Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I find that a little bit difficult to answer. The Broadcasting Act does, independently of the charter, recognize the journalistic freedom of expression of broadcasters, so that's one thing that would have to be taken into account. The only thing I can offer is that when th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We believe it's not really possible under the current framework just because of the way in which the act is set out with objectives and balancing requirements and so on. There's also the fact that the courts said that debates were not of a partisan political character, so you'd n

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are a lots of conditions of licence. My colleague Mr. Craig can speak to the conditions of licence that have mandatory requirements in them. There are quotas for Canadian content and so on and so forth.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think it depends on the measure that's put in place in the first place, the content of the measure, and the specifics of it. It's a little hard to answer that. As I say, right now the election coverage is determined over the entire election period. Whichever measure it would be

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's up to Parliament, frankly. We have no opinion as to what the measure might be and how it would be implemented. That's up to Parliament. If Parliament decides that some measure is required, the CRTC will do its best to administer it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's kind of hard to answer that. Right now certain entities are exempt from regulation in the sense that the Broadcasting Act has a provision in which they may be exempted from regulation. Broadcasting over the Internet is generally an exempt activity, so it would have to be tho

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I said earlier, I think it would require some sort of amendment to the act or some other measure to accomplish that.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct. If it were done by Parliament, CRTC would administer it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think some sort of mechanism would have to be put in place, whether it's an amendment to the Broadcasting Act or a direction or something, in order to make carriage of debates mandatory. Right now, there's not an obligation in the act for broadcasters to carry debate programs.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think it initially was 1993, but the current reference is to 1995.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Just for your information, leave to the Supreme Court of Canada was subsequently refused.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Effectively, yes. What happened was that there was a prosecution under the Broadcasting Act, instituted by the exclusion of the Green Party from election coverage. It was an interpretation of section 8, I believe, of the TV regulations, which uses the expression “partisan politi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Leave was denied. That is correct.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I can't really answer that vis-à-vis a going-forward basis. I can say something about the broadcasting arbitrator, and that is that it's recognized in the Canada Elections Act. There is a requirement for the CRTC to publish, for example, the results of the allocation of the 390

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I haven't been made aware of any breach.