Quote:
Originally Posted by Ikul
He tried to, and he met interference large enough to stop him.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert..._b_829473.html
It should be noted, here, that the government tried to repeal this law, and the people opposed them. So if the law is some sort of ploy by the government to control all the journalism in the country, they did the world's best job of reverse psychology.
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Sorry, I missed that this is an 18-month old op/ed Huffington Post article. Yes, at the time, the committee blocked the regulation change because the government was in a minority situation. Now, we are in a majority so if the PM wanted to change the law, it would be changed. On a similar issue, the government recently rescinded the section of the Human Rights Act that refers to inciting hatred through speech, because of the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) ruling that is behind this entire discussion (i.e. limiting free speech that does no harm). There are still protections against Libel, incitements to violence etc. in Canadian Law.
This particular issue will most likely be settled in the Court, as has almost every contentious rights issue in Canadian history (Sufferage, Death Penalty, Abortion, Gay Marriage). PM did not try to repeal any law, else it would have been repealed or there would have been an election on that particular issue.
The article you quote is out of date and is invalidated by two very important points:
1) US Fox News is broadcast in Canada and has been since the early 2000's (6 or 7 years before that article was published)
2) SunTV is also being broadcast in Canada currently and it is the hypothetical station that was being discussed at the time that article came out. Subsequent to that article, it passed the regulations as is and it's currently on the air. There are active disputes between individual hosts on that channel and the CRTC to do with on-air conduct that will, I believe, ultimately lead to a court challenge that will strike down the regulation in question, if the majority government doesn't get to them first.