The Liberals gave the digital economy a prominent place in their election platform, identifying eight principles that included access to broadband for all Canadians, balanced copyright, open government, and support for an open Internet. Yesterday the party expanded on the policy by releasing Digital Canada and holding an online chat forum with Marc Garneau. The Digital Canada release reiterated many of the platform’s positions with one notable addition – a commitment to issue an open Internet directive to the CRTC. According to the Liberals, a Liberal government would “issue an Open Internet Directive to the CRTC opposing anti-competitive usage-based billing and ensure a fair, effective wholesale regime to allow smaller Internet service providers to lease broadband infrastructure at fair prices.”

Far more detail came in the online chat that I participated in as a commentator together with Open Media’s Steve Anderson. The discussion touched on a number of issues, but provided considerable detail on telecom, copyright, and privacy policy.

net neutrality

functional separation to address competition concerns

a set-aside for new entrants and emergency responders in the forthcoming spectrum auction

broadening CRTC composition to include consumers, more experts

reviewing the Broadcasting Act before the opening the door to lifting foreign ownership restrictions

On telecom policy, Garneau supported:

On copyright, Garneau:

supported expanding fair dealing to include an education category, provided there is a definition for “fair” (which could include the Supreme Court of Canada’s six factor test) and “education”

“oppose the digital lock provisions as currently written in C-32” and “support an exception for people using the material they bought for non infringing purposes”

supported notice-and-notice for intermediary liability

did not like the secrecy of the ACTA negotiations

would exclude copyright for the Canada – EU Trade Agreement “if not in best interest of Canadians”

On privacy, Garneau confirmed:

the Liberals would not support lawful access provisions that requires personal information disclosure without court oversight (when asked, Garneau responded “Yes we agree that privacy of canadians must be protected”)

the Liberals would support stronger enforcement pressures as part of the reform of Canadian privacy law