Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. It's a pleasure to be in committee once again.
I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy International Women's Day.
We're talking to you from the national capital region's ancestral territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples.
As you said, Mr. Chair, I am accompanied by Thomas Owen Ripley and Kathy Tsui. They are both experts in the area of broadcasting and have made major contributions to the development of bills and digital projects.
Mr. Chair and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting us here today to help you with your study of Bill C-10. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the committee for the work it has been doing on the bill and for having undertaken to commence its work so expeditiously.
Bill C-10 makes important amendments to the Broadcasting Act that will benefit artists, broadcasters, and Canadians.
It is expected to result in more opportunities for Canadian producers, directors, writers, actors, and musicians to create high quality music and audiovisual content and to reach Canadian audiences.
It will establish a fair and flexible regulatory framework where comparable broadcasting services are subject to similar regulatory requirements.
It will make Canadian music and stories more available through a variety of services, and it will create a more diverse and inclusive broadcasting system that is reflective of Canadian society.
This bill renews the Broadcasting Act for the digital age. The changes that it makes are well overdue. It is one of four initiatives currently under way at Canadian Heritage that will modernize our federal communications legislative framework for the online world.
We're also developing a proposal to address online harms such as hate speech, violent and extremist content, terrorist propaganda, child sexual exploitation and non-consensual distribution of sexually explicit images.
We're working with Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to amend the Copyright Act.
Then there is the matter of ensuring that Canadian news services are fairly compensated for the use of their material by online services. This work, too, is currently ongoing at Canadian Heritage.
Together, these initiatives will establish rules that will make the online world a more equitable, inclusive and safe place while also ensuring that it remains a fertile ground for innovation and freedom of expression.
Bill C-10, which is focused on broadcasting, is the first piece of this puzzle.
I will now turn things over to Owen Ripley, who will outline the need for Bill C-10 and its primary objectives.
Owen.