Ottawa, ON - John Nater, Conservative Shadow Minister for Canadian Heritage, released the following statement on the government’s motion to force through the controversial Bill C-11:

“The Trudeau Liberals and their NDP allies are pushing through a motion in the house today to curtail Parliament’s responsibility to fully examine the Internet regulation Bill C-11. This will severely impact the ability of parliamentarians to hear from witnesses and to debate, study and propose amendments.

“The NDP-Liberal coalition has refused to listen to Canadian experts, content producers, and other witnesses from the Heritage Committee to fix their incredibly flawed bill, including removing provisions that enable the regulation of user-generated content, a clear definition of discoverability, introducing a financial threshold on the size of businesses it will apply to, and requiring an update to the Canadian content rules. Moreover, the Liberals and their NDP allies refuse to release the policy directive to the CRTC before the bill is voted on, meaning that Canadians will only realize the full implications of this legislation after the law is passed.

“The Chair of the CRTC has contradicted the Heritage Minister regarding the bill’s inclusion of user-generated content. Either the Liberals do not understand their own bill, or they are deliberately misleading Canadians. In its current form, Bill C-11 does not guarantee that Charter rights will be respected.

“It is irresponsible for the Liberals to attempt to pass Bill C-11 while blocking further study when many witnesses have yet to be heard. Every day we are increasingly hearing from artists and digital-first creators speaking out against a bill that will harm their livelihoods.

“The bottom line is that the Liberal government has failed to be transparent and continues to show contempt for democracy and parliamentary procedure by consistently using heavy-handed measures to adopt what can only be described as unprecedented legislation, without proper scrutiny.  

“While Liberals continue to obfuscate on Bill C-11, Conservatives will continue to defend the interests of Canadians who are rightfully concerned about the impact of this bill.”