House of Commons Heritage Committee meeting with Google executives regarding Bill C-18 has been postponed, “due to problems with interpretation services”, the office of the Speaker of the House of Commons has confirmed ITWC,
However, this isn’t the first roadblock this meeting has hit.
last week, the committee summons Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer of Alphabet, Richard Gingras, Global Vice President of News and Sabrina Geremia, Vice President and Country Manager, Google Canada. But Google can only serve Jeremiah and his public policy manager, Jason J. agreed to send the key.
In addition, the committee ordered Alphabet and all of its subsidiaries, including Google, to provide all external or internal communications, including emails and texts related to Bill C-18, by 5 p.m. on March 2. But the tech giant failed to follow up.
Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, Heritage Committee member, Said on Friday that he wants to propose that the committee formally report Google’s failure to comply to Parliament. “I am disappointed that there has not been a positive response from Google officials from the United States and that we have not yet received any of the requested documents.”
The Liberal government is at the center of the battle online news actPassed late last year, it required tech giants like Google and Meta to negotiate deals that would compensate Canadian media companies for republishing their content on their platforms.
In response, Google said it would temporarily limit access to news content to less than four percent of its Canadian users as part of a national test, as it evaluates possible responses. The national trial will run for five weeks, and will affect all types of news content created by Canadian broadcasters and newspapers.
The government said it aims to regulate digital news intermediaries (search engines or social media), enhance fairness and stability in the digital news market, and support independent local news businesses.
Canadian Heritage Minister, Pablo Rodriguez said in a Tweet, “Disappointing to hear that Google is attempting to block access to news sites. Canadians should not be intimidated. At the end of the day, we are asking all tech giants to compensate journalists for using their work .
In the meantime, it is Canadians who will be denied the free flow of information, while independent media will suffer their competitiveness, Michael Geist, University of Ottawa’s Canada Research Chair in Internet Law, said in a blog post,
“As the Google trial demonstrates, everyone loses out on the current bill. Trust in Google diminishes when it secretly undercuts its own service, news organizations say if companies stop linking.” will not see new revenue and they will also lose the benefits of the link, and Canadians will find that the bill is a self-targeting government that undermines the foundation of the Internet,” Geist said.
Geist told The Globe and Mail that if MPs did not engage in “political grandstanding”, Canadians would have more to answer for at the meeting.
New Democrat MP Peter Julian planned to introduce a motion to inform the House of Commons that Google CEO Sundar Pichai, as well as its global affairs president Kent Walker and vice president of news Richard Gingras, declined the committee’s subpoena. done. Julian said he would present the motion at the next hearing.
Jeremiah turned up at the canceled meeting though, therefore technically fulfilling his summons.
According to a report in the Canadian Press, it is not yet known when the adjourned meeting will take place, but the committee is expected to reschedule their appearance for later this week.
