FEDS

CRTC's Internet decision: dumb or dumber?

Bureaucracies defend the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status. And, if one takes a moment or two to peruse the recent decision of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) concerning the Internet, one may indeed wonder if a quaint anachronistic paralysis has seized the guardians of our public airwaves. That, or fear of offending the libertarian lobby.

The CRTC's decision left everyone stunned -- the mandarins and political chieftains in Ottawa and the Internet industry types (many of whom are based in Toronto).

In its report on the so-called new media, the CRTC concluded recently that the Commission would do nothing -- precisely nothing -- to stem the proliferation of hate propaganda and child pornography in cyberspace. Apparently eager to curry favor with the anything-goes crowd at her Ottawa press conference, CRTC chairperson Françoise Bertrand provided a copy of her remarks to all who cared, with the following passage helpfully bolded: "The CRTC will not regulate new media services on the Internet. Our message is clear. Let me repeat that for those of you who were worried -- the CRTC will not regulate any portion of the Internet."

How courageous! How forward-thinking! The single bureaucratic entity with the legal mandate to regulate harmful content on the Internet, concluding -- for itself -- that it will do nothing of the sort. Neo-Nazis, violent pornographers and pedophiles rejoice! You no longer need to "worry," to use Ms Bertrand's own word, about a pesky government agency sticking its nose into your business. You now have licence to do what you do best!

Gushed Ms Bertrand: "We believe, as did many of the people who made submissions on this issue, that appropriate tools already exist to deal with offensive and illegal content." Therein lies an interesting admission: because there were "many" people who opposed even a scintilla of regulation, the CRTC's own decision is legitimized by implication. This, one might say, is judicial decision-making on the basis of opinion polls. Lobbyists, take note: if you stack a room full of enough computer-adoring pencil heads, and get them to hum the same tune, you are now home free!

And what of these other "tools" to combat hate propaganda and child pornography? In the view of the CRTC, running away from the problem as quickly as its greasy legs would permit, these include "laws of general application, industry self-regulation, content-filtering software as well as increased media awareness."

Let's take a look at those, shall we?

The law: The law, as anyone in British Columbia could tell you -- and anyone in a minority community, for that matter -- is an ass. In the past 30 years, there have been a whopping two successful hate propaganda prosecutions in this country. Hate crimes don't seem to have become any less frequent, do they? Even the CRTC's press clippings service must have noticed all that fuss in the papers in January about the possession of child pornography becoming legal in B.C. Wouldn't that suggest, even to the intellects at the CRTC, that the law is not entirely effective?

Industry self-regulation: Ah, yes, the hoary old chestnut favored by de-regulators and privatizers everywhere. Had the CRTC researched the issue, they would have noted that only GeoCities has banned noxious hate groups and the like. Other providers -- either not caring, or fearing litigious Nazis and perverts -- have stubbornly refused to clean up their cyber-sewers.

Content-filtering software: Lobbyists for Cyber Patrol, SurfWatch, Net Nanny, CyberSitter and the like were delighted, no doubt, to see a Canadian federal government agency provide a gratuitous plug for their clients' products. One problem: the filtration devices are about as effective as the colander found in your kitchen.

Increased media awareness: "Media awareness" is an oxymoron. Apart from the 750-word rant you now grasp in your inky maulers, can you remember reading anything about this issue recently? Anywhere? Even a line or two? We didn't think so.

For those of us who gratefully live beyond the shadow of the Peace Tower, there is no revelation to be found in the conviction that Ottawa is blissfully out of touch with the real world. But this latest CRTC report -- on which, to be fair, we have yet to hear from Sheila Copps, the minister to whom the befuddled commissioners answer -- is fucking crazy, to put a fine point on it.

One screwy little town, that Ottawa.

Feds is written by a federal insider.