Hi Everyone,
Please find attached my paper on whether the CRTC RT decision would survive an appeal. RT can appeal the CRTC under s.31(1) of the Broadcasting Act, or bring a Charter challenge regarding freedom of expression. Using the post-Vavilov framework, I believe the CRTC decision would likely survive all of these challenges. Let me know what you think.
FinalPaper_Law 424_Deniz Ozensoy
Best,
Deniz
Hi Deniz,
You picked an interesting and relevant topic and I enjoyed reading your paper. I agree with you that challenges against the CRTC decision to ban Russia Today on TV will likely fail. Given the high amount of deference given to administrative decision makers following Vavilov, I don’t think any court would find their decision to be unreasonable. I think the Charter challenge is a stronger one, but it would still be very difficult to argue considering the abusive comment provision in the Television Broadcasting Regulations has not been challenged before. I think the situation would be much different if the CRTC were able to ban content such as Russia Today on the internet. One of the arguments that the CRTC gave in response to freedom of expression restrictions was that people could still access it online. There is a big difference between not allowing content to be broadcasted on television verses being able to seek it out online. As regulations of online services, such as bill C-11, become more common, I think we will see similar restrictions similar to the CRTC decision here, which will raise much more important questions about freedom of expression.
-Julian