Dr. Michael Geist at the Industry, Science and Technology Committee

On February 24th, 2020. See this statement in context.

February 24th, 2020 / 11:50 a.m.

Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, As an Individual

I think it's of limited comfort.

When this kind of provision was being negotiated as part of the TPP—indeed, they're similar provisions, although this one is even more limited, as I mentioned—a U.S. group, Public Citizen, did a study on the kind of comfort that the public interest exception provides. They took a look specifically at WTO cases where that language was used. They found, I believe, in 43 out of 44 cases that attempts to use public interest as the exception were defeated.

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