Canadian Heritage committee  I have two points if I may—

Canadian Heritage committee  I'll make two points. The first one is an important one. When you talk about those artists you're hearing on the radio, they're certified Canadian. What do we tell all the Canadian creators who aren't certified and are just flying their craft independently? Is it that they're not to be included in that discussion?

Canadian Heritage committee  It's a really interesting position to be in, to be honest, where there are two diametrically opposed positions of exactly what's in the bill and what's not in the bill. It's kind of difficult. By the letter of the legislation, UGC is in the bill. We haven't seen the policy directive.

Canadian Heritage committee  The platforms are free and open to use, so they're restricted by nobody. Everybody has an opportunity to upload their content and to find their audience. It's niche content distributed globally. That niche normally exists around the world. It's a wonderful opportunity for anybody to get their content made.

Canadian Heritage committee  No. They would still have access, but now the government would be mandating which content is being put to the top of the system. It's simple math. If you have 10 total spots that you can get as a creator, and now three or four of them are being set aside for approved CanCon, you now, as a creator, only have six or seven spots left.

Canadian Heritage committee  You will only harm them. You won't protect them. There is no positive scenario for artificially manipulating the algorithms. The algorithm will punish that content if it is not engaged with, if it is not watched, if it is not liked, etc. We can't create a culture of gated content on free-to-use platforms.

Canadian Heritage committee  One hundred per cent—we will see fewer success stories globally from Canada if this legislation's passed and discoverability is messed with, for sure.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm always open to more consultation. Thank you, Mr. Champoux, but you also said that you spoke to a bunch of creators who have broken through and are also having trouble breaking through, so I'm a little bit confused. Our francophone constituency does have unique needs, and I look forward to exploring them further.

Canadian Heritage committee  There are a couple of different ways. First off, I would like to state that we really have to have a conversation about what qualifies as Canadian content before having a meaningful discussion around that. As I said, the platforms are mostly binary. They are built to push content or for users to pull content that's relevant to them.

Canadian Heritage committee  Again, the traditional Broadcasting Act was built to highlight and prioritize Canadian content to Canadians, for fear of having Big Brother from the south overriding our airways. That's not what these digital platforms are for. They are for global discovery. Canadian discovery for Canadian content creators online is almost an afterthought.

Canadian Heritage committee  You're correct. I don't mind stating when things are above my head and out of my bailiwick, and that is one of them.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think proposed section 4.2 is the big one that could obviously go. The bigger issue for us is the discovery clauses, more so than the inclusion of the platforms. I will say this, on a positive note, I've had more conversations with the department, with Canadian Heritage and with the minister's team as well since that time, so things are going better.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the opportunity. There literally are so many, we can't even count them. A lot of these people have gone on to international success, and success within a more traditional model. Everybody quotes Bieber, The Weeknd, Alessia Cara and Shawn Mendes, musically. Obviously there is Lilly Singh.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Chair. Thank you to the committee for having me back. My name is Scott Benzie. I'm the executive director of Digital First Canada, an organization that advocates on behalf of creators in Canada that choose free user-generated content platforms as their main distribution method.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, absolutely not, and if you would like to have a separate hearing on all of our issues with the platforms, I'm happy to have it. Right now, we seem to be aligned on an issue, which is crazy. I'm normally arguing with platforms on behalf of digital first creators and have been for 10 years.