Private Members Bill Proposing New Remuneration Rights For Journalists

On 17 February 2021, Conservative Senator Claude Carignan introduced a private members bill, S-225, "An Act to amend the Copyright Act (remuneration for journalistic works)". This bill proposes to amend the Copyright Act to provide Canadian journalistic organizations with a right to remuneration for the distribution of their journalistic works on digital platforms, such as Google and Facebook. It also proposes to amend the Copyright Act so that the related remuneration is managed by a collective society. As provided in the bill's preamble, the bill recognizes that:

• . . . journalism is important in a free and democratic society;
• . . . there are a number of excellent Canadian journalism organizations;