Tell your MP: Keep Canada’s News Free!

New legislation is about to put Canadian news under the controlling thumb of online platforms AND the federal government.

Bill C-18, the Online News Act, puts massive funding behind an entirely secret process in which government ministries decide who qualifies as real news organizations, and big online platforms decide what kind of news gets the support.1

Supporting the news is important – but it cannot come at the cost of independent, trusted journalism.

Email your MP and ask them to go back to the drawing board on Bill C-18!

Bill C-18 is the latest version of something we’ve fought for years, a Link Tax – charging money for sharing links to quality news online.2 While there is a real problem to be solved - not enough funding for news – Bill C-18 creates a mountain of new problems for our news industry, including:

  1. An entirely secret government process for deciding who a news organization is and who is not;
  2. An equally secret deal-making process for online platforms to decide the type of news to fund, and how much to provide;
  3. Discouraging sharing of links to quality journalism, leaving misinformation more space to spread;
  4. Awarding most funds directly into the pockets of news conglomerates, while doing nothing for local news we’ve already lost.3,4,5

If passed today, Bill C-18 will fundamentally undermine the crucial independence of the news industry, not save it. But if we engage all of our representatives to turn against this dangerous bill, Minister Rodriguez will be forced to reconsider his approach, and take a harder look at how to support the news industry without compromising its independence. Email your MP: drop C-18, and design a solution that works for a strong, independent press in Canada!

Sources

  1. Taking Aim at Sharing News Online: Bill C-18 and the Government’s Misguided Requirement to Mandate Payment for Internet Linking- Michael Geist
  2. See 1
  3. Just How Extreme is Bill C-18?: It Mandates Payments For Merely Facilitating Access to News- Michael Geist
  4. The Online News Act: A threat to Canadian News?- OpenMedia 
  5. See 1

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