The CRTC has backed away from a 21st-century funding model for the creation of Canadian content. We'll all be poorer as a result
The leaders of Canada’s creative rebellion have emerged victorious after two years of struggle. That means consumers will almost certainly pay more for years to come for their much-loved Canadian television content. The news came just prior to the Labour Day weekend. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a decision confirming that it…
Not if those publications must compete with the CBC, which operates with the generous help of taxpayers' money
An ominous silence has fallen over the demands to save Canada’s newspapers, even as more of their employees take the long walk into the abattoir of the industry’s ambitions. It was only 18 months ago that the Public Policy Forum report authored by Edward Greenspon – The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the…
The labour market is changing. creating opportunity and putting pressure on business and government to adapt
The rise of the gig or sharing economy is one of the most visible trends shaping the contemporary labour market. Most gig jobs fall into the category of contingent work. Such work can be contrasted with a traditional job, in which a person has a durable and structured employment relationship with a specific employer. Today,…
The Amazon-Whole Foods buyout shocked the grocery world and is now leading to death by a thousand cuts for the food industry
One after the other, grocers are going online. All of them, at some point over the last 12 months, have announced some sort of commitment to an e-commerce strategy. Costco launched its home delivery pilot in Ontario, while Maxi, Loblaws’ discount stores in Quebec, jumped on the virtual bandwagon with their Click and Collect program.…
Canadian production is booming. It hardly needs more official intervention – and funding – to continue to grow
Those of you who have fled the walled garden that constitutes Canada’s regulated Can-con broadcasting system for the freedom of the Internet, beware: the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is ready to round you up. After years of news, information, education and entertainment being available unregulated from whatever source you want on a platform…
From home cinema systems to barbecue tools to bug-free patio time to Wi-Fi with muscle, here's something for every dad
There’s no doubt Dad likes tech toys, so why not give him the gift of gadgets this Father’s Day? And while making the right selection is often tough, here are a few ideas: Home cinema Let’s start big. If Dad thought a 60-inch screen was cool, how about streaming the 2018 FIFA World Cup of…
How do you crack down on internet piracy while preserving net neutrality, the cherished principle of a free and open web?
Last weekend while the National Hockey League all-star extravaganza was taking place in Tampa Bay, hundreds of thousands of people there with no interest whatsoever in hockey partied hard at the Gasparilla Pirate Festival. It doesn’t really matter that throughout history, high seas pirates – who continue to flourish – are most often psychopathic mass…
Deregulating the rules that apply to the companies that provide the Internet’s infrastructure will allow them to monkey with it for their own gain
The chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an intelligent, articulate man who, in the name of liberty, appears determined to destroy freedom of access to an unbiased Internet in the United States and, inevitably, Canada. I met with Ajit Pai once or twice when he was an FCC commissioner and felt we shared…
The disruption initiated by the web was always going to result in some chaos. But now the barbarians may be the gatekeepers
Many of my generation wring their hands, dab the sweat off their upper lips and otherwise fuss – in the manner older generations do – about millennials. They live at home until 30, ooze entitlement, have the attention span of a housefly and, because their parents’ generation mortgaged their future, are more focused on fun…
Modern monsters take the shape of cyber attacks, email hacking, Internet fraud, cyber bullying, political instability, identity theft, viruses and much more
The contemporary global electronic connectivity that I call internetization has opened a great new frontier of opportunity and empowerment. It’s a positive force for electronic accessibility and digital outreach. But it has also unleashed an environment similar to that of the wild west before law and order was established. The new frontier of the contemporary electronic world…
The leaders of Canada’s creative rebellion have emerged victorious after two years of struggle. That means consumers will almost certainly pay more for years to come for their much-loved Canadian television content. The news came just prior to the Labour Day weekend. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued a decision confirming that it…
