logo
Quebec to impose French-language quotas on streaming giants

Quebec to impose French-language quotas on streaming giants

CBC21-05-2025

Quebec Culture Minister Mathieu Lacombe is set to table a bill today that would force streaming giants to add French-language content and make it more easily accessible.
The legislation has been in the works for over a year and would mark the first time that Quebec would set a "visibility quota" for French-language content on major streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney and Spotify.
It comes as the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) undertakes a two-week public hearing on a new definition of Canadian content that started last Wednesday.
The proceeding is part of its work to implement the Online Streaming Act — and it is bringing tensions between traditional players and large foreign streamers out in the open.
In an interview with Radio-Canada, Lacombe explained that making French-language content readily available to Quebecers on digital platforms is part of the Coalition Avenir Québec government's vision for protecting French.
Only 8.5 per cent of music people listen to in Quebec is in French, which is "very little," according to Lacombe. He said he wants to reverse that trend for younger generations.
"Discoverability means being able to stumble across something, to discover it when you weren't actively looking for it," Lacombe said.
While streaming giants are mostly from the U.S., the potential law involving penalties, would also apply to Canadian platforms such as Illico, Crave, and Tou.tv, Lacombe said.
Impact on trade relations?
He noted that the bill complies with the terms of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), but acknowledged that with the tense economic context, the Trump administration might view his initiative as a way to further disrupt trade relations.
If the U.S. administration challenges the bill once it's adopted, the Quebec government plans to invoke the exception that excludes cultural property from trade agreements, Lacombe said.
"We must not fear the United States' reaction and stop ourselves from taking action," he said, noting that the Biden administration was also opposed to the cultural exception. "If we do that, we would directly contradict the principle of cultural exception [in trade agreements]. What's the point if we don't use it?"
Lacombe said he thinks the bill will show that Quebec can stand up to major digital players.
"Initially, I think many saw me as a young, naive minister who thought he could control the giants. Since then, we have demonstrated that we have the capacity to act, and we are acting," he said.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Malcolm X at 100: How his legacy has been celebrated — and co-opted — in pop culture
Malcolm X at 100: How his legacy has been celebrated — and co-opted — in pop culture

CBC

time38 minutes ago

  • CBC

Malcolm X at 100: How his legacy has been celebrated — and co-opted — in pop culture

Social Sharing American civil rights activist and revolutionary Malcolm X would have turned 100 years old this year. Before he was assassinated in 1965 at the age of 39, Malcolm X had become a prominent figure in the Nation of Islam, known for his eloquent and passionate public speeches about Black nationalism and the critiques of American society. To commemorate his life, Commotion host Elamin Abdelmahmoud talks to professor Mark Anthony Neal, and culture critics Sandy Hudson and Matt Amha for a brief look at the commercialization of Malcolm X's legacy over the decades, and how it has or hasn't aligned with his actual mission and message. We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player. WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube: Elamin: Mark, Malcolm X came to prominence at a time when we obviously didn't have social media, internet. What do you think it was about his understanding of mass media that made him become this iconic voice that we now know? Mark: He came of age in the early parts of the electronic media era, right? He would have watched film as a kid. He would've been a young adult when television became a thing. So he was always sensitive to the representation of Black bodies and Black culture in the context of these films. Just think about a little Malcolm watching a Tarzan movie and trying to put in context what he was seeing, in terms of the way that Africans were treated. But I think more importantly, he was a photographer in his own right. So he was always concerned with capturing and documenting what was happening. And then, of course, the critical moment for him was when CBS News does their special, The Hate That Hate Produced, which really is a thing that allows more Americans in 1959 to find out what the Nation of Islam was and who Malcolm X was. He had to learn on the fly how to navigate media culture in that context. Elamin: Sandy, I'm curious for you because you are someone with real-world experience being an activist. As you look at the ways Malcolm X engaged with the media, what do you make of the way that he leveraged it? Sandy: I think it was wonderful. I think he really understood media. He was the one who said, "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." And so he really understood the power of media, and he didn't trust it. But that didn't stop him from using the media as a tool for education and to try to influence people to understand his goals, and to reach his goals. I certainly take that lesson from him, and I have tried to use that lesson in my own activism — using the media as a tool for mass education. Elamin: Matt, obviously there's something quite intentional about the ways that Malcolm X leveraged media. What do you make of the way that he approached it? Matt: I mean, Malcom was a showman in a lot of ways, you know? He understood the theatre of emerging media which, as Mark points out, at the time would have been colour television. I think he was a master of spectacle — and that isn't to say that it is in any way shallow. But it's to say that you understand the way that media and public attention functioned, and he understood how to ultimately bend it to his will. He was a kind of forebearer in that sense, in a lot of ways. Elamin: I want to spend a moment on that idea of it being theatre, because I don't think you are saying that it's fictitious in any kind of way. But you're saying it's a way to sort of get attention, and direct it towards the thing that you want that attention to be on. Matt: Well, what I mean to say by theatre is, there's a famous instance in 1957 where a Black man named Johnson Hinton is beaten in Harlem. He takes thousands of Black men from Harlem and marches down to the precinct in his community and stands them outside and makes demands of the NYPD, who eventually yield. That imagery of having hundreds of Black men standing outside of the precinct, making this demand of the New York Police Department, is a moving image. I mean, radicalism is about your belief system, but there's also a kind of aesthetic demonstration of radicalism as well. And the press at the time, and still to this day, often respond to that, right? And he, to me, was a kind of master of using that and turning it on its head, as Sandy says, for the purposes of political education.

Ottawa Catholic School Board eyes $16 million in new expenditures as OCDSB looks for $20 million in cuts
Ottawa Catholic School Board eyes $16 million in new expenditures as OCDSB looks for $20 million in cuts

CTV News

time44 minutes ago

  • CTV News

Ottawa Catholic School Board eyes $16 million in new expenditures as OCDSB looks for $20 million in cuts

Math will be on the agenda tonight for Ottawa's two largest school boards, as the 2025-26 budgets are presented to trustees. While trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board have been told they will need to find $20 million in savings to balance the books, the Ottawa Catholic School Board's budget for the new school year will include $16.8 million in 'new permanent and one-time enhancements' using operating surpluses and reserves. A report for the Ottawa Catholic School Board meeting shows the board will receive $797.8 million in grants and operating revenues for the 2025-26 school year, and the preliminary expenditures are $786.6 million. Staff recommend the board add another $10.5 million in permanent expenses to the 2025-26 budget using the grant and operating revenues, and $6.3 million in one-time expenditures using the accumulated surplus. The $16.8 million in additional spending includes $9 million for staffing salaries and $4.3 million in enhancements. According to the report, the $4.3 million in new 'non-salary expenditures' includes $375,000 for AI softwares, $500,000 for school budget increases to address inflationary budgets, $500,000 in one-time cash to support school initiatives, $500,0000 for furniture and equipment, and $500,000 to refresh sports and arts equipment in schools. The board will use its accumulated surplus to fund $2 million in investments in skills trades initiatives, a $2 million investment in inclusion and well-being through the Lens of Deep Learning and $1 million for play structure renewal. Staff say the board 'enjoys a healthy balance,' and there is 'sufficient' funding to fund 'valuable system needs.' The Ottawa Catholic School Board budget calls for 5,606 staff members, including 4,559 teachers, in 2025, up from 5,339 employees in 2024. Ottawa-Carleton District School Board The draft budget for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) will be tabled tonight, with trustees warned they need to find $20 million in savings to balance the books. Trustees have already approved a plan to cut more than 150 teaching and administrative positions. Staff have said the OCDSB is facing multi-million-dollar cost pressures, including $20 million to support the maintenance of underutilized schools, $16.8 million to cover costs for replacing staff and $12 million in inflation pressures. The Ministry of Education is investigating the OCDSB's finances.

Asked about the U.S., Supreme Court of Canada chief justice says rule of law is 'under attack' worldwide
Asked about the U.S., Supreme Court of Canada chief justice says rule of law is 'under attack' worldwide

CBC

timean hour ago

  • CBC

Asked about the U.S., Supreme Court of Canada chief justice says rule of law is 'under attack' worldwide

Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's contentious relationship with parts of the American judiciary, Supreme Court of Canada Chief Justice Richard Wagner said Tuesday "the rule of law and judicial independence is under attack" around the world. Speaking to reporters at his annual news conference on Parliament Hill, Wagner said if a government attacks the media, judges, lawyers and universities — as Trump and his associates have done in recent weeks — there's a good chance it's "a dictatorship" and an "autocratic government." Wagner said Canadians must be "prudent" and preserve their institutions, including a judicial system where rulings are respected by elected officials. "We have to be careful, but be optimistic as well. "In Canada we have a strong legal system," he said. "We have to defend those institutions. We should not take anything for granted." Wagner said, throughout his cross-country travels, "everybody asks me the same question" about whether what's going on in the U.S. courts system will bleed over into Canada. What's different in Canada, Wagner said, is that the "main stakeholders" here "respect separation of powers and judicial independence and are happy to live in a country where the rule of law will prevail." "Canada is not a superpower. But it is a democratic superpower. In this country, the rule of law is non-negotiable," he said. In his second term as president, Trump is pushing an ambitious but constitutionally dubious agenda that has been held back by some judicial rulings. The president has slammed some judges on social media — complaining about a "radicalized and incompetent court system" in one recent post — and threatened others with impeachment or removal from office. When one federal judge ordered a temporary halt to the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members, Trump said it was the actions of a "radical left lunatic of a judge, a troublemaker and agitator" who should be off the bench. In hundreds of cases before the U.S. court system, judges have delayed or stymied his efforts to close some federal agencies, pursue mass layoffs of federal workers, block foreign aid, end birthright citizenship for people born on American soil, deport undocumented migrants and slap tariffs on countries such as Canada. After the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down parts of Trump's tariffs regime, saying the president overstepped his constitutional authority by imposing sweeping levies on global goods, one of his top advisors, Stephen Miller, said, "The judicial coup is out of control." Trump has had some legal victories, especially at the U.S. Supreme Court, which includes three justices appointed by him. Late last month, the top court let Trump's administration revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan, Cuban, Haitian and Nicaraguan migrants living in the United States, bolstering the Republican president's drive to step up deportations. A Trump official said that ruling was "a victory for the American people."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store