The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - Bill C-11 The Liberals plan to rush the Broadcasting Act with Senator Housakos

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome once again to the Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your

00:00:24.160 host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps with Alex Brock with

00:00:27.460 new content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We ask that you like,

00:00:32.600 comment, subscribe, share this program together. We can push back against that ever-moving liberal

00:00:37.960 agenda. And of course, if you can't listen or watch the program in its entirety, right this second,

00:00:42.760 download it, listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it,

00:00:47.820 it is out there because I know you have two friends. They will tell two friends about it.

00:00:51.200 We'll make sure Pierre Polyev is the next Prime Minister of Canada. A great show lined up for

00:00:55.460 you today. We brought on a few guests in the past. We had Rachel Thomas, we had Kevin Wong,

00:01:00.740 we were talking about censorship, specifically Bill C-11. And we're going to bring on one of the

00:01:06.620 fighters of this bill, this terrible piece of legislation that talks about regulating what

00:01:11.480 you can see, what you can watch on the internet, C-11. We have Senator Leo Houssakos from the

00:01:17.320 island of Montreal, the beautiful province of Quebec. Thank you so much for joining us,

00:01:20.880 first time on the show. Thank you for having me on, MP Schmael. Good to be with you.

00:01:24.280 That's an oversight on my part. I apologize. All right, C-11, lots of interest. And we're going

00:01:30.620 to share on our social media as well, some of the work you did on committee, you really pushed back,

00:01:35.380 you really brought to light what C-11 is all about. So for the guests joining us for the first

00:01:39.440 time today, what is C-11 and why is it so horrible? Why are people raising alarm bells about it?

00:01:45.920 In a nutshell, C-11 will determine for Canadians what they can post on their platforms,

00:01:50.480 what they can watch, what they can read. And at the end of the day, in 2022, with all these new

00:01:55.340 digital platforms and technologies that are out there, it's the way of how Canadians communicate,

00:02:00.320 particularly young Canadians like yourself, people younger than my generation.

00:02:04.320 I appreciate it.

00:02:05.540 Some of us were used to just sitting in front of that TV box to get our news and to get our

00:02:09.380 information. But today you can get it on Google, you can get it on Twitter, you can get it on YouTube.

00:02:13.660 There's so many platforms out there that have opened up the world to Canadian artists,

00:02:19.400 to Canadian broadcasters, to Canadian freelance reporters for that matter. And essentially what

00:02:24.740 this bill does, it's an attempt on the part of the Trudeau government to take the old broadcasting

00:02:29.880 system of regulation and determining what you can broadcast, where you can broadcast it,

00:02:35.480 and trying to bring these new platforms into line. And it's just incompatible. It's incompatible

00:02:40.300 to create that alignment. The reality is these new platforms have given Canadians the opportunity

00:02:46.320 to explore, expand, and export our culture around the world. They've created tremendous businesses.

00:02:52.800 There's a number of independent content producers across this country who are selling Canadian content

00:02:58.720 around the world and distributing it around the world at volumes never seen before. And on the other

00:03:03.440 side of the equation, on the left side of the equation, we have the CBC and Bell Media and all these

00:03:08.460 corporations, legacy media that we love and adore because we put in billions of dollars of taxpayers'

00:03:13.980 money directly into the CBC, into the Canadian media fund. And these are organizations that Canadians

00:03:19.880 are just watching at lesser and lesser numbers. Less eyeballs means less revenue. So C11 right now

00:03:26.720 is trying to put a square into a circle and it just doesn't work.

00:03:30.440 I think this is also the very clear divide on how conservatives view the world and some liberals

00:03:35.400 view the world, right? Conservatives like the free market, right? And abundance of choice.

00:03:40.100 Abundance equals peace. People can choose what they like, right? Because what I like as music,

00:03:44.600 what I think is good music, is totally different than what you think is good music. And it's definitely

00:03:49.620 very different than what the government think is good music, right? If the government decides what

00:03:53.920 you see and watch, you get what the government decides. It doesn't matter if you like it or not,

00:03:57.720 right? So the liberals by this bill are picking winners and losers in the marketplace instead of

00:04:03.820 realizing that the world is changing. People are getting their information from different sources

00:04:08.960 because they want a variety of ways they get information. It could be through a podcast like

00:04:15.340 this. It could be another YouTube channel. The world is open right now. And right now the government

00:04:21.920 will see this bill, this piece of legislation is closing it down. That's exactly the point. It's a

00:04:27.240 question of consumer choice. And in this country, we've seen that liberalism has brought us to the

00:04:32.720 point where they want us to have less choice. They want a narrow cast. They want you to pay more than

00:04:37.820 ever before. The truth of the matter is Canadians pay more for web connectivity than any other country in the

00:04:44.220 world. And we have in regions of the country where you can't even get good connectivity. And in terms of the

00:04:49.080 broadcasting situation right now, like I said, they essentially want to take a new platform, a new way of doing

00:04:55.620 things that has become prosperous. We've created millions of Canadian success stories that are

00:05:00.560 generating revenue for themselves, for our Canadian coffers, for that matter, even for the Canadian

00:05:05.120 media fund. And who benefits is the old legacy platforms who, like I said, are not being successful.

00:05:11.080 And it's ironic that it seems to be not enough. It's almost the liberal Trudeau way of doing things.

00:05:16.600 We're going to pick winners and losers. We're going to have the CRTC and other gatekeepers in Ottawa

00:05:21.320 to determine what platforms are appropriate, what aren't appropriate. And in this bill, let's be

00:05:27.180 clear, the whole challenge here in the debate for us is we have the chairman of the CRTC who came before

00:05:33.080 the Senate Committee on Communications and confirmed that this bill would allow him to manipulate

00:05:38.400 algorithms and to force platforms to manipulate algorithms, which in essence determines what will

00:05:44.600 be pushed up the technological ladder for you and I to watch and what will be pushed down.

00:05:50.140 That is so dangerous from a perspective of privacy, free speech, and like I said, consumer choice.

00:05:56.440 So if the CRTC determines what you get to see or determines something is wrong, that means what

00:06:04.040 tends to happen is anything that criticizes the government is then becomes hate speech or something

00:06:09.800 else. And I think that is so concerning to have a bunch of bureaucrats deciding what is available to

00:06:16.860 Canadians. And like you said earlier, like, you have entrepreneurs without government permission,

00:06:24.320 without government grants, creating content that others want to see on their own free will.

00:06:30.800 A hundred percent. At the end of the day, we have Canadians producing content. They're downloading it

00:06:36.000 on YouTube. They're putting it out there on various platforms, getting millions of hits, hits that you

00:06:41.160 would not get in our small market. Canada is a small market. We don't have an economy of scale. So we need

00:06:45.960 the world at our feet. And these platforms have provided that. Essentially, the old way of doing

00:06:50.680 things is where Mr. Trudeau wants to stay, is they want through regulation, through the CRTC, through

00:06:55.800 Heritage Canada, to determine these Canadians, they have to go through that little narrow pipeline called

00:07:02.120 the Canadian Media Fund, the Canadian, all the various organizations, gatekeepers, unions, broadcasting

00:07:09.060 corporations that will give them permission to essentially be heard and be seen. At the end of the day,

00:07:15.220 nothing good comes out of narrowing a market of choice. Nothing good. The only thing that comes of it is you get

00:07:20.700 less content, you get to pay exponentially more for it, and you muzzle the creativity of artists in this country and

00:07:27.600 singers and producers and writers. It's just a terrible bill. We have to have confidence in our

00:07:34.400 artists and Canadian culture to punch above our weight and to really be dominant around the world

00:07:39.360 and to use these platforms as we have been. The artistic community, the cultural community in Canada,

00:07:44.800 has never been more vibrant than it has in the last decade. And the number one change has been these

00:07:50.320 platforms that have exposed them to the world. So instead of embracing it and allowing it to continue to

00:07:56.480 grow and to prosper, we want to put regulations and laws in order to muzzle them and to allow

00:08:03.280 the traditional gatekeepers, these giants that were created artificially by government laws,

00:08:09.280 to run the show. I think it's wrong. I know that our party thinks it's wrong. We believe in free

00:08:13.840 enterprise. We believe in consumer choice. If you look at the internet itself, you look at the

00:08:19.120 companies that run it, you have the big ones, telecommunications, you have a few big companies,

00:08:24.560 massive companies, some small ones. We can go into the spectrum auction and all that stuff, which is

00:08:29.840 absolutely incredible how we still do it here. You look at how the liberals like it. They like a few

00:08:36.400 big players and that's it. Because I guess if you're in government, it makes sense. It's very easy to deal

00:08:42.000 with four or five big players in the marketplace, the big corporations, rather than having a whole bunch

00:08:47.440 in a free market, a whole bunch of small players, medium players, making up a whole slew of ideas

00:08:52.880 that anyone can choose from because there is so much abundance. To that point, what the liberals love

00:08:58.080 is to have the government master, right? When you have two or three large giants, those giants have the

00:09:04.880 capacity to afford lobbyists, to afford big law firms, to come to Ottawa and to wine and dine and to spread the

00:09:11.600 shrimps and the caviar around in order for them to have influence. Where what we've done on the

00:09:17.920 House side, and now we're carrying that fight over to the Senate side, we're fighting for those

00:09:21.840 independent content producers, those Canadians who have the small business owners who have become

00:09:28.080 successful using these platforms. And I'm tired of this liberal argument. We have these large

00:09:33.440 international conglomerates coming here and benefiting from the marketplace. No, they're offering a platform

00:09:39.280 where their success is incumbent on Canadian content producers and artists and Canadian singers to be

00:09:45.760 successful. So if they're not successful, these platforms aren't successful. It's a happy marriage.

00:09:52.160 Where these Canadian content producers in the current form have very minimal number of avenues to go and

00:09:59.120 present their case, minimal resources, and the vast majority of those resources are coming at the expense

00:10:04.720 of taxpayers. Taxpayers who aren't watching those legacy broadcasters. It's such a simple formula and

00:10:11.120 Canadians are catching on. And I'm glad to see in the course of our Senate hearings that individual

00:10:16.400 content producers and Canadian users of TikTok and Twitter and Google, and God knows now it's the vast

00:10:23.360 majority, it's young people. They're starting to realize that we in the Conservative Party are their voice

00:10:28.960 for freedom, for consumer choice, and we will continue to be because we cannot allow gatekeepers in this

00:10:34.800 town to determine what you watch, what you express, and pay extraordinary amounts of money for it.

00:10:41.280 Absolutely, and you're talking free marketing. You said it perfectly, right? If you're producing content

00:10:46.160 nobody watches in a free market, you either change the way you're doing business or you go out of business,

00:10:50.480 right? But if you're continually getting government subsidies, you are censoring all the other voices

00:10:56.240 trying to make a startup. You really don't have to improve your content all that much. You might

00:11:00.880 make minor tweaks here and there, but in the overall picture of things, the product is not getting

00:11:07.440 better like it would in a true free market system. And we also live in a world right now where

00:11:12.480 productions of films, for example, documentaries, they cost, in cases, hundreds of millions of dollars to

00:11:19.120 produce. And back to what I said earlier, when it comes to the economy of scale, we don't necessarily

00:11:24.800 have the resources to compete on the world level. But what's wrong with international

00:11:29.840 production companies coming to Canada and hiring Canadian writers, Canadian directors, Canadian

00:11:35.920 actors, filming in Canadian centers like Vancouver, Toronto, and some of our rural parts of Canada.

00:11:41.360 And again, we've seen an explosion in the marketplace here in Canada. We're benefiting from a weaker dollar

00:11:48.400 in this particular area. And we're producing Canadian content at massive amounts. But instead of the

00:11:53.360 government, for example, saying to these international investors, come to Canada and we're going to

00:11:58.640 actually open up the ancient CanCon rules in this country, ancient CanCon rules. So to the point,

00:12:06.000 take a hand, Handmaid's Tale written by an iconic Canadian writer, filmed in Canada, Canadian actors,

00:12:13.280 Canadian directors and producers. Yet the Trudeau government says this isn't Canadian content

00:12:18.480 because some production company who put in the money is a company out of London or a company out

00:12:23.840 of California. So imagine we're telling foreign investors who believe in Canadian culture,

00:12:28.560 in Canadian artists, don't come and invest here because we're going to make your life a miserable

00:12:32.880 existence. It's ludicrous. We have to open ourselves up to the world, embrace these platforms. It's the 0.99

00:12:39.200 Trudeau government picks and chooses when they want to embrace the world and be open. They pick and

00:12:45.040 choose. And it's funny how when it comes to messaging and controlling what we see and watch, controlling

00:12:51.440 propaganda, controlling culture, which is the most dangerous thing in society. They're all for that.

00:12:57.200 They're all in on that. And we need to push back. As long as they're doing it. As long as they're doing

00:13:01.040 and then they control the levers to get that done. And you talk about the economic scale of it. You

00:13:06.080 mentioned about the boom that could be happening. That has happened. Even in Northern Ontario, there are some

00:13:11.120 cities that were having trouble figuring out their economic future. And then the movie and

00:13:16.560 television industry came in and completely transformed some of the towns and cities up

00:13:21.680 there. It is absolutely remarkable what has been done. And that's because these companies are seeing

00:13:28.160 the environment that's correct. It allows them to do it. It's financially viable. There's a whole bunch

00:13:32.800 of other pieces to that puzzle. But at the end of the day, if we chase these people away, we chase these

00:13:37.920 producers away. That content never gets done. We don't see that economic impact that happens afterwards.

00:13:43.520 And what do you need after that? Well, another government program to fix the problem that government

00:13:48.160 created in the first place. Look, I'm a former businessman. I've been in business, so I understand

00:13:53.520 balance sheets. And in the last decade, we've seen an explosion in investment in our artistic film

00:14:00.080 industry. Never seen before. And it's been driven by Netflix, by Disney Plus, by all these streaming

00:14:06.880 platforms and corporations around the world, which the Trudeau government is trying to penalize and

00:14:12.000 try to align them with traditional legacy media in this country, which for all intents and purposes

00:14:18.160 is bankrupt. And the problem is the model. So if we can encourage through these streamers and new

00:14:23.360 platforms billions of dollars of investment, and you're absolutely right, the activity, we see it. You go

00:14:28.880 through any town and major city in Canada, you've never seen more film production on site than ever

00:14:35.680 before. Yet we want to go back to the good old days where we were forcing people to watch Canadian

00:14:41.600 content within the confines of our Canadian marketplace. So it makes no sense. We have to open the market,

00:14:49.760 deregulate the market, allow for more streaming, allow for more platform and more content producers in

00:14:57.040 this country. So we can export and continue to benefit from the reach. Let's export Canadian 1.00

00:15:01.680 content. A hundred percent, which we've been doing. Yes. And we should do more of that. And by the way,

00:15:05.440 we've seen also a spike in our tourist industry, even pre COVID and now post COVID, like never seen

00:15:11.440 before. And in large part, if you talk to people in the tourist industry, because of our presence on

00:15:16.880 these platforms, people around the world are discovering what Canada is all about, what small towns are all

00:15:22.240 about, what our Rockies are all about, what small regions of the country that otherwise weren't

00:15:26.960 covered by the, you know, Radio Canada International or CBC or Canadian Film Board, they're being, they're

00:15:34.720 exposing the beauty of Canada. And we've seen a spike, which has helped our economy, our hospitality

00:15:40.880 industry, our travel industry, and so on and so forth. Theoretically, if this bill becomes lost,

00:15:46.080 so the second reading of the Senate, we're going to third reading at some point, we're not sure when,

00:15:50.000 I'm assuming. If it does pass, how, how soon, I don't know if this question has come up, how soon

00:15:57.760 could we start to see the ramifications of this bill, noticing that content that we used to watch

00:16:03.920 or listen to isn't popping up as much as it used to? Is it going to take a few months after that?

00:16:09.120 Well, the good news is there's a few steps here. We're in committee right now with the bill in the Senate.

00:16:14.720 It's probably going to get through clause by clause in by the end of this month and get to third reading

00:16:21.040 in the Senate chamber. We hope that we can be successful in passing a number of amendments

00:16:26.640 and trying to mitigate the dangerous elements of this bill. After that, there has to be public hearings

00:16:33.280 with the CRTC in order to put in place the regulatory framework of this bill, which is very important.

00:16:40.160 So my call to citizens who are watching us is get out there and write and call and speak to your senators,

00:16:46.720 particularly those that are sitting on the Senate committee and will have a say on this on third reading.

00:16:53.600 Let them know how concerned you are. Also, when the public hearings come around in 2023,

00:16:59.280 because this bill invariably will pass, the Senate is there to make amendments, to make suggestions.

00:17:04.480 By no means do we think as an appointed body we have the right to defeat legislation, even though if there

00:17:11.040 was a piece of legislation that deserves to be defeated, it's this one. We feel that we will make

00:17:16.400 some amendments, but when it gets to the CRTC, we need to also make sure that the Canadian voices are heard.

00:17:22.240 And ultimately sometime between now and the next 18 months when there's a federal election,

00:17:27.280 make sure you go and you cast ballots for members of parliament who believe in freedom,

00:17:31.520 who believe in consumer choice. And I know, Jamie Schmael, you're one of those candidates and a

00:17:36.640 strong advocate. I've seen you at National Caucus of the Conservative Party stand up with tremendous

00:17:42.000 energy for those values and principles. And we both know that a government led by Pierre Polyeb will

00:17:47.360 never waver when it comes to freedom of speech and consumer choice. So these are the steps and that

00:17:53.760 last one is the most important. Let's have a change in government that will safeguard our traditional

00:17:58.880 freedoms and freedom of speech. I love how you said that. I usually give the guests the floor to

00:18:04.160 end the program. I don't know how you're going to beat that ending. But if you want, the floor is yours

00:18:08.640 for closing remarks. Look, thank you for inviting me and having me on. And thank you for the work you

00:18:12.880 do in the House of Commons. At the end of the day, in the Senate, we're just an additional body to help

00:18:19.120 push along the work of the House of Commons. And thank you for the work you do as a candidate in your

00:18:25.280 region of the country. You're one of our strong voices. And I'm so excited about what's around the

00:18:30.560 corner. I think Canadians are finally starting to realize that you can't have Ottawa dictate your

00:18:36.400 everyday life and choose for you what you watch, what you post, how much taxes you pay, what you can

00:18:43.120 buy, what you can't buy. We've seen in this city and in this government, they spend more, they hire more

00:18:49.840 bureaucrats and they give Canadian citizens less. Makes no sense. I think out of this economic

00:18:55.040 recovery, the last article I saw, nine out of 10 jobs recovered went to government. So it shows you

00:18:59.840 the size and scope, the depth and breadth is what is happening at the government scale. Senator Leo

00:19:05.040 Houssakos, island of Montreal, province of Quebec. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for

00:19:09.920 your time as well. New content every single Tuesday, 1 30 p.m. Eastern time. Please remember,

00:19:15.200 like, comment, subscribe, share this program. We do appreciate your time. And until next

00:19:20.640 Tuesday, we say low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.

The Blueprint: Canada's Conservative Podcast - November 02, 2022

Bill C-11 The Liberals plan to rush the Broadcasting Act with Senator Housakos

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