Digital Copyright Canada

Copyright policy is the joint responsibility of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Minister of Industry. Two committees of the House of Commons are therefore the key members who are most likely to be studying this topic and related bills.

Members of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology (40th Parliament, 2nd Session. January 26, 2009 - ).

Elections Canada Electoral district profile (Links to Map, Past Candidates, and Past Election Results)

Member of Parliament for Windsor West / Windsor-Ouest

Name: Mr. Brian Masse
e-Mail: <Masse.B@parl.gc.ca>
Party: New Democratic Party
Gender: Male

Note: Database not yet current... working on it

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 22, 2009
 
MASSE DEMANDS CONSUMER PROTECTION & INTERNET COMPETITION
Government must withdraw C-27 amendment and overturn CRTC decision

 
OTTAWA – Today, NDP Industry Critic Brian Masse (Windsor West) demanded during Question Period in the House of Commons that the government protect internet consumers’ privacy from spam fraudsters by withdrawing an amendment to Bill C-27, the Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA) that would allow private companies to search individuals’ computers without permission or consent. Masse also demanded that competition be restored in the broadband market by requesting the government overturn yesterday’s CRTC decision, which allows Bell and other giant Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to throttle the internet traffic of competitors or end users to the detriment of both.

Michael Geist reports on some lobbying being done to water down an anti-SPAM bill.

At yesterday's hearing, it was discouraging to see lobbyists for Canadian Chamber of Commerce and Canadian Intellectual Property Council huddling with Liberal MPs before the start of the hearing. It was even more incredible to see lobbyists for the Canadian Real Estate Association draft a series of questions about the bill, hand them to a Bloc MP, and have them posed to the witnesses moments later.
...
Consider writing to your MP or the members of the Industry Committee today asking them to support C-27 with an opt-in approach.

I recommend writing to your MP, asking them to forward the letter to committee members. This may increase the impact.

Update: The Copyright Lobby's Secret Pressure On the Anti-Spam Bill, which is referenced via BoingBoing.

A Globe and Mail article discusses how federal Industry Minister Tony Clement has claimed that a temporary non-binding deal granting Canada's independent garages access to the proprietary software and tools to fix newer-model cars is sufficient to protect the right to repair. He is claiming that that Private Members bill C-273, the Right to Repair bill, is no longer necessary, suggesting that "intellectual property rights" need to be balanced against the rights of automobile owners. Sorry, but unless the automobile owner is manufacturing and distributing new automobiles, there are no legitimate "intellectual property rights" at question.

For a party that alleges to hold protecting property rights as a founding principle, they don't seem to be interested in protecting this right.

Previous review: Nov 26-30

Note: I am only doing specific keyword searches against the Hansard. If you notice something interesting that I missed, please comment!

December 4, 2007

Previous reviews: Nov 13-16, Oct 29-Nov2.

Nothing interesting to report for the week of November 19-23.

November 27, 2007

A motion was moved that the first report of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, tabled on Wednesday, November 21, 2007, be concurred in. This suggested that changes to the Broadcasting Policy for Canada or the Canadian Telecommunications Policy be first put before the House through the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage for its consideration.

I will be trying to do a weekly review of mentions in the Canadian parliament of issues that are (or should be) of interest to our community. If one of the MPs in the related discussions is your MP, please write them a letter about the issue.

The House stands adjourned until Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at 10 a.m.

The NDP has announced a new shadow cabinet. Surprisingly, Bill Siksay (Burnaby-Douglas) has replaced Charlie Angus (Timmins-James Bay) as Heritage critic.

Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park) replaces Brian Masse (Windsor West) as primary Industry critic. this means that Ms. Nash will now play a larger roll in Copyright policy, bringing her back to some of the debates which brought her into the house in the first place.

This may also suggest that there will be changes in who sits on the various parliamentary committees.

As parliament was being recessed for the summer, James Rajotte stood up as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology to table their latest report very embarrassingly titled Counterfeiting and Piracy are theft. See Michael Geist's article Industry Committee Demands a Canadian DMCA.

While I am obviously going to send a copy of my article Jefferson Debate: A Godwin's law for copyright discussions to each member, we clearly have a lot of work ahead of us to educate members of parliament on the basics of these issues. If you are in (or live near) the riding of any of these MPs, please make sure you set up a meeting in their constituency office this summer!