SOG14： Bill C-18 Backfire, HUGE Liberal blunder or something else？ ｜ Stand on Guard Ep 14
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
144.33932
Summary
Trudeau's Internet Extortion Bill is backfiring, and it's time to stand up to the Liberal government and demand that it be revoked before it destroys our freedom of speech and internet access in Canada. Today's episode is all about Bill C-18, and why it needs to be revoked.
Transcript
00:00:00.280
Hi, welcome back to another episode of Stand on Guard with David Creighton.
00:00:04.660
I'm your host, David Creighton, and we've got a lot of stuff to go through today.
00:00:09.440
We're going to be talking about Trudeau's internet censorship legislation and his most
00:00:14.600
recent bill that just passed, and it's the internet extortion bill.
00:00:19.900
We're going to be back with all kinds of information on what's happening with that.
00:00:26.320
So we are in a very precarious position in this country.
00:00:30.520
We need political change, but we also need to resolve to resist.
00:00:43.600
You know, we are covering this story throughout the summer because I can tell you it is going
00:00:51.600
to be devastating and catastrophic for free speech in this country.
00:00:59.240
We're going to be saying it when Parliament comes back in the fall.
00:01:01.760
This bill needs to be revoked, and the whole censorship legislation needs to be stopped
00:01:11.440
And this is why I'm asking you to support independent journalism.
00:01:17.540
I hate to ask, but it really does help a small outlet like this.
00:01:28.040
Because I want to keep bringing you the news, and I want to keep going after the liberal censorship
00:01:35.200
Because if we lose our freedom of speech, if we lose free and independent media, because
00:01:40.720
it's completely bought off by the liberal government.
00:01:44.320
If they destroy the media's ability to get their stories on social media so they can get higher
00:01:54.640
circulation, higher readership, higher volume, better ad revenue, we are destroying the media.
00:02:00.880
And so we're going to have nothing left but a government-controlled media.
00:02:05.780
So we are facing unprecedented attacks on freedom of speech and freedom of the press slash media,
00:02:16.720
And believe me, the liberal government would like you just to ignore this throughout the summer.
00:02:23.560
They want this legislation to pass, but they had no idea it was going to backfire.
00:02:33.020
Because a lot of the liberals' allies in the mainstream media are turning against them.
00:02:39.220
And they're getting criticism from some very credible sources.
00:02:43.020
You know, and I include Michael Geist, Professor Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa.
00:02:48.580
He has been an outspoken critic of all of Trudeau's censorship bills.
00:02:57.840
I'm not going to talk much about that today because we've got so much to deal with at C-18
00:03:04.140
But Michael Geist has said this is creating chaos.
00:03:06.840
Because Michael Geist seems to understand how media works today.
00:03:10.180
Unlike the heritage minister, Pablo Rodriguez, whom we'll hear from in a few minutes.
00:03:16.980
But he clearly is out of his depth, is sinking fast on this issue,
00:03:26.320
Is that you want to get your stories on social media.
00:03:30.100
Because that means your audience expands sometimes into the millions.
00:03:37.040
And the more people who read your story, the more people go back to your media outlet.
00:03:44.240
You can sell more advertising and increase the price of your advertising if you're getting millions of viewers watching your news.
00:03:53.760
Pablo Rodriguez doesn't understand that clearly.
00:03:56.200
So Michael Geist has been very outspoken on this.
00:04:01.280
As of all people, Andrew Coyne, distinguished colonist, who's sometimes a friend of Trudeau, sometimes not.
00:04:13.220
At C-18, it's got nothing to do with saving Canadian media.
00:04:18.420
It's got everything to do with censoring the internet.
00:04:24.640
And he understands this, I think, as well as anybody now.
00:04:29.340
Because a lot of the legacy media supported this legislation and were silent.
00:04:37.200
You know, thought it was going to be a safe bet.
00:04:42.300
Thought it was going to be something that they could live with.
00:04:46.440
But let's listen to Pablo Rodriguez talk about this legislation.
00:04:51.680
And you can see with your own eyes how out of depth he is on this.
00:05:02.160
I'm not going to commit on hypothesis and then start to speculate.
00:05:06.500
I'm never going to make any decision on threats.
00:05:19.800
It doesn't have the words Alphabet or Meta, Google, Instagram are not in the bill.
00:05:28.360
So, in the event that Facebook and Google cease to be meaningful online intermediaries
00:05:37.020
in the Canadian space, would the bill then contemplate looking at Bing, TikTok, Amazon,
00:05:46.520
I mean, whoever are the next major players in terms of Canadian advertising and news links?
00:05:51.120
I'll pass it to all and after, but we said it clearly in the bill that they have to mean
00:05:58.380
So, we were just supposed to know somehow that the Liberals were targeting Meta and Google.
00:06:05.660
That even though it's not spelled out in the bill, we're just supposed to understand that.
00:06:08.700
And since it's not spelled out in the bill, it can mean anybody.
00:06:16.580
Nothing has been spelled out in this bill, except it's a war on all social media.
00:06:23.000
Now, right now, he wants to target Meta, Facebook, Google.
00:06:34.700
They have this money extorted for the privilege of running Canadian news.
00:06:38.100
So, then they'll go after other social media because the bill doesn't spell anybody of it.
00:06:47.840
And in the regulations, actually, in the thresholds we're looking at, there's only two.
00:07:03.160
I don't know if this man has a competence, a general competence in the English language.
00:07:07.020
He might speak French or Spanish very well, but he's not speaking English very well.
00:07:13.780
And that's clearly by design because they don't know what they're doing.
00:07:20.380
They're just hoping this is going to work out for their benefit.
00:07:23.000
Before we're discussing about the threats and trying to be scared about, you know, about the threats.
00:07:38.080
The options, all of the options in terms of advertising, there's different programs.
00:07:54.900
But those options will be explained if we get there.
00:07:59.240
So options would be things like putting government advertising back in local newspapers.
00:08:03.580
But we're playing Facebook's game at this moment.
00:08:22.660
He really doesn't know what he's talking about here.
00:08:24.640
And so I think it's also important that we listen to what is actually happening real time right now.
00:08:34.860
And I want you to watch this clip because it's extremely interesting.
00:08:43.160
But am I to infer from those discussions that they're going very poorly, given what Google announced?
00:08:47.260
You said you met with them this morning and what hours later they came out and said we're blocking all Canadian news as soon as this comes into effect.
00:08:58.500
Yeah, that's why I said I don't understand exactly why they put that press release.
00:09:09.160
Is this about optics for your government at all?
00:09:11.560
Is this about the optics of wanting to take on these big tech companies so it positions your government in a certain way, in a certain favorable light, at the expense of good policy?
00:09:35.140
If you look at this journalist's face, she's not convinced at all.
00:09:38.100
It's good deals for our news companies, for our free, independent, non-partisan press in Canada.
00:09:54.240
The tough questions that you ask are absolutely fundamental.
00:09:58.840
He knows damn well that Justin Trudeau isn't getting any tough questions.
00:10:04.220
He hasn't been getting a lot of tough questions from the legacy media.
00:10:18.960
But fairly newsroom that produce content that has, that has value.
00:10:23.300
If so, if so, and you make a good point, you know, I'm not, I'm not free of investors or in any of this.
00:10:29.320
But if, in fact, the model, the model upon which I do the work I'm doing is broken, and it is not, and these companies are not able to make money doing it, why is it the government's role to fix that?
00:10:41.600
Isn't it the company's responsibility to do so?
00:10:49.760
And some, along the way, have to close their doors.
00:10:55.180
And others may close their doors sooner than later, which is a problem.
00:11:06.640
Do you get the sense that C-18 is destroying the news industry instead of helping protect it?
00:11:18.920
And here's the Deputy Prime Minister, Christy Freeland, looking as annoyed as ever that somebody would have the temerity, the gall to ask her a tough question.
00:11:39.720
Um, uh, look, um, I worked for many years as a journalist.
00:11:46.800
And I saw, uh, the real erosion of newsrooms, um, created by the loss of revenue.
00:12:00.100
How does joining that broader fight against companies like Google and Meta, including today's announcement on ending advertisement on Facebook and Instagram, benefit Canadians?
00:12:10.820
Well, so here's Trudeau is going to explain that the government of Canada will no longer advertise on Meta and Google.
00:12:22.000
He really thinks the government advertising is going to sustain these, these companies.
00:12:26.460
But, you know, he, Trudeau referred to this, the reaction, the noncompliance from Facebook and Google as being bullying.
00:12:42.520
We know, uh, that the global tech giants have completely disrupted so much of what we're doing.
00:12:49.240
They've created, uh, tremendous positive goods, uh, in the world.
00:12:52.520
But one of the ways that they have caused real challenges is, uh, on media and journalism.
00:12:58.020
And people's access, uh, to local news needs to continue, particularly in a time where democracy is so challenged around the world.
00:13:06.660
Unfortunately, uh, tech giants like Meta, even as they're making record profits, billions upon billions of dollars of profits,
00:13:15.600
are refusing, uh, to make sure that, uh, media and local news get properly paid.
00:13:22.720
And they're so insistent that they don't want to pay their fair share that they've decided to stop.
00:13:29.240
Uh, they've decided to block access to media and journalism.
00:13:36.100
What is a, what, why, what is their fair share?
00:13:39.120
That's a, that's a concept rooted in socialism, actually Marxism.
00:13:42.720
To say they, they have to pay their fair share.
00:13:58.380
Local news, uh, for people across this country.
00:14:02.800
And it's undermining our democracy at a time where, uh, we need to stand up for democracy.
00:14:08.080
We need to stand up for people's rights and abilities to access news.
00:14:12.720
So when's the last time Justin Trudeau stood up for anyone, anyone's democratic freedom
00:14:23.460
So was this designed to fail or was this somehow just a catastrophic government blunder, just
00:14:37.000
This is the question we really, really have to answer.
00:14:41.280
And I think it's, it's, it's fascinating that just as Trudeau announced this, and just as
00:14:48.540
this, this government decided to release this, we've got massive layoffs going on in Canadian
00:14:59.940
I mean, there's been a lot of prominent journalists that just recently lost their jobs because new
00:15:06.340
legacy media has been unable to operate successfully in the new media world.
00:15:13.160
And they're going to be less able to compete in the new media world with Bill C-18 being enforced.
00:15:28.340
And it's, you know, and, and clearly, clearly then the old media is beginning to understand
00:15:39.920
this, that, that this is, you know, as Andrew Coyne has, has said, he, he recognizes the media is losing
00:15:49.740
its independence because not only is the old media subsidized right now by the Trudeau government,
00:15:57.780
and I'm, and we're not talking about the 1.4 billion the government spends on the state broadcaster,
00:16:04.000
CBC, we're talking about the subsidies, tens of millions of dollars that have gone to legacy media
00:16:14.080
That means the, the media will be less inclined to criticize the government or the hand that
00:16:19.880
feeds them as Senator Pamela Wallen has, has pointed out quite brilliantly that their course,
00:16:26.000
they're going to be less inclined to criticize.
00:16:29.520
And so this is, this is why, is it, so is it incompetence or is it, is it something else?
00:16:37.140
And I think that's, that's the question, that's the question we have to, we have to ask ourselves
00:16:45.880
right now, because it might well be something else, something quite terrifying, which is the
00:16:55.060
collapse, the collapse of what we used to understand as press freedom.
00:17:02.360
Because clearly Trudeau is going after something here.
00:17:07.880
You remember that there was a policy resolution, and it's quite fascinating.
00:17:12.280
It was a policy resolution at the last liberal convention this year.
00:17:18.220
In fact, we'll even give you a clearer view of it.
00:17:24.320
There was a policy resolution brought up this year.
00:17:26.840
And it's, it is quite fascinating, because it demanded that media, internet media outlets
00:17:40.880
Now, some people said, well, that's just too draconian to have in a free and democratic society.
00:17:48.180
The liberals can't really be serious about that.
00:17:50.820
They don't really want to get into the newsroom.
00:17:54.240
You see, these, these are the poison pills that were inserted into this C-18 legislation.
00:18:01.200
The government is giving itself the right to insert itself into the newsroom and to discover
00:18:09.840
who the sources were, what they're saying, because they want to know.
00:18:15.720
And here's, here is a fascinating inner testimony from the global media.
00:18:23.560
Confidential information from news organizations, particularly information related to editorial
00:18:29.880
departments would be an overreach that's best avoided.
00:18:34.340
But the threat to the independence of media, rather than the loss of a few million dollars,
00:18:40.980
I think that's a much more long-term threat to our industry, if we don't get the language
00:18:50.080
Now, before we move on to Senator Pamela Wallen coming on next, but there's the publisher
00:18:55.260
of the Globe and Mail, which is initially well behind this.
00:18:58.580
They wanted an amendment so the government could not insert itself into the newsroom
00:19:03.780
and have sources named, just like this liberal policy resolution demanded.
00:19:09.580
I had confirmation this morning from Michael Geist, who's been following this bill very carefully.
00:19:13.660
That request was made, the government denied it.
00:19:18.160
So the newsrooms are open to the federal government's monitoring.
00:19:23.880
So let's hear what Senator Pamela Wallen has to say about this.
00:19:26.640
The risk of having the government now interfere or snoop in your newsrooms in order for the
00:19:34.260
exchange of cash, which you're already getting through the deals you've signed.
00:19:38.000
I think at a time when there is questions of trust in media, we want to make sure that
00:19:47.440
trust in media is something that people believe in.
00:19:51.780
And I don't think that's helped, if you allow, to Paul's words, the CRTC to snoop into what's
00:19:59.180
going on in the newsrooms and have some say in what would otherwise be a commercial agreement
00:20:05.180
that is struck between the parties, and value will be found in those agreements.
00:20:11.740
We've already had suggestions from ministers that they do actually consider that one of
00:20:17.780
their rights, that they would make judgments about content.
00:20:37.360
The Globe and Mail broke the story about Chinese election interference and how they were buying
00:20:45.480
How the Chinese communist government was buying seats for the liberals and intimidating some
00:20:52.400
candidates, helping other candidates, interfering in the Canadian election.
00:20:56.840
Now, the Globe and Mail received that information from a whistleblower within the Canadian Security
00:21:04.360
Trudeau said he wanted that guy, or that man, or that woman.
00:21:10.140
And I don't know the gender or the sex of the individual.
00:21:14.720
But Trudeau wants that person to be drawn and quartered, hauled up on the carpet, and disciplined
00:21:22.280
in some way, probably fired, because he doesn't think there should be such a thing as a whistleblower.
00:21:28.780
And he wants the Globe and Mail to be forced to reveal that source.
00:21:40.500
And this is the nefarious and the insidious design of Bill C-18.
00:21:54.200
Mr. Trudeau, you're very reassuring on the results of elections, Mr. Trudeau.
00:22:05.500
Now, of course, this is Trudeau initially saying he's going to find out who that whistleblower
00:22:09.700
is who told the Globe and Mail about Chinese election interference.
00:22:13.320
You have to say about the fact that people at CSIS are leaking secret documents.
00:22:17.760
Isn't there some discomfort within those agencies regarding China?
00:22:22.100
It's certainly a sign that security within CSIS needs to be reviewed.
00:22:28.400
And I am expecting CSIS to take the issue very seriously.
00:22:40.900
Do you believe that the whistleblower should be found and prosecuted?
00:22:53.800
Our credibility with Five Eyes Allies has been put at risk.
00:23:00.340
There are better ways of raising your concerns within a national security agency.
00:23:05.920
There are better ways of trying to bring some light to this topic
00:23:34.860
so they can prosecute people for telling the truth about liberal party corruption,
00:23:43.980
liberal government idiocy, liberal government authoritarian overreach.
00:23:53.540
That's a very candid interview with this senior policy advisor to Justin Trudeau.
00:24:03.800
and now Jody Thomas is promising to get that person.
00:24:18.880
I call it the internet extortion bill, but it's more than that.
00:24:22.620
And we're finding out the devil really is in the details.
00:24:26.200
Because we didn't adequately look at this bill.
00:24:33.020
We knew it was aimed at internet censorship, like C-11 was,
00:24:39.920
which demands absurd levels of Canadian content.
00:24:58.440
And this is what the government hopes you're not going to notice
00:25:00.380
during the summer as this bill comes forth into fruition.
00:25:08.260
They don't want you to question this bill because it is frightening.
00:25:11.700
And what it's aimed at is negation of freedom of the press
00:25:19.500
And it's aimed at putting the government in the newsroom.
00:25:24.720
But thank God some of them are rising up and saying,
00:25:29.340
where the government controls us through the purse strings.
00:25:34.580
We cannot work as free agents in a democratic society,
00:25:38.800
trying to be a free press in a democratic society,
00:25:50.040
And the government knows, I think, the policymakers, at least,
00:25:56.060
maybe Rodriguez, is too vacuous to understand how media works today.
00:26:01.440
And I don't think Trudeau understands it any better.
00:26:04.580
But I'm sure the policy advisors who are putting this legislation together
00:26:15.840
a greater leeway to take more control over legacy media.
00:26:21.840
Now, the new media never accepted the subsidization for the federal government
00:26:31.280
allowing Trudeau to put the media in his pocket.
00:26:43.140
And that's if you want your news to be on social media
00:26:54.560
Some of these people are stuck in the 1970s and 80s
00:26:58.020
where it had to do with broadsheets and tabloids
00:27:10.300
These are all being completely negated now by social media.
00:27:30.080
But Trudeau either ignores that or doesn't like that.
00:27:41.420
flagrant disregard of democratic tradition in this country.
00:27:49.380
because we might be cut off from social media news
00:27:58.120
And that's the direct cause of the government's meddling,
00:28:04.340
Can you imagine being left with nothing but CBC,
00:28:10.700
So I encourage you to support independent journalism.
00:28:23.340
because the government doesn't want you to know more about it.
00:28:28.520
We're going to keep talking about it throughout the summer
00:28:30.340
and keep watching to see what this liberal government is up to next
00:28:42.580
I want to say God bless you and thanks for watching.