The Liberal government is using its dispute with Meta to portray itself as the defender of the “little guy” and to distract from the rise in crime and the housing crisis, says Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner.
While the Competition Bureau is an independent law enforcement agency, its commissioner is appointed by the industry minister and his term is expiring in a few months.
Ms. Rempel Garner suggested that Mr. Champagne’s “political intervention” in what should be a “non-political review” could lead the complaint to reach the tribunal phase, but that experts say it will probably be dismissed there.
“If it doesn’t, Champagne’s intervention means there will be allegations of some serious banana republic [expletive] going on,” said the Conservative MP, who represents Calgary Nose Hill.
Legacy media hoped the Online News Act adopted in late June would bolster their coffers by forcing Meta and Google to pay for displaying news links, but they and other publishers have now lost exposure they previously received free of charge.
‘Shadowboxing’
Instead of working to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible, Ms. Rempel Garner says the Liberals have decided to use the situation for political gain.“With their political fortunes sagging, the federal Liberals are looking for shadowboxing matches that distract from big-ticket political issues like the housing crisis or the nationwide increase in violent crime,” she said.
The Liberals are shown in polls to be trailing a large margin behind the Conservatives, who have made affordability issues the core of their platform.
The Conservatives have opposed Bill C-18 and the other information-related Bill C-11, which revamped the Broadcasting Act, accusing the Liberal government of wanting to control what Canadians hear and see.
Now the Liberals are saying the Tories are siding with Big Tech to the detriment of Canadian democracy and culture.
“The position they took instead of defending our culture, in defending once against the tech giants, that doesn’t work in Quebec,” said Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez on Aug. 9 when asked if he was worried about Conservatives making headway in the province. Mr. Rodriguez was the sponsor of Bill C-18, and was moved out of the Heritage portfolio in the July 26 cabinet shuffle.
Ms. Rempel Garner said the Liberals are betting they can make the dispute with Meta look like they’re resisting the “big bad tech giants to get a win for the little guy.”
But she said the “little guy” has already lost, losing access to traffic that Meta provided, whereas the Liberals are “supporting the interests of a few corporate insiders who they feel are beneficial to their longer-term political fortunes.”
The Competition Bureau told The Epoch Times that it was already in the process of conducting a preliminary review of the dispute before the complaint was filed by news organizations. But the bureau did not provide a comment on Mr. Champagne taking a stance on the complaint.
The Office of the Ethics Commissioner would not comment on the matter and neither did Mr. Champagne’s department.
