The ongoing disagreement between the federal government and Facebook continues to impact people’s access to local news.
Bill C-18 requires digital giants like Meta and Google to develop agreements with Canadian news sites to provide compensation for sharing their online news content.
Meta, which is the company that owns Facebook, refused and has instead made it so news content can’t be viewed on the social media site.
John Brassard, the MP for Barrie-Innisfil, has been touring the area with local MP Rob Morrison and said this should come as a shock to no one.
“We warned the government about what was going to happen with C-18,” Brassard said.
“Anyone who expected the fallout from this to be any less than what it is should not be surprised because experts in the space and the opposition were telling the government exactly what was going to happen.”
He said the Conservatives tried to improve the bill but were unsuccessful.
“Through committee, we proposed hundreds of amendments based on expert testimony to try and make this bill salvageable so it was a win-win not just for service providers but for Meta, Google and others,” he added.
“In every situation, those amendments were rejected by the NDP-Liberal coalition.”
Brassard guaranteed that if the Conservatives win the next election they’ll change the bill.
“We are not going to repeal the bill,” he said.
“We are going to fix the bill so it works in the manner in which it was intended. We’re going to have a lot to fix when we form government and I think we’re all up to the task.”
