A plan to subject more digital media, including podcasts, to CRTC oversight and regulation isn't going to end well. We don't have to make it easy for them.
Free speech is under attack by "liberal" governments all over the Western world, cheered on by legacy media so I have absolutely no sympathy for those people. They want to control the narrative, they are desperate to do so and are using any means necessary. We have extremely lax free speech laws in Canada that are vulnerable to manipulation by the courts. Even in the U.S. with their first amendment rights free speech is under attack constantly by both the establishment right and the "woke" left. I'm sick of petty authoritarians in government, in the legacy media and special interests. We need a movement, a march for free speech in general. This is a nonpartisan issue in my opinion. Free speech is a fundamental democratic value and the people who are trying to control it or shut it down have never been the good guys throughout history These people are just thugs.
To me the attempts across the West to limit our freedom is a sign of political parties, bureaucrats and academics that for the most lack any great ideas and ability to defend those ideas in public.
Hence, they go to censorship and slurs to shut down the debate while their policies on things from housing to crime fail.
Absolutely. People on Substack probably know about Matt Taibbi already but I highly suggest subscribing free or paid to Racket News on here. He is great on civil liberties issues.
Freedom is not a right or left issue. If we are not free to express ourselves freely than those in power are given free reign to do whatever they want.
Someone else said it best - in today's society the public is surveilled and the government is shrouded in secrecy when it should be the other way around. They are supposed to be transparent not us.
Sick of this shit. As a person who would like to see a fairer economic system how can we trust government to do that if they are constantly censoring and hiding?
On the positive side I see people from left to right organizing against Woke neoliberalism and the Green New Grift.
Conservatives and anarchists against mining for lithium. Socialists, feminists and religious folk against gender ideology.
As someone who has friends that are anarchists, conservatives, environmentalists, liberals, libertarians and socialists I am very happy to see the coalition building.
This type of governmental/institutional coercion used to make me angry. I wasted a lot of emotion on the idea that our institutions "should" be better, and not just pathways for manipulation and whatever the narrative of the moment is. After my rage at the COVID power play died down, so did my emotional investment in our institutions and government. I've written them off, and now can just watch in a sort of detachment. Every successful society ends up ripping itself apart at the hands of those who believe themselves gods in their quest for immortality. It will happen to ours as well. Us humans don't deal well with leisure. My goal is just to provide as much stability to my family as possible. I don't read, listen to, or watch any Canadian media other than Substack.
In addition, our little dramas in Canada are all token. We are downstream of the USA. Our military is a token organization. Our global influence is only as a piece of the US influence and power. Once a person realizes that all our chatter here in Canada is simply going through the motions to try and convince ourselves that we matter, it's much easier to have a more detached and less emotional point of view.
Eli, your fatalism "to try and convince ourselves that we matter" is not shared by me. History is littered with the dead bodies of Canadians for whom our country "mattered". We have troops active throughout the world--albeit under-resourced and ill-respected--for whom our country "matters".
Perhaps its time to stop quitting, discover some spine and/or move your family to a country that "matters".
Wry humour. It's funny you pulled the military card. After 30 years in the military and multiple overseas tours, it may be that I have a reasonable window into our overseas status.
None of my business really but... What Eli says about Canada hits home with me. There is hardly a podcast worth the time it takes to watch it. The Canadian-Ukrainian Nazi thing is being covered better by my American podcasters than anything I've yet seen out of Canada. Tara's substack is the only Canadian one I financially support. So why is that?
Sure we're only a tenth of the size of America. So where is the one Canadian podcast that can stand up to an american one. The only ones on the left are shitlib style and we don't need any more of those. There are a couple on the right that are sorta good but pretty tame really. What is it about Canada that makes us so lame?? I dunno. But Eli's got a point.
Yours is a noteworthy post. What got under my skin was the defeatism I read in Eli's post. I listed the remarks that struck me as acute negativism. Were all of us to take that position, there'd be no one left to right the floundering ship of Canada.
I suggest Matt Taibbi as a US Substacker who also comments on Canada...and The Line (Jen Gerson+Matt Gurney). I pay for them also.
I tried to tell Tom, politely, to be better and not tell people he disagreed with to "find a new country." It didn't work and I should have known better to engage in good faith, as you have, with somebody who doesn't understand the concept
Dear Tom, "move to a country that matters" is like saying to your neighbour, on Thanksgiving Weekend, STFU. Be nicer, because Eli is closer to observing something more important than your petty response. Canada matters for sure but much of the "debate in Canada" is not as relevant as you think, if you focus on the parochial, and somewhat provincial "Canadian issues." Tara is pushing back, and Jen is also doing so in a bland way too (get a VPN?) Yet, the global dialogue going on isn't about regulating podcasts or whether Twitter/X is a forum for free speech or is the NY Times more influential than Canadian news outlets (it may be barely for a few hours today.) The medium is the message and focusing on that signal versus all the noise from an MPs in the Candian parliament isn't the point really, IMO.
Probably the best critic of all the digital/media bills.
Also, some of us have been resisting our governments for years. Recent events also back this up with the Fairy Creek Old Growth protests on Vancouver Island (2020-2021), Indigenous land defenders, the Freedom/Truck Convoy, the march for parents’ rights and the approximately 12% of the population who are 100% Covid vaccine free. Other Canadians are welcome to join us.
Michael Geist was interviewed. It was, he is, boring. Now he is boring in the polite way that most people in the Ottawa bubble can't really identify problems but sure can nit pick there way around a policy they like or don't like. If you want a "fresh" Canadian point of view, listen/read to J.J. McCullogh on his "channels" (go ahead and look him up.)
Michael Geist’s criticisms of all the bills related to the internet and media have for the most part been pretty spot on. Individuals that can parse through all the bureaucratic language are always much needed so not boring to me.
I am familiar with JJ McCullogh as I watch some of his videos on YouTube.
Tara and Jen. Are there two options: (1) DO NOT REGISTER....and (2) EVERYONE REGISTER. Perhaps civil disobedience can utilize over-obedience? Gonna research this. Will report back.
The Line is terrific. Huge potential to offer grounded perspectives on events, I hope they continue to grow. I was initially skeptical of the Substack model and its ability to scale or challenge corporate media but more and more I find myself skimming msm headlines and then turning to Substack for the considered analysis and commentary.
One aspect that perplexes me is how a digital content creator is expected to run a business while constantly living under the threat of expropriation from the mega-corps, government overreach and Warren Kinsella’s “angry little men”?
Creators surely need to have some equivalent to property rights that prevents dispossession at the whim of the connected and powerful. I regularly hear of creators being demonetized or cancelled while the host corp. hides behind vague community guidelines. If contracts were built to include recognition that creators actually own (or lease) digital property to set up their digital store, it would prevent expropriation in the same way it works for physical and financial property. Leasing space on a platform should also have these rights. It’s like we are living in Venezuela when it comes to digital creation where your house and farm or store can be taken from you at any time.
I would write my MP about this but she is Hedy Fry. She was elected 30 years ago, is about 83 years old, has one of the worst attendance records for a sitting MP and probably couldn’t define what a podcast is. She is the Diane Feinstein of Canadian politics, does not live in the riding and never shows up unless there’s an election. The political class is truly the elitist class who consider us immature peons who need to be controlled and regulated. What a sad place Canada has become.
Free speech is under attack by "liberal" governments all over the Western world, cheered on by legacy media so I have absolutely no sympathy for those people. They want to control the narrative, they are desperate to do so and are using any means necessary. We have extremely lax free speech laws in Canada that are vulnerable to manipulation by the courts. Even in the U.S. with their first amendment rights free speech is under attack constantly by both the establishment right and the "woke" left. I'm sick of petty authoritarians in government, in the legacy media and special interests. We need a movement, a march for free speech in general. This is a nonpartisan issue in my opinion. Free speech is a fundamental democratic value and the people who are trying to control it or shut it down have never been the good guys throughout history These people are just thugs.
How's about a million person march for speech. Could bring the left and right together on this one.
Totally agree with your statement.
To me the attempts across the West to limit our freedom is a sign of political parties, bureaucrats and academics that for the most lack any great ideas and ability to defend those ideas in public.
Hence, they go to censorship and slurs to shut down the debate while their policies on things from housing to crime fail.
Absolutely. People on Substack probably know about Matt Taibbi already but I highly suggest subscribing free or paid to Racket News on here. He is great on civil liberties issues.
Freedom is not a right or left issue. If we are not free to express ourselves freely than those in power are given free reign to do whatever they want.
Someone else said it best - in today's society the public is surveilled and the government is shrouded in secrecy when it should be the other way around. They are supposed to be transparent not us.
Sick of this shit. As a person who would like to see a fairer economic system how can we trust government to do that if they are constantly censoring and hiding?
On the positive side I see people from left to right organizing against Woke neoliberalism and the Green New Grift.
Conservatives and anarchists against mining for lithium. Socialists, feminists and religious folk against gender ideology.
As someone who has friends that are anarchists, conservatives, environmentalists, liberals, libertarians and socialists I am very happy to see the coalition building.
Outstanding. I loathe our govt.
This type of governmental/institutional coercion used to make me angry. I wasted a lot of emotion on the idea that our institutions "should" be better, and not just pathways for manipulation and whatever the narrative of the moment is. After my rage at the COVID power play died down, so did my emotional investment in our institutions and government. I've written them off, and now can just watch in a sort of detachment. Every successful society ends up ripping itself apart at the hands of those who believe themselves gods in their quest for immortality. It will happen to ours as well. Us humans don't deal well with leisure. My goal is just to provide as much stability to my family as possible. I don't read, listen to, or watch any Canadian media other than Substack.
In addition, our little dramas in Canada are all token. We are downstream of the USA. Our military is a token organization. Our global influence is only as a piece of the US influence and power. Once a person realizes that all our chatter here in Canada is simply going through the motions to try and convince ourselves that we matter, it's much easier to have a more detached and less emotional point of view.
Eli, your fatalism "to try and convince ourselves that we matter" is not shared by me. History is littered with the dead bodies of Canadians for whom our country "mattered". We have troops active throughout the world--albeit under-resourced and ill-respected--for whom our country "matters".
Perhaps its time to stop quitting, discover some spine and/or move your family to a country that "matters".
Wry humour. It's funny you pulled the military card. After 30 years in the military and multiple overseas tours, it may be that I have a reasonable window into our overseas status.
Thank you for your service. But that wasn't the substance of your post.
THIS was the substance of your post.
"I wasted a lot of emotion on the idea that our institutions "should" be better"
"pathways for manipulation and whatever the narrative of the moment is"
"so did my emotional investment in our institutions and government"
"just watch in a sort of detachment"
"our little dramas in Canada are all token"
"all our chatter here in Canada is simply going through the motions to try and convince ourselves that we matter"
Notwithstanding your comments, sounds like someone without the spine to change things in Canada. Futility seems your thing.
None of my business really but... What Eli says about Canada hits home with me. There is hardly a podcast worth the time it takes to watch it. The Canadian-Ukrainian Nazi thing is being covered better by my American podcasters than anything I've yet seen out of Canada. Tara's substack is the only Canadian one I financially support. So why is that?
Sure we're only a tenth of the size of America. So where is the one Canadian podcast that can stand up to an american one. The only ones on the left are shitlib style and we don't need any more of those. There are a couple on the right that are sorta good but pretty tame really. What is it about Canada that makes us so lame?? I dunno. But Eli's got a point.
Yours is a noteworthy post. What got under my skin was the defeatism I read in Eli's post. I listed the remarks that struck me as acute negativism. Were all of us to take that position, there'd be no one left to right the floundering ship of Canada.
I suggest Matt Taibbi as a US Substacker who also comments on Canada...and The Line (Jen Gerson+Matt Gurney). I pay for them also.
I listen to Jimmy Dore, Russel Brand, Kim Iversen... and I do have subs to Taibbi, and a Canadian actually, Aaron Mate, and many more...
Eli,
I tried to tell Tom, politely, to be better and not tell people he disagreed with to "find a new country." It didn't work and I should have known better to engage in good faith, as you have, with somebody who doesn't understand the concept
Dear Tom, "move to a country that matters" is like saying to your neighbour, on Thanksgiving Weekend, STFU. Be nicer, because Eli is closer to observing something more important than your petty response. Canada matters for sure but much of the "debate in Canada" is not as relevant as you think, if you focus on the parochial, and somewhat provincial "Canadian issues." Tara is pushing back, and Jen is also doing so in a bland way too (get a VPN?) Yet, the global dialogue going on isn't about regulating podcasts or whether Twitter/X is a forum for free speech or is the NY Times more influential than Canadian news outlets (it may be barely for a few hours today.) The medium is the message and focusing on that signal versus all the noise from an MPs in the Candian parliament isn't the point really, IMO.
Huh?
Tara: please interview Michael Geist.
Probably the best critic of all the digital/media bills.
Also, some of us have been resisting our governments for years. Recent events also back this up with the Fairy Creek Old Growth protests on Vancouver Island (2020-2021), Indigenous land defenders, the Freedom/Truck Convoy, the march for parents’ rights and the approximately 12% of the population who are 100% Covid vaccine free. Other Canadians are welcome to join us.
Take care and stay free.
Michael Geist was interviewed. It was, he is, boring. Now he is boring in the polite way that most people in the Ottawa bubble can't really identify problems but sure can nit pick there way around a policy they like or don't like. If you want a "fresh" Canadian point of view, listen/read to J.J. McCullogh on his "channels" (go ahead and look him up.)
Michael Geist’s criticisms of all the bills related to the internet and media have for the most part been pretty spot on. Individuals that can parse through all the bureaucratic language are always much needed so not boring to me.
I am familiar with JJ McCullogh as I watch some of his videos on YouTube.
Tara did a podcast with Geist. You should be able to find it on her substack.
Thanks.
Guess I missed than one.
Tara and Jen. Are there two options: (1) DO NOT REGISTER....and (2) EVERYONE REGISTER. Perhaps civil disobedience can utilize over-obedience? Gonna research this. Will report back.
train the children , control the media . Sound familiar ?
The Line is terrific. Huge potential to offer grounded perspectives on events, I hope they continue to grow. I was initially skeptical of the Substack model and its ability to scale or challenge corporate media but more and more I find myself skimming msm headlines and then turning to Substack for the considered analysis and commentary.
One aspect that perplexes me is how a digital content creator is expected to run a business while constantly living under the threat of expropriation from the mega-corps, government overreach and Warren Kinsella’s “angry little men”?
Creators surely need to have some equivalent to property rights that prevents dispossession at the whim of the connected and powerful. I regularly hear of creators being demonetized or cancelled while the host corp. hides behind vague community guidelines. If contracts were built to include recognition that creators actually own (or lease) digital property to set up their digital store, it would prevent expropriation in the same way it works for physical and financial property. Leasing space on a platform should also have these rights. It’s like we are living in Venezuela when it comes to digital creation where your house and farm or store can be taken from you at any time.
Lieberats hate free speech
I would write my MP about this but she is Hedy Fry. She was elected 30 years ago, is about 83 years old, has one of the worst attendance records for a sitting MP and probably couldn’t define what a podcast is. She is the Diane Feinstein of Canadian politics, does not live in the riding and never shows up unless there’s an election. The political class is truly the elitist class who consider us immature peons who need to be controlled and regulated. What a sad place Canada has become.