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Canadian Streaming Content Becomes a US Trade Issue (www.cbc.ca) 109

Posted by BeauHD from the streaming-sovereignty dept.
Canada's cultural-content rules have become a flashpoint in its trade fight with the U.S., after American negotiators reportedly demanded that Ottawa drop requirements for streaming services to promote Canadian and French-language content. Canada refused, even as it has already backed away from some financial levies on streamers. "We were not prepared to compromise on our sovereignty, the protection of the French language, and our culture," Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a speech on Saturday after trade talks collapsed. CBC.ca reports: Ottawa has long required broadcasters to promote and support Canadian content (Cancon), all the way back to song quotas for AM radio stations. In 1991, the government brought in the Broadcasting Act. The law states that "the Canadian broadcasting system shall be effectively owned and controlled by Canadians" and that the Canadian broadcasting system should "serve to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada." But decades later, the rising popularity in Canada of streaming platforms such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Spotify raised questions about Cancon and broadcasting rules. Video and audio streaming services were not, for example, required to support and promote Cancon, but their TV and radio counterparts were.

Looking to address the imbalance, the former Trudeau government brought forward a bill in 2022 to update the Broadcasting Act, called the Online Streaming Act. "Canadian broadcasters have invested in and introduced us to the incredible Canadian programs that so many of us love. We are updating our laws so online streamers have to contribute in a similar and equitable way," a 2022 government news release said. The legislation was controversial from the start, with the government and supporters saying it was a necessary evolution of Canada's media laws in the digital age, while opponents expressed concerns that it was overreach and an attempt to regulate the internet.

American streamers and digital media companies opposed the legislation fiercely. The bill passed with amendments and became law in April 2023, but the government delegated much of its interpretation -- including how much money streamers would have to contribute to Cancon -- to Canada's broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). But getting streaming companies to pay up has been a long and confusing saga. [...]. As for why the U.S. government is so invested in the issue? Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte, a postdoctoral fellow in the communication studies and media arts department at McMaster University in Hamilton, said it could be about power.

"The Americans have had, since after World War II, a very strong cultural policy of pushing out American content into the world," Bourcheix-Laporte, who has worked with the CRTC, said. "This has been a strategy -- a soft-power strategy -- for the American government, in parallel to their military strategies and political alliances strategies."

Canadian Streaming Content Becomes a US Trade Issue More | Reply

Canadian Streaming Content Becomes a US Trade Issue

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  • Go Doug Ford! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 )

    Ontario Premier Doug Ford doubled down on saying U.S. President Donald Trump could "kiss my ass" https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada... [www.cbc.ca]

    • Ya, he really handled the situation very well, something he's not really known for, but I have to agree with his take!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by logjon ( 1411219 )
        Loudmouthed boorishness is, sadly, one of the few effective tools against loudmouthed boorishness.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Z00L00K ( 682162 )

      We are now in Canadian Bacon [wikipedia.org] territory.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      I love that Doug Ford continues the stereotype of the polite Canadian. We all know that what he was thinking was way worse than what he said.

    • Doug Ford could be Prime Minister one day. I say that in all seriousness.

      • I wonder if he could run for the US Senate. That kind of talk would be a refreshing change from all the licking of ass and boot. (The flavors must pair well.)

        • I wonder if he could run for the US Senate. That kind of talk would be a refreshing change from all the licking of ass and boot. (The flavors must pair well.)

          Doug Ford is 61 years old. He is not an American citizen at the moment.

          If he quit the Ontario Premiership, moved to the USA, and became a permanent resident right now (not sure how) he could become a US citizen in 5 years (3 if he married an American.)

          After 9 years as a US citizen, he could run for the US Senate. He would be 76 (or 74) years old.

          In short, it looks highly unlikely that he could (or even would) run for the US Senate.

  • "Trade issue" my ass (Score:5, Informative)

    by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @04:14PM (#66306680) Homepage

    Donald Trump negotiated and signed CUSMA in 2018, calling it the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country [archives.gov].

    Then he unilaterally breaks the deal, applies illegal tariffs on Canadian goods (by the way, tariffs are consumption taxes on American consumers, in case you didn't realize that) and then tries strong-arming Canada into giving up its sovereignty.

    No wonder our negotiators walked away. Fuck that shit. At this point, it's a trade war, and Canada's not going to talk without an attitude adjustment from the USA. For sure, Canada will feel a ton of economic pain... a lot more than the USA. We will definitely suffer. But Canadians are united and willing to take pain, while Americans are hopelessly divided and completely unwilling to endure any sort of economic pain.

    I assume Canadian tariffs will target swing states and MAGA states. Anything we can do to hurt the MAGA bastards and hurt the Republicans' chances in the mid-terms is the most productive thing we can do to get the US-Canada trading relationship back on track.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )

      For sure, Canada will feel a ton of economic pain

      When dealing with trump it is was always going to be a lose-lose situation. If you had accepted the USA conditions you would lose more in the long term so I think Canada has done the right thing. Canada has earned the worlds respect for taking proactive steps to protect itself by diversifying its trade etc. I am keen for our country to join in a free trade agreement with Canada given our common values and attitudes.

    • Re:"Trade issue" my ass (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @05:15PM (#66306838)

      Then he unilaterally breaks the deal, applies illegal tariffs on Canadian goods

      That's the real problem. The US can't sign any binding agreements. Even if their congress ratifies them, which is a big if, they have enough emergency executive powers that any random president can just decide they'd rather not abide by them.

      Even if the demands hadn't been ridiculous, it's insane to sign any kind of agreement that results in lasting changes when the other side can just change their mind any time they want. That goes for trade, defence, nuclear non-proliferation. The US is going to find out that their perfidy has very high costs for everyone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sebby ( 238625 )

      For sure, Canada will feel a ton of economic pain... a lot more than the USA.

      Likely, without a doubt some pain; everyone knows it was always going to be painful regardless, but now that pain is going to be under Canada's own terms, instead of the US' terms.

    • Re:"Trade issue" my ass (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Kernel Kurtz ( 182424 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @05:52PM (#66306890)

      Donald Trump negotiated and signed CUSMA in 2018, calling it the most modern, up-to-date, and balanced trade agreement in the history of our country [archives.gov].....Then he unilaterally breaks the deal

      Yes, the lack of a deal in the current case is tempered by the fact that any deal with Trump is meaningless anyway, his word is worth less than nothing and agreements with him might as well be written on toilet paper. Rest assured the entire world knows this and couches their expectations appropriately.

      • Re:"Trade issue" my ass (Score:5, Insightful)

        by shilly ( 142940 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @06:04PM (#66306918)

        I would actually go further, and say that signing a deal with him isn't merely not worth the paper it's written on, it's actively harmful: people waste time and effort negotiating, end up agreeing to a lot of stuff that's really bad for them, and he still fucks them over and they are very often taken by surprise, despite the fact they shouldn't be, because people are used to deals having some kind of binding effect and it's tough to break away from that psychology.

        • people are used to deals having some kind of binding effect and it's tough to break away from that psychology.

          I think in particular because we are talking about the USA, which used to be a serious country, indeed a world leader. It's kind of a drastic shock that they have become a banana republic almost overnight, somewhat akin to waking up to the sun rising in the west. I can imagine it's shocking to a shit ton of decent Americans too,

          • As an American, I can say it was *all* very predictable, other than maybe the speed at which it has happened and the severity and details of its occurrence. I personally have been preparing for this for decades. Many Americans I know didn't see it or understand the potential consequences, resisting my efforts to get out in advance of the collapse. Now they're experiencing it. Err, the ones that are not white with large stock portfolios, anyway. My summary would be that most Americans don't understand and th

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jaa101 ( 627731 )

      tariffs are consumption taxes on American consumers

      But, if tariffs only hurt US consumers, then Canada wouldn't care. Of course, increasing the prices of Canadian goods means that Canadian companies sell less of them and/or reduce their selling price. Which hurts Canadians as well as hurting Americans.

  • "The Americans have had, since after World War II, a very strong cultural policy of pushing out American content into the world,"

    That's what every country does. Al-Jazeera doesn't push content about Brazil. The BBC doesn't push content about Lithuanians. French film companies don't produce movies about Korean ex-pats living in Japan, and Japanese film companies don't produce dramas about winemaking in Bordeaux.

    People can watch whatever they like. The "Made in Canada" laws are ridiculous. The CBC wanted SCTV to produce "specifically Canadian" content when it switched to that network, so they cooked up Bob and Doug McKenzie. As if

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      You know that Bob and Doug McKenzie were created to both satisfy and mock cancon requirements? They were having a joke at the CBC's expense [ign.com], but the show unexpectedly became a huge pop culture phenomenon in Canada.

    • That's what every country does. Al-Jazeera doesn't push content about Brazil.

      Too bad, their ratings would be in the brazilians.
      'Cause they're Brazilian? It's a prediction *and* a pun... (sigh) nobody gets me.

      (Apologies to Rick Sanchez [youtube.com].)

    • The "Made in Canada" laws are ridiculous.

      We Canadians live next door to a country whose population is about 8 times as large as ours. It's true that America and Canada mostly speak the same language, share the same British roots, and have significant cultural overlap.

      But our Canadian outlook on the world is VERY different. CanCon rules allowed our music, TV, and film industries to grow to the point where they are self-sustaining and reflect OUR history and culture. Prior to those rules, our own culture and popular arts were facing extinction, beca

  • Whatever. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @04:25PM (#66306712)

    First it was fentanyl, and it's been downhill ever since. If you assume that everything this administration says is a lie, you will be almost always correct.

    Like a lot of Canadians I made my decisions with my wallet rather than my voice. I've cancelled motorcycle trips through the US across two seasons. I cancelled a trip to Louisiana and went to Portugal instead. I avoid US produce when I've never looked at country of origin before.

    And now there are new products released by companies I adore that I am foregoing simply because they are American. I'm looking at you, ThermoWorks. I will miss you.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Also. No more trips to or through the USA. I avoid USA products whenever I can. Canceled Amazon, Netflix, Ebay, Meta accounts. Don't use any Microsoft or Apple products. My last tie to US big tech is Google because of my Android phone, but when that one dies, I'm getting either an open Android phone that doesn't require a Google account or a Linux phone. Or even just a dumb phone that can only do SMS and calls, since I don't use my phone for all that much else.

  • They already consume the worst of our content. Let Canada have this one, in practice it does not really alter much for either side.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by caseih ( 160668 )

      You bet. There are a lot of Make America Great Again rednecks in Alberta (Danielle Smith is only pretending to support Carney in this trade debacle). They went to Washington to meet with Trump to tell him how great he is. Maybe if he gives them guns (more guns since they already are quite well armed) they can take Alberta for him.

  • Don't push Canada content, and no to the french! (Score:5, Informative)

    by Murdoch5 ( 1563847 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2026 @04:39PM (#66306754) Homepage
    I live in Ontario, Canada.

    Canadians are sick and tired of the French being whiney cry babies, who throw hissy fits every time someone even questions their superiority. I don't know if this is the same across Canada, but, in primary school and secondary school, in Ontario, you're forced to take French. Not French as in European French, the kind spoken in France, Canadianized French, which is effectively a dead, and dying language, importantly considering that Canadian French is a dialect. I have no problem with French being optional, in secondary school, but if we want to prepare kids for the real world, teach Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi, or Arabic, and leave the Islamic nonsense behind before you comment.

    Someone or some people, will bring up the fact that Quebec exists and people with that “dying” Canadianized French should have a right to their language being respected. I don't have an issue with that, but to think it's useful to force that onto all Canadians, when it's overall reach and usefulness is ridiculously small, is just stupid. ~22% (I'll round it to 25%) of Canadians speak French as a first language, and using rough numbers that would be ~10 million Canadians, which equates to 1/8th of 1% of the world population. If forcing kids to learn a language that ~0% of the world uses seems rational, you've lost the point of education.

    When it comes to Canadian content, we don't need forced adoption, either your content is or is not worth consuming. If it's not, why force it? If it is, you should naturally reap the rewards. Some Canadian content is spectacular, some of it is crap, and what these pro-Canadian force adoption policies actually cause, is media that wouldn't be given time, due to lack of quality or substance being over-represented, how does help Canadian culture?

    We have culture in Canada, a brilliant culture, with a unique English dialect that gets stomped on and thrown out, without consideration. No one care, effectively, when our English dialect is thrown in the trash, but throw the Canadian French dialect in the trash, and holy bleep the CBC will run segments for months. If you've never listened to Canadian radio, you better LOVE, and I mean to a creepy extent The Tragically Hip. A subpar, just okay rock band, with a few bangers, that at best is lukewarm. If you get lucky, some stations will play Rush, but it's only their hits, and it's the same loop of songs, so you better enjoy Tom Sawyer, Spirit of the Radio, and if you're really lucky, Working Man. There all good songs, I like Rush, but come on, they don't really play the Canadian bands, they play the Canadian over market saturate hype songs, that we've all heard a million times. When was the last time you heard 3 Inches of Blood on the radio in Canada? To spite the name, they're just a heavy metal band, and they're awesome, but you'll never hear them on mainstream radio over FM.

    The forced Canadian adoption nonsense isn't about premoting Canadian content, based on value, and substance, it's about hand waving, and in many cases selling crap painted gold, and try to force respect for something that doesn't deserve it. I know this is getting long, but Canadian authors, for instance, the amount of marginalized low value works on the market, in classrooms, libraries, e-stores, that just don't have substance has tipped far past reasonable. To be an award winning Canadian author, just don't be white and male, and the CBC will sell you like a pimp with a fresh street walker.

    • Is it true that Ontarians hate the rest of Canada and especially Quebec?

      • No, I don't know anyone who hates the rest of Canada or Quebec. Quebec hates the rest of Canada by evidence they've held votes to leave, and they ignore our laws in favour of their own, and have been given far too many lateral decisions in federal legal matters. All that being said, we shouldn't force Canadianized French into the classroom, it's not a practical language, for most people. Since graduating from secondary school, I have used Canadianized French so rarely, I don't know if I have used it at al

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by SirSlud ( 67381 )

          and they ignore our laws in favour of their own

          Well, we can at least tell you learned zero Canadian history.

    • Living not in the USA decades ago, I saw television switch from mostly British shows to American shows, with the children's vocabulary following ("pussy", "grounded", "zee"). It was followed by a commercialized Valentine's day, and still ongoing attempts to commercialize Halloween. (I suspect, the American habit of children begging for dessert from strangers, translates poorly.) There was an deliberate (and successful) drive to push Americanisms "mom" and "cookie" into English-speaking countries in 2005.
      • If Quebec was standing up for Canadian culture, as claimed, they would support optional Canadianized French, and allow Quebec citizens and businesses to choose how they do business. Quebec has hard line, almost extremist level devotion to their language, it's counter culture to useful culture, they want to force their way, all the time, every time. My issue with Canadianized French is that it's not useful to teach children, there are much better and more utilized languages we should be teaching first, and
    • It is funny that you complain about forced adoption of things with less value, and then complain about some obscure band not being played.  If they had better value they would be more popular and get more play on air. So maybe you are on the wrong side.
      • That's not my argument, my argument is they don't apply Canadian content fairly. You're going to play The Tragically Hip, sure, and Rush, but not 3IOB, or any the vast majority of other solid Canadian bands? There was a push for a while where Canadian radio hosts, specially one, would play really random obscure bands because they were remarkable, but never made it into rotation. The government pushes the wrong content, unfairly, and forcibly, instead of letting organic growth happen. If stations weren't

    • No. To your entire manifesto. Your path leads to us drowning in American propaganda, and right now we have an excellent example to the south of us showing the end game.

      - An English Canadian

      • No it doesn't, you can choose to enjoy the content you like, be that Canadian, or not. I listen to a fair amount of Canadian metal, by choice, it's awesome, on par or better with Americanized metal, but that choice is mine, not forced by the government, and that's the problem.

    • Ed, Edd n Eddy don't approve of such views.
      And where would Dexter be without his pan du fromage?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      that would be ~10 million Canadians

      Guess how many people speak welsh in Wales, or Finnish in Finland? 10 million is a LOT of people. And lets be honest here, its still french. Sure its a dialect, but if you know Canadian french and put in a bit of effort, its not exactly hard to pick up Metropolitan french, belgian french, swiss french, etc, etc, etc.

      French class is basically a 'a bit of exposure to even the idea of an another language (in this case french), a bit of canadian history (esp french canadian), oh... and its a bit of an art and d

    • Too bad about the music because I went through one of my playlists and there's so many good Canadian artists, even just in my playlist theres like a dozen: Death from Above 1979, Peaches, Metric, Broken Social Scene, Destroyer, Wolf Parade, Leonard Cohen, Angine De Poitrine, Neil Young plus all the other famous ones like Alanis and Celine and who could forget "Now, now, the Canadian government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions."

    • I live in Quebec, Canada and I happen to agree with you 100%. I am tired of subpar "Canadian content" being shoved down our throats. If I want it, I'll pay for it.

    • I was raised in Ontario, Canada. I now live in the USA.

      I too was required to learn French, starting in grade 7. I wish I had started earlier. And we began with Parisian French, not Canadian French, the latter showing up in later years. Since those days, French immersion schools have appeared, offering instruction predominantly but not exclusively in French. I think my French fluency would have been much better if I had attended such a school. I have many younger family-members who attended these schools. It

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SirSlud ( 67381 )

      I live in Ontario, Canada. You're an idiot, and don't speak for me. There are idiots everywhere on the planet. You're one. See you at the polls.

      ~22% (I'll round it to 25%) of Canadians speak French as a first language, and using rough numbers that would be ~10 million Canadians, which equates to 1/8th of 1% of the world population. If forcing kids to learn a language that ~0% of the world uses seems rational, you've lost the point of education.

      I'm unlikely to read anything dumber than this today. French is

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mattr ( 78516 )

      Thanks for your interesting post. Never been to Ottawa but introduced the Books of Wonder bookstore in NYC to Charles de Lint (great Ottawa author) and was surprised they didn't know him. They are a fabulous bookstore for kids and teens mainly. I have enjoyed Montreal but once I led a group of 20 teens to France for a 1 month study abroad. I was 20, the leader was an American who only spoke Canadian French. Everyone ignored her French and only listened to me, and mine was passable nothing incredible. So if

  • The recent Netflix is the world leader and streaming is because they are really language agnostic. They did not start up by guessing what type of content different communities might want to see, but just put a lot of stuff up and Iâ(TM)ll see what sticks. Turns out theyâ(TM)re outstanding foreign language programs. In addition, netflix has a drop-down menu for different language choices when watching content that is quite large I think about 15 or 20 and some cases. Instead of having American cont
  • We here in America will be invading Canada and I'm not joking. Every failing empire does the same thing. You put incompetent corrupt psychopaths in charge and they burn through the treasury. Trump for example has added 25% to the national debt in just 5 and 1/2 years. That's 10 trillion dollars in debt from the king of debt. It would not be a problem except instead of putting adults in charge and raising taxes on the wealthy and doing sound policy to grow our economy we are likely to double down on more cra

  • "As for why the U.S. government is so invested in the issue?"

    Because they are a bunch of fucking morons, that's why. And that professor is spewing rationalizing baloney. I am tired of journalists inventing convoluted explanations for the grunting of a shit tossing bunch of apes. And between 30% and 40% of Americans still support that band of monkeys. This is a crisis for Canada, but it is a decline for the USA. Even if someone gunned down this stupid government, the 30 to 40 % of American retards would still be there and vote for other stupid shenanigans.

    IMHO, midterms won't save us. Our proportion of morons has reached critical mass. And anyway this government and its emanations show no sign of being willing to surrender power. Elections or not.

    And most countries have quotas of local content if you want to broadcast into their territory. That is a banality.

  • Got a link to an internet archive of it. Grab it while you can. ok

    What IS "Canadian content" anyway?

    Seriously... what counts? Half of what we see on TV is ALREADY Canadian these days.

    Is Star Trek "Canadian"? Strange New Worlds is filmed There and the Shatner himself is Canadian. What about The Expanse? It was also filmed in Canada. Those ancient aliens that build those Chapa'ais throughout multiple galaxies must have had a fondness for poutine, beaver pelts, or fantastic skiing. Because they seem to h

    • The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) determines whether something is Canadian content through a points system, based on the Canadians involved in the production. A work must have at least 6 out of 10 possible points to qualify as Canadian content. Details here. [crtc.gc.ca]

      Music uses a different system called MAPL: Music, Artist, Performance, and Lyrics. If at least two are Canadian, then the music is considered Canadian content. Details here. [wikipedia.org]

    • What IS "Canadian content" anyway?

      Ideally, similar to what you see in other countries - UK has similar content rules, but stricter because the show has to be recognizably *British*.

      Canada's rules let you make a show, call it "Canadian content", while hiding any evidence it has anything to do with Canada. (Either by reskinning us to be American, or by making the show generically "North American" as not to offend delicate American sensibilities that they might have to watch *gasp* Canadians.) Or, sci-fi that still pretends to be American-esqu

  • Honestly Canada can make their own streaming service if they don't like it. No one would ever use or watch it. Like nobody. There is little point in burning money on content no one wants to watch, even their own people. Source: I'm Canadian born now living in the USA.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dskoll ( 99328 )

      Canada has multiple streaming services. Crave and CBC Gem come to mind; I know there are others. Crave has about 5 million subscribers. CBC Gem is mostly free, but is estimated to have about 5 million free and 450,000 paid subscribers.

      Netflix has about 9,750,000 Canadian subscribers, so it's twice as big as Crave. But being half the size of Netflix is still pretty substantial.

  • Perhaps this "kiss my ass" language is the only one Trump can understand.

    When asked by a CBC reporter to react to the post, Ford said he won't respond to "a dictator like President Trump."

    "He's the type of guy in school that would take your lunch money one day, take your toque off your head the next day and then steal your running shoes," Ford said.

    The guy is perfectly right.

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