65

00:12:09.680 going to get somebody else's money. I just, to me, it's like, I just don't understand. We live in

00:12:13.880 Canada and we are so broke as a country that we consider things like this a win, forcing streamers

00:12:20.300 to pay for our content. Like that doesn't exist anywhere the way that we do it. And it just seems

00:12:26.480 so weak. And I it just I'm also very fired up about this right now. But I can see that I just

00:12:33.860 don't respect it. I don't respect it at all. I'm going to get to how this is affecting even just

00:12:39.340 your channel, for example, because you were giving some really neat side by side comparisons

00:12:43.500 before and after. But before we get into that, just quickly to Jasmine's point, she's absolutely

00:12:48.660 right. So when I was at Sun News Network, that was actually a TV channel. OK, it was all being

00:12:55.800 regulated and then eventually strangled by the CRTC. Now it was almost as if Sun News Network

00:13:02.220 was born just a bit too soon because there was no platforms like this. It wasn't online in the same

00:13:07.480 way that we are right now because there were all sorts of rules and regulations because our parent

00:13:13.520 company technically owned a cell phone company and therefore you can't do that by this regulation

00:13:18.460 and this rule. You can't have subscription, you can't have streaming. And then the idea of taking

00:13:23.100 all of those red balls of red tape and regulation, which destroyed an entire news network, instead of

00:13:29.440 getting rid of that, they just added more. And now they're trying to strangle independent online

00:13:35.000 journalism like what we're doing right now. So what she's saying is absolutely true. It is mind

00:13:40.300 blowing. And you're paying for it, folks. Just keep in mind when they say 15 percent streaming

00:13:45.280 tax for things like Netflix, guess who's getting stuck with that bill? If Netflix sticks around in

00:13:50.480 Canada and bothers offering Canada, us, all of us, we're going to be paying more. I'm going to

00:13:55.260 be paying more, Jasmine, for watching my 1990s comfort show ER when I want to unplug, for goodness

00:14:01.880 sake. Now, you did a really neat side-by-side comparison talking about algorithms because

00:14:06.840 when I hear algorithms, it's a little bit like cyber magic, okay? Can you explain with the

00:14:12.300 numbers how this has been affecting your reach? So, you know, for the record as well, because I'm

00:14:18.460 sure there's people who may come across this who are like ah well whatever you're a conservative

00:14:22.140 anyway and you shouldn't have a voice but this doesn't just impact people doing things like what

00:14:27.580 i'm doing this impacts literally everybody especially independent digital creators um and

00:14:34.580 essentially what it has done is as a result of the mandated outcome of there being more discoverability

00:14:41.500 for like any time that anything happens on the internet and inside of the legislation there is

00:14:48.060 the word something to the effect of a promised discoverability just know that that means

00:14:53.800 manipulation that means that it's inorganic they are going to push something maybe to audiences

00:14:59.140 that don't like it who knows to promise an end outcome because organic discoverability is actually

00:15:04.880 everything it is how the digital marketplace has become so successful it's how you have had people

00:15:11.120 like mr beast if you're a fan or danny go for crying out loud for kids um who have created

00:15:17.980 these these huge empires and and just done all the all of this stuff but basically what happens is

00:15:24.540 under the crtc there's really strict regulations for news and the spread of misinformation which

00:15:31.420 for the record i have yet to find anything that i've shared that hasn't been true there's been a

00:15:36.060 handful of things that i've said that uh maybe jump the gun a little bit and then you give a

00:15:39.820 quick little update oh got that one detail wrong you know but um journalism by the way in case

00:15:45.020 case people don't know that's called journalism go go for it doing it on the fly here so every

00:15:49.740 once in a while i might accidentally get a date wrong or something but um but there's a really

00:15:54.920 strict mandates for that in place and again they use predominantly the cbc model as a trusted news

00:16:00.600 source and so for myself doing a daily political commentary show um i already am getting suppressed

00:16:08.100 as a result of that and i've seen about 50 loss in my income and in my audience and i've posted

00:16:13.880 some analytics for this where you can see and i've compared it with videos that i've had in

00:16:18.440 the past that are really large where um the audience growth right now because it's not trusted

00:16:26.200 it's not risking potentially getting fined by the crtc for promoting something that is risky

00:16:36.840 and therefore the videos only get shown to an echo chamber which i would also like to say is

00:16:43.320 quite funny because there's been a lot of people who are not fans of mine even though they've never

00:16:47.000 watched my show and know nothing about me who have commented before saying like oh well i guess your

00:16:51.720 echo chamber's tired of you and i'm like no that's actually the problem is my stuff is only getting

00:16:56.120 fed to an echo chamber right now and that's actually really bad for all of us i agree with

00:17:00.840 you that's bad um because global discovery and global reach and breaking those boundaries uh if

00:17:06.840 you have content that's good obviously is everything for anybody creating online and

00:17:11.240 typically creators in the past i know mario zalea has mentioned this many times as well

00:17:15.800 our audiences are more often than not upwards of 70 it's not who follows us it's getting pushed out

00:17:22.840 to 70 of a group of people who might be interested in this one thing based on something else that

00:17:27.640 they watched um and now it's only getting fed to the people who loyally watch you and so what you

00:17:33.960 have there is it's not showing up on home feeds anymore it's not showing up in recommended videos

00:17:37.960 anymore and you're getting all of these other things that do meet the criteria for their

00:17:42.960 Canadian content percentages and Canadian content has been a requirement for media in Canada for

00:17:48.660 as long as I've been alive as well and it hasn't ever been implemented in this way though and again

00:17:54.720 I think that has to go with it's one thing if you force radio stations to play Canadian music

00:17:59.320 the pool of which is getting shallower and shallower every year unfortunately but it's a

00:18:05.740 total different thing to force platforms like YouTube and and Google or Facebook and all of

00:18:13.040 this to to be pushing out a percentage of Canadian content. That's only the trusted Canadian content.

00:18:18.700 And so oftentimes what you have is even if your content is performing well, you it's it doesn't

00:18:24.760 get pushed out because it's risky. It's not an approved, accredited legacy outlet, which is just

00:18:30.940 killing the independence movement all like in and of itself and it's also killing you know think

00:18:37.620 about entrepreneurs who want who are starting a digital business of some sort there's tons of

00:18:41.440 those that exist right now how are you supposed to survive yeah you can't just think of what we're

00:18:47.000 talking about here we're talking about the government approving somebody like it's just

00:18:53.240 mind-blowing that is not a free press that is not free expression that is the antithesis to that

00:18:58.960 And now I'll put it this way. We were talking about having to play Canadian music. So back in

00:19:04.520 the day when all this stuff, this CanCon stuff got started, they had all sorts of problems with it

00:19:09.900 because even Brian Adams was told you're not Canadian enough because I think one of his 0.99

00:19:14.780 producers had an Australian aunt or something stupid. And so like you get government involved 0.99

00:19:19.880 with this of guess what? We're going to have a bunch of bureaucrats in Ottawa and Gatineau

00:19:23.420 decide what is and is not Canadian content. Oh, that'll go good. This won't be a problem.

00:19:27.900 And so now what's happening with your show, and I imagine with a whole bunch of other producers who are on places like YouTube, it's almost like you're hitting the walls of a glass jar, right? And you're kind of staying inside that jar. I just wanted to point out, it isn't just you speaking to camera, which is still good, but you're doing big interviews, right? Like you're talking to newsmakers and big players in Canada.

00:19:49.900 yeah and it's totally silenced it's and it is and again i'm following it in my analytics and

00:19:57.680 this is something that i've studied a lot that i've had my my spidey senses tingling on ever

00:20:02.320 since it was first introduced and um it is such a disservice it truly is and i i think the the

00:20:09.120 best way that i could summarize it as well is the forced outcome of discoverability for those

00:20:16.000 approved pieces of content that are somehow promoting Canadian I again I don't get it but

00:20:24.080 the fact that you will have something where every single analytic shows that the audience

00:20:33.060 absolutely loves this you know and yet it still gets for lack of better words killed yeah but

00:20:41.180 and nobody's allowed to see it even though if you were in any other country that would have been

00:20:46.140 viral um and that's really frustrating to deal with though i am doing a social experiment very

00:20:53.020 soon and i will be traveling to the states i live very close to the border and i'm going to be

00:20:57.980 publishing my show for a couple of weeks from a nice little airbnb i've rented out there just so

00:21:03.180 that i can actually compare the analytical data and have much more solid ground on how much c11

00:21:09.660 is not only blocking me from from reaching Canadians, but it's also blocking me from

00:21:15.760 reaching a global audience as well, which used to be easy.

00:21:19.260 You used to very easily be able to to break into the ether.

00:21:23.000 And so at the end of the day, I think all of this stuff truly it is meant to promote

00:21:27.900 Canadian content.

00:21:28.900 But what it's actually doing is it's isolating Canadian content so much so like you are actually

00:21:34.060 shutting off the taps for Canadian voices to make it on a large scale.

00:21:38.480 So if you want to if you want to promote Canada, the best way to do that is probably not to

00:21:43.180 have algorithms manipulated so that your content is only being shown in Canada and not anywhere

00:21:48.700 else in the world.

00:21:49.700 Like you are literally isolating your entire country and content creators of all stripes.

00:21:54.420 It doesn't matter what you do either.

00:21:55.760 Obviously, there's some categories that are more protected, but you could have a cooking

00:21:59.540 channel and because you don't count as being Canadian.

00:22:03.480 Well, you're not going to be seen as often.

00:22:05.420 so it's it is it's such a problem it's such a problem there has to be a middle ground here and

00:22:11.340 i i just think it's it's absurd everything about it is absurd it's totally absurd i remember when

00:22:16.760 they were having c11 hearings um i was surprised to see even pinterest which is just like you know

00:22:22.480 it's a it's a pretty how would i describe it like a pretty website a pretty app where it's mostly

00:22:27.480 image based and you can pin your board on there and you can do whatever you want it can be like

00:22:31.520 vintage bathrooms or movie star hunks or whatever you want on there they were even saying like we

00:22:36.560 can't do this because you're going to be impinging on people's ability to find what they want to find

00:22:42.080 to watch what they want to watch and to share what they want to share and goodness think about the

00:22:47.220 applications of this folks when you're in an election when you have something where you want

00:22:51.740 to speak up for yourself or watch a show like jasmine's or watch you know or frankly anyone

00:22:56.360 else that you want to watch imagine not being able to find that content and what kind of effect that

00:23:01.060 could have on say a vote outcome it's unbelievable okay lastly before I let you go because I promised

00:23:07.460 you 20 minutes because you're a very busy lady I know you're recording today um what did you think

00:23:12.200 here we have Netflix coming out and hearing from the government that surprise now that streaming

00:23:18.700 tax that you were initially paying is going to be jacked up to 15 percent like I I see this as all

00:23:25.400 part of the same toxic pond of censorship and control coming out of Ottawa what was your take

00:23:30.640 on this i think again i agree with you i also would highlight again it's just it's reflective

00:23:37.260 of how broke canada is that we have no money and so the way that you you can't increase taxes on

00:23:44.100 on citizens anymore because they are about to crack as is so you got to try to go after the

00:23:49.940 big dogs and at least you'll have some people who are deluded enough to think that um tax the rich

00:23:55.360 actually works as though the rich aren't also the same people who pay over 40 percent of taxes as is

00:24:00.900 and the people who who also employ all of us but already then um so i i think there's that but also

00:24:08.980 i just i i think i think it's very interesting that this is coming out as well and this the

00:24:17.160 crtc is technically an independent body so it's not as though the liberal government said make

00:24:22.480 this announcement today I don't think that's how that works they usually schedule all of their

00:24:26.640 announcements well in advance but um how interesting is it that just a few days ago we had

00:24:32.540 meta we've had so many other execs um testifying in committee about bill c-22 and how upset that

00:24:40.960 makes all of them and now you introduce this other thing like I feel like Canada's in a really rough

00:24:46.820 spot right now when it comes to so much of the the things that citizens rely on whether for

00:24:53.420 entertainment or anything it's you know it's whatever you use it for is your own prerogative

00:24:58.040 unless it's illegal of course then it's the police but i think ultimately there is so much

00:25:04.140 going on the timing of this is absolutely horrendous this has been a major trade irritant

00:25:08.400 back when the tax was five percent and now you've announced it to be increased to 15 percent i was

00:25:14.460 slightly um i had some promise to it that mark miller as much as him and i disagree a lot um

00:25:21.500 that he had said that they are looking into this and they would like to do something so i okay

00:25:26.480 that's in a good direction what will that yield i don't know um but i i think ultimately the timing

00:25:32.680 is is atrocious and it's completely nonsensical it is it's it's so absurd that all of this is

00:25:40.260 happening to Canadians right now at a time when we are struggling so much and you know you want

00:25:45.180 to know why people are so angry it's because we are struggling so much and because we are being

00:25:51.320 censored and silenced in so many ways and being told everything's fine everything's fine and it's

00:25:55.880 not fine people are hurting and and you need to listen to people um and something like this just

00:26:01.760 to go add on another tax and you're right I'm sure I'm sure the prerogative will be oh well it's not

00:26:06.680 going to get passed on to consumers. What always happens? It gets passed on to consumers. We're

00:26:10.540 going to have that or people are going to pull out. I mean, I believe this was C-11. I don't 0.93

00:26:15.080 think it or perhaps it was C-18. I really don't recall one of the two. But even Google, they had

00:26:20.020 initially tested what it would be like to pull news from Google in Canada. Could you imagine how

00:26:27.160 devastating that would be? Yeah. And they were testing that. And even when they announced that

00:26:31.740 they were testing that, the liberal government didn't say we're going to reevaluate because that

00:26:35.400 would be terrible for our citizens. No, they kept on. Thankfully, Google found out that they would

00:26:40.840 have lost way more money doing that than they would by paying $100 million a year to be distributed

00:26:45.780 to various outlets that the government chooses and who apply for it. But I fear that you're going to

00:26:51.520 have situations, especially for some of those smaller channels and networks. You know, if you

00:26:55.380 have Disney Plus, as an example, how many other channels are included with Disney Plus? Are they

00:27:00.300 maybe going to cut some of those so that they they don't have to pay xyz taxes on certain things you

00:27:06.460 know i i just don't see anywhere at all where this is beneficial to canadians as a whole um

00:27:13.980 and it's it's just it's such a damn shame and you know what would be really cool if our

00:27:18.380 country could actually start making money again and we could stop relying on handouts and forcing

00:27:23.740 other people to pay for the promises that the government makes during the election because

00:27:27.580 they have completely stalled our economy that would be great that would we would all thrive

00:27:31.900 people would be happier and we'd get along so i'm just patiently waiting for the day that that

00:27:36.300 happens or else you're going to keep seeing more and more canadians leave less and less startups

00:27:40.700 entrepreneurs all of that nobody's going to be doing that here anymore and the margins have

00:27:44.620 already fallen significantly so the long-term projection is is very it's very worrisome it is

00:27:51.100 uh jasmine i thank you for your time where can people find your work and where can people help

00:27:56.300 out if they want to help out what's going on here honestly i would say the best way to find me is

00:28:02.700 just search my name jasmine lane there's no e at the end of jasmine my mother cursed me with never

00:28:07.740 being able to find a souvenir with my name spelled properly on it so a canadian tire those little

00:28:13.980 like room things or a key tag or something it's never the right one oh i'm not even kidding you

00:28:18.620 coke bottles they had a thing where they had names on them in 2014 2015 and one of my friend's parents

00:28:24.620 found one that said jasmine with an e so they used a red sharpie to color out the e i was like

00:28:29.740 that's so special of them oh my goodness okay so they can find you just go through youtube and

00:28:34.860 search your name and it's right there yeah and if you find one of my channels you find all of

00:28:39.420 them because i have all of my profiles linked in each so awesome we'll put you in the show notes

00:28:43.980 as well jasmine lane once again thank you so much for your time and thank you for fighting

00:28:48.780 for freedom of information and for Canadians much appreciated thank you so much you bet isn't she

00:28:55.660 amazing go check her out for sure go check out in the show notes you can see what she's talking 0.53

00:29:00.460 about there she's had super heavy hitters on her show like a lot she just finished interviewing

00:29:05.820 Pierre Polyev once again so she's got some seriously hard news on her show go check that out

00:29:11.020 and what I love about this is that we're not alone right Juno news is not alone rebel is not alone

00:29:18.140 all these independent journalists are not alone, right? We've got other people who are fighting

00:29:23.780 for freedom of the press and the ability to express ourselves freely and to hold government

00:29:29.540 to account. And she's right out of Manitoba. I'm super curious. I forgot to ask her, but

00:29:34.620 I'm super curious when she crosses the border and tries doing that from the BNB, doing her show from 0.98

00:29:39.980 the BNB in the States, is she going to have to buy like a whole new laptop and create a whole new 1.00

00:29:45.460 Google profile and stuff in order to log into YouTube. Like, I'm wondering if like the tags 1.00

00:29:50.940 and algorithms of where her origin is, we'll just follow her down there no matter what and what

00:29:56.660 will happen then with the viewership. I have to wait and see. As Jasmine pointed out there,

00:30:02.200 there is a silver lining to this announcement over from the CRTC about surprise, Netflix tax,

00:30:09.960 streaming tax, it's going to be jacked up to 15%. Thanks so much. There actually is a little

00:30:15.080 crack in the door. And that is that the minister responsible used the R word. He said they are

00:30:23.120 reviewing the decision. That means we have a chance to push back on this nonsense and say no more.

00:30:32.360 No more tax hikes. Stop with the streaming tax hikes. So how do we actually do that? And what

00:30:38.620 are the details of this announcement? And how much is it going to cost us? Let's find out.

00:30:43.420 Joining me now is my good friend and colleague, Franco Terrazzano.

00:30:46.840 Franco is the Federal Director of the Taxpayers Federation.

00:30:49.720 Here we go again, Franco.

00:30:51.600 We are getting an increase to the so-called Netflix tax.

00:30:56.140 Thanks so much to the CRTC.

00:30:58.160 What is going on?

00:31:00.260 Yeah, well, the CRTC, so folks, that's the federal government's regulator, right?

00:31:03.900 So let's just call it the federal government.

00:31:05.660 The federal government is tripling the streaming tax.

00:31:09.120 okay so uh the streaming tax was at about five percent now it's going up as i said tripled to

00:31:15.880 15 percent of canadian revenues for these streaming companies uh that have annual broadcast revenues

00:31:22.640 above 25 million dollars okay so so what does that mean well in layman's terms and everyday people

00:31:29.000 speak it means brace for impact you could be paying more to stream your favorite tv shows

00:31:35.400 or movies on places like Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney Plus, right?

00:31:41.280 And like, here's the thing, like, I don't know if the government just doesn't get it

00:31:44.580 or if the government just doesn't care.

00:31:46.560 I don't know which one's worse, to be honest with you.

00:31:48.880 But like Canadians are already squeezed, right?

00:31:51.420 So many Canadians right now are already just struggling to afford the necessities.

00:31:55.620 The last thing that they need is their government making it more expensive

00:31:59.100 for them to watch their favorite movie after a long workday.

00:32:03.180 Like what is going on right now?

00:32:05.400 Yeah, it's super gross. And so not only that, but they're increasing the prices and the taxes on

00:32:11.420 things like beer and wine. So if you want to pop the cork and sit back, you're going to be paying

00:32:16.820 more for it. I will point out that years ago when the province of British Columbia brought in their

00:32:22.440 Netflix tax, Franco, you let me go on the air several times and say Netflix and chill. I realize

00:32:28.360 now I'm not supposed to say that. So thanks so much for that. No. And hey, folks, like here's

00:32:33.200 here's the big thing i think here's the big takeaway from this announcement number one sorry

00:32:38.000 chris didn't mean to let you go out there uh but number two like when we talk about the federal

00:32:42.880 government tripling the streaming tax like like what does it mean for you because i gave you kind

00:32:46.800 of a wonky explanation of it but it just means like life could get even more expensive thanks to

00:32:52.480 another government tax increase okay so the government should be completely scrapping the

00:32:57.440 streaming tax for sure but what i say is brace for impact this could mean higher prices when

00:33:03.280 you want to stream your favorite tv show or your favorite movie but folks don't even take it from

00:33:08.080 me i know i'm a yeah i'm a decent guy but don't even take it from me let's look at the experts

00:33:12.320 okay so i've got industry experts and academics warning that this can mean higher prices let me

00:33:18.080 read two quotes from you okay for you okay so the first quote is from the motion picture association

00:33:23.520 of Canada. Quote, this decision triples the cost of doing business in Canada and will spark even

00:33:31.020 more inflation in the market, making further investment and innovation less attractive.

00:33:37.120 Okay. So from the Motion Picture Association of Canada, we've got warning about more inflation

00:33:42.780 and also hurting, you know, Canadian business investment, the entire economy, which is something

00:33:49.060 the federal government should be focusing on right now Chris the second quote that I want to talk

00:33:54.200 about here comes from Michael Geis okay he's like one of the foremost experts in Canada on this kind

00:33:59.480 of stuff he's at the University of Ottawa here's what Geis had to say quote we may well see increased

00:34:06.020 prices for Canadian consumers as the cost of doing business just went up significantly Canada with

00:34:13.440 this decision becomes really one of the most expensive countries for streamers to operate in

00:34:19.060 Let me just have a final thought here.

00:34:21.760 Yeah.

00:34:21.960 Right.

00:34:22.760 When will the Carney government finally wake up to the fact that higher taxes on businesses drives out investment and means higher prices for ordinary Canadians?

00:34:35.920 Yeah.

00:34:36.320 To put that in normal people talk, if I'm the motion picture group that you just mentioned there, why would it make sense for me to do business in Canada if my streaming tax is super high?

00:34:46.400 Why wouldn't I just keep it in California or New York?

00:34:49.060 right isn't that the whole point here well and look at geist's quote the last part of his quote

00:34:54.300 right canada with this decision becomes really one of the most expensive countries for streamers

00:34:59.520 to operate in and you know what like i know we're talking about this uh the federal government

00:35:04.040 tripling the streaming tax because that's what just happened that is the news but the bigger

00:35:09.020 picture here is how uncompetitive canada is because of these taxes and you know it actually

00:35:16.240 i hate to keep bringing it back to carbon taxes but it's true it's but it's true the industrial

00:35:21.780 carbon tax carney's hitting carbon tax on canadian businesses right our biggest economic competitor

00:35:26.860 the united states regardless of who is in the white house whether it's a democrat or a republican

00:35:32.000 they're not imposing national carbon taxes right so again another example of how our government

00:35:39.020 is shooting us in the foot so to speak right with these higher taxes on businesses that push away

00:35:44.880 investment and also make life more expensive. I just wanted to get him on the record here.

00:35:50.020 Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev, the official opposition leader, came out swinging

00:35:55.160 against this increased streaming tax that Canadians are going to have to pay. Let's listen to that.

00:36:00.700 And if they turn on their Netflix to watch, well, what did we learn this week? The Liberal

00:36:05.420 appointed CRTC wants to increase taxes on your streaming services. A 15% tax on Canadians

00:36:13.900 streaming netflix and other online services attacks on your drink attacks on the show that

00:36:23.320 you're watching while you enjoy that drink attacks when you get in the car in the morning

00:36:27.020 to drive to work attacks on your paycheck everywhere you turn mark carney is in your

00:36:32.640 pocket conservatives oppose the netflix nix flicks tax and we call on the carney liberals

00:36:38.680 to reverse their tax increase and let Canadians enjoy their streaming in peace and affordability.

00:36:44.900 So there we go. To your point, I'm glad he pointed out that when you get in your car,

00:36:50.440 they're taxing you there too. And when you try to have a drink while you're watching,

00:36:53.840 they're taxing you there too. Like it never seems to end, Franco. Like what should people do

00:36:59.000 when they hear this? Because I'm not even joking. Like I'll turn on Netflix in the evening because

00:37:04.220 I'm trying to forget for a little while that the government is taxing us at every single turn,

00:37:09.900 making life unaffordable for people. If I want to watch ER from the 1990s and check out for a

00:37:14.880 little while, that should be my business. Why on earth are they jacking up the taxes on that?

00:37:19.260 What should people do if they're watching this going, what to do, man?

00:37:22.560 I love that question because right now is a time for action. Okay. So we've been talking about the

00:37:28.100 bad news where the CRTC, the federal regulator is tripling the streaming tax. However,

00:37:34.220 let's say let's call it a little bit of a silver lining is that i think the federal government i

00:37:39.660 think carney and his cabinet ministers could back down from this i really do because almost

00:37:45.260 immediately or at least shortly after the crtc announced this decision the tripling of the

00:37:50.620 streaming tax you had the federal minister who oversees all of this uh put out a tweet saying

00:37:56.700 that the government is currently reviewing the crtc decision right so there wasn't this like oh

00:38:02.220 we support it a hundred percent no the tweet is currently reviewing the crtc decision that's from

00:38:07.980 a federal cabinet minister right so what that tells me is that if the federal government feels

00:38:13.340 pressure from ordinary canadians being like no way stop making our life more expensive we don't care

00:38:18.780 what tax it is if it's going to make life more expensive we don't support it i think we could

00:38:23.260 push them to back down so a couple things that you can do right now very simple number one head

00:38:28.140 head over to taxpayer.com, click the petitions tab.

00:38:31.120 We've got a petition right there.

00:38:33.060 Scrap the streaming tax, no streaming tax.

00:38:36.120 Sign up there to get in the fight.

00:38:37.960 Number two, look, now's a good time to email an MP,

00:38:41.940 email the minister, email the prime minister,

00:38:44.700 tell them to back off of this tax increase,

00:38:47.880 scrap the streaming tax altogether

00:38:49.620 because Canadians can't afford the federal government

00:38:52.920 making our lives more expensive.

00:38:54.580 So folks, I know there's a whole lot of bad,

00:38:56.840 a little bit of a silver lining is I think there is some room for us to push back and push these

00:39:02.080 politicians to backtrack on this streaming tax hike. Yeah, for sure. The key word there was

00:39:07.660 reviewing. They don't say that that often. And to have the minister say that out loud was important,

00:39:12.540 right, man? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And it was like I said, they didn't come out, you know,

00:39:17.760 full, you know, applauding it or whatever within the same day, right within like hours, let's say,

00:39:24.080 or within at least 24 hours, you had the minister saying, well, I guess we're going to have to

00:39:27.920 review it. Right. So that tells me that there is room to push and to get a victory here.

00:39:33.640 There is. OK, everybody put your shoulders into this. Franco, thank you so much for this update.

00:39:38.760 Thanks, Chris. You bet. Once again, that is Franco Terrazzano. He is, of course,

00:39:42.480 the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And yeah, we're fighting this

00:39:47.260 streaming tax. We're fighting the increase to the streaming tax. We're fighting, as you just heard

00:39:52.000 from Jasmine Lane, all of this nonsense where the government is on one side of the vice funding

00:39:58.760 mainstream media with your taxpayers' money, okay? Not just the CBC, but like the vast majority of

00:40:05.580 what you would consider mainstream media now on government payroll. That's one side of the vice.

00:40:10.140 On the other side, it's stuff like this. It is censorship, trying to regulate what you can hear,

00:40:16.720 what you can see, what you can share online, and that is crushing or they're trying to crush

00:40:23.060 independent news like this, like Juno News, like the Taxpayers Federation YouTube channel,

00:40:30.180 like Jasmine Lane. Things like even trying to get into your pocket to make your Netflix

00:40:36.180 subscription, your streaming subscription, your escape ticket in the evenings. They want that to

00:40:42.420 be more expensive too. Don't let them. Fight back, folks. Make sure you send that email. Make sure

00:40:48.700 you make that phone call to the minister responsible for this nonsense, Mark Miller.

00:40:55.360 Hey, in the meantime, if you have not yet done so, head on over to Juno News, take out a subscription

00:41:01.360 because this is real independent journalism. And if you haven't done so yet, be sure to like this

00:41:07.840 channel subscribe to it and share this show with people who need to know

Juno News - May 26, 2026

Ottawa’s crackdown on independent media just escalated

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