Google Canada employees return to the Google office in Toronto following a walkout in Toronto on Nov. 1, 2018. Google is not happy with Canada’s online news bill and last week blocked some Canadians from finding news through its search engine.COLE BURSTON /The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned Google’s decision to block thousands of Canadians from finding news websites using its search bar,saying the move is troubling and a “terrible mistake.”
The tech giant has said the restrictions will last for five weeks, and that they are a test of a potential response to the federal government’s online-news bill, known as Bill C-18. The legislation would force Google and Facebook to compensate news organizations for posting or linking to their work.
As Mr. Trudeau made his remarks at a Friday news conference in Toronto, the Commons heritage committee was preparing to summon Google executives to explain what a cross-party group of MPs on the committee called “damaging and reckless behaviour.”
Mr. Trudeau said the move by Google is “very sad” and “extremely troubling.”
“It really surprises me that Google has decided that they’d rather prevent Canadians from accessing news than actually paying journalists for the work they do. I think that’s a terrible mistake, and I know Canadians expect journalists to be well paid for the work they do,” he said.
The online news bill has passed through the Commons and is now being considered in the Senate. Some Canadian news organizations, including The Globe and Mail, have already made compensation agreements with big tech platforms.
The tests, which Google saidin a statement earlier this week would affect only about 4 per cent of its Canadian users, have provoked a backlash and prompted calls for the federal government to pull back its own advertising from the tech giant.
Commons heritage committee chair Hedy Fry said she is now working out the practicalities of a special meeting to question Google executives after MPs requested one.
She said the date “will depend on availability of committee rooms and resources, which are under House administration.”
Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs on the committee – who together have a majority – wrote to Ms. Fry on Thursday asking for the meeting “at the earliest opportunity to summon leadership from Google to explain this damaging and reckless behaviour.”
The signatories include Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez’s parliamentary secretary, Chris Bittle, and Liberal MP Anthony Housefather.
Google has said Canadians affected by the tests are experiencing varying degrees of limited access to news sites using its search function. It is still possible for those users to access news by typing the sites’ addresses into web browsers.
Google has been sharply critical of Bill C-18, which it says will result in the proliferation of misinformation and clickbait. The company has also said the bill would subject it to a “link tax” for helping its users find news. And it is concerned that Commons amendments to Bill C-18 will force it to make payments to an expanded group of media organizations, including community radio stations.
Mr. Rodriguez, the Heritage Minister, accused Google of using “scare tactics” as the bill begins its passage through the Senate.
“Canadians won’t be intimidated. At the end of the day, all we’re asking the tech giants to do is compensate news organizations when they use their work,” he said.
Shay Purdy, a Google spokesman, said Google is “briefly testing product responses” to the bill. “We run thousands of tests each year to assess any potential changes to search,” he added.
But groups representing the news industry questioned whether the tests were random.
“We were somewhat surprised by the company’s statement that this only affected 4 per cent of users, given the number of journalists who have come forward to say they noticed it,” said Paul Deegan, president of News Media Canada, which represents the news industry.
He urged MPs to ask Google executives who is being targetedby the tests, and “which executives in Canada and Mountain View approved of or had advance knowledge of this scheme to deny access to trusted news sources.”
Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, said the ban “seems to be disproportionately impacting journalists and media workers.”
“While we are working to better understand the scale and impact of this allegation, it nevertheless underscores a troubling reality: that a private enterprise is able, seemingly at the wave of a magic wand, to put a chill on the public’s right to information,” he said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
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