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Bonavista - Gander - Grand Falls - Windsor

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Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor / Bonavista - Gander - Grand Falls - Windsor (Via Parl.gc.ca)

Name: Scott Simms (Via Parl.gc.ca)
e-Mail: <scott.simms@parl.gc.ca>
Party: Liberal Party of Canada

Bill C-11 house debate day 7

On December 12, 2001 we had the seventh time when the House of Commons debated Bill C-11 (at Second Reading). I didn't write about the 6'th time as it was simply a vote on an amendment that was deferred from the 5'th day of debate.

The debate started with Mr. Paul Calandra (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage, CPC, MP for Oak Ridges—Markham) giving a short promotion of the bill and then moving a motion "That this question be now put."

Bill C-11 house debate day 5

On November 24, 2011 we had the fifth time when the House of Commons debated Bill C-11 (at Second Reading).

The debate ended with the speaker asking if the house is ready to vote on the amendment. This vote was deferred until Monday at the end of government orders.

I believe the amendment is the one brought by Hon. Geoff Regan (Halifax West, Lib.) on the first day of debate which read:

That the motion be amended by deleting all of the words after the word “That” and submitting the following:

“this House declines to give second reading to Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Copyright Act, because it fails to:

(a) uphold the rights of consumers to choose how to enjoy the content that they purchase through overly-restrictive digital lock provisions;

(b) include a clear and strict test for “fair dealing” for education purposes; and

(c) provide any transitional funding to help artists adapt to the loss of revenue streams that the Bill would cause.

Given the Conservatives have a majority this amendment will fail the vote, but it is interesting to see what the focus from the Liberals have been.

Bill C-11 house debate day 4

On November 22, 2011 we had the fourth time when the House of Commons debated Bill C-11 (at Second Reading).

I am glad that Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP) included discussion of the constitutional questions raised by Bill C-11.

The problems are in two areas, and I will refer to the first. Briefly, it is constitutional. The constitutional problem is simple to describe. Copyright is clearly an area of federal jurisdiction, whereas property rights are provincial. To the extent that we have intruded into property rights, we have a problem. This has been described in a learned article published by professors Crowne-Mohammed and Rozenszajn, both from the University of Windsor, in the Journal of Information, Law and Technology in which the authors describe the problem this way:

The DRM provisions of Bill C-61 represent a poorly veiled attempt by the Government to strengthen the contractual rights available to copyright owners, in the guise of copyright reform and the implementation of Canada's international obligations.

Let us de-link them. Let us protect the rights and protect copyright reform without acceding to pressure from U.S. interests, which want to have excessively restrictive controls in the form of digital locks. That is setting aside the constitutional issue.

Bill C-11 house debate day 3

On November 14, 2011 we had the third time when the House of Commons debated Bill C-11 (at Second Reading).

The most notable aspect of the debate for me is how the Conservatives are going out of their way to conflate the WIPO Paracopyright provisions (tied to infringing purposes, no restriction on circumvention tools, etc) and the non-WIPO (beyond-WIPO) Paracopyright provisions.

Bill C-11 debate day 1

The hansard for Tuesday, October 18, 2011 includes a transcript of the first day of debate of Bill C-11. The debate is at second reading, after which it will be sent to a committee.

The debate started a little after 10:30, and continued to 14:00 when "Statements by Members" proceedings interrupted. Debate continued after question period (and a point of privilege) at 15:15 and continued (with a few of the normal interruptions) until 18:30.

Thoughts on C-32 committee members from the Liberal Party of Canada.

Of the 12 members of the C-32 committee, three of them were from the Liberal party of Canada. The primary three were Pablo Rodriguez (Honoré-Mercier), Marc Garneau (Westmount—Ville-Marie), and Hon. Dan McTeague ( Pickering—Scarborough East). Filling in when one of these three members couldn’t attend was Francis Scarpaleggia (Lac-Saint-Louis), Hon. John McCallum (Markham—Unionville), Scott Simms (Bonavista—Gander—Grand Falls—Windsor) and Yasmin Ratansi (Don Valley East).

C-32 committee members present

So that constituents can find quickly what their past MP may have said at a C-32 committee, I've created the following table of meetings and which members of the committee were present at that meeting. The minutes and transcripts from the meeting are on the parliamentary website.

It has begun

The so-called "Copyright Modernization Act" was debated in the House of Commons yesterday. The debate started at about 10:20, broke for Statements by Members and Question period (14:00-15:05), and resumed until 5:30.

Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage receives Briefing on Copyright

One of the current activities of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage is a Briefing on Copyright, where they have had a few meetings.

Michael Geist has blogged about the Not-So-Straight Talk on Copyright MPs are receiving.

I believe this should also be taken as an oportunity for constituents to write to MPs who are in Heritage and Industry committees prior to a bill being tabled.

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