International Journal of Communications Law & Policy

TWO SOLITUDES: CANADIAN COMMUNICATIONS REGULATION APPLIED TO THE INTERNET
By Michael Koch

Download the Paper in PDF Format: IJCLP Web-Doc 2-2-1999

Abstract

The Internet is converging technologies, applications and industry sectors. In the case of Canada, the Internet also obscures the line between two distinct regulatory regimes, namely those applying to telecommunications and broadcasting. Telecommunications and broadcasting have always been regulated under separate legislation in Canada (although the two sectors of the communications industry are regulated by one body, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, hereinafter referred to as the "Commission" or the "CRTC"). This separation was founded on the traditional understanding that the telecommunications industry gave rise to carriage issues, while the broadcasting industry gave rise primarily to issues concerning content. However, the conceptual line between the regulatory principles applying to these two sectors is increasingly being blurred, and the Internet is a significant manifestation of that process.

Canada’s brief history of regulated competition in telecommunications and its long-standing concern for preserving its cultural identity in the shadow of its neighbour to the South can hopefully provide some useful lessons for those attempting to regulate the Internet’s world without borders.