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Confirmed (almost): U.S. Super Bowl commercials will be on television in Canada this year

As we all pretty well predicted last class, there will be U.S. commercials available through U.S. stations on cable whose $5M per 30 second ads won’t be simultaneously substituted in Canada during Super Bowl LII. Or almost certainly anyways. Now that the Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear Bell’s leave to appeal application on […]

Class 4 Slides

Here are this week’s slides…   Jon

Question of the Week (Class 4): Should there be “should’s” in S. 3 of the Broadcasting Act?

As you may have already noticed S.3 of the Broadcasting Act (S.C. 1991, c. 11) is bit different from most other statutory provisions you might have come across. It is rather full of the word “should”. This is in stark contrast to most statutory drafting norms and, interestingly for our purposes, quite different in style if not […]

B.C. Minister Promises Review of Alert System After Patchwork of Tsunami Warnings

The B.C. Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth says the province will be reviewing its alert system, following a tsunami warning to areas of B.C.’s coast. A 7.9 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska, 278 kilometres southeast of Kodiak at a depth of about 10 kilometres. Environment Canada has initially issued a tsunami […]

News of the Week; January 17, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY Rogers employees say managers turn a blind eye so call centre workers can lie and cheat customers: ‘We do not believe the concerns raised represent our values or sales practices,’ Rogers says Judge Sweet: Fox News’s Statement that It Took “Decisive Action” After Assault Allegation Does Not Disparage the Unnamed […]

Does cord-cutting save money?

Fed up with the rising cost of cable television, consumers have increasingly “cut the cord” on traditional cable television. I’ve been interested in seeing how these services compare and what developments have since occurred in the area of internet television. This is where YouTube TV comes in. YouTube TV offers the same channels as your […]

News of the Week; January 10, 2018

MEDIA, COMMUNICATIONS & NET NEUTRALITY FCC releases final net neutrality repeal order, three weeks after vote: With repeal officially published, FCC will soon face lawsuits. Tech Giants To Join Legal Battle Over Net Neutrality FCC Chair Ajit Pai cancels his CES appearance days before show: Pai likely would have had to answer questions about net […]

Social Media Regulating Us?

The central question of our last class was “What should we do about fake news?” This ties into the core question of the course: “To regulate, or not to regulate?” It seems that the Canadian approach, following Grant v. TorStar [2009] allows for an “arguably more flexible and more sophisticated” approach, by allowing for the […]