Ottawa to restore privacy provision mistakingly struck from streaming law – National

Liberal government says it will restore confidentiality provision Law on online broadcastingmore than two years after it was accidentally deleted.

The Federal Budget released this week says the government will introduce a legislative amendment to “restore individuals' rights to privacy in the translation provisions and remove the overlapping provision relating to official languages.”

In 2023, the Online Streaming Act updated the Canada Broadcasting Act to attract online streamers like Netflix.

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The Senate included an amendment stating that the bill would be interpreted and applied consistent with people's right to privacy. Senator Julie Miville-Dechaine introduced the amendment on the recommendation of the federal privacy commissioner.

Two months later, the government passed a law on official languages. One section of this bill amended the streaming legislation to change the language in the provision regarding minority communities in the official language.

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But instead of replacing a similar provision, the Official Languages ​​Bill replaced the confidentiality provision. As a result, the streaming bill was left with two identically worded language communities provisions, and neither addressed privacy.

After University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist pointed out the error in a blog post this summer, the heritage department said it “recently learned of what appears to be an unintentional omission in the coordination amendment.”