Many Canadians follow telecommunications and broadcast issues at the CRTC from a distance – the cost of wireless services, the speed of their Internet access, the availability of broadcasting choice. Others engage more closely on issues such as net neutrality, Cancon regulation, or Netflix taxes. But there is one Canadian who doesn’t just follow the CRTC.  She watches it through the use of access to information laws that present a perspective on the CRTC that would otherwise remain hidden from view. Monica Auer, the Executive Director of the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, joins the podcast this week to talk about insider access, slow reimbursement of costs for public interest groups, the number of CRTC meetings, and the Commission’s seeming indifference to commissioning original research. The interview is interspersed with comments from current CRTC Ian Scott taken from one of his first public speeches after being named chair in 2017.

The podcast can be downloaded here and is embedded below. The transcript is posted at the bottom of this post or can be accessed here. Subscribe to the podcast via Apple Podcast, Google Play, Spotify or the RSS feed. Updates on the podcast on Twitter at @Lawbytespod.

Episode Notes:

FRPC Policy 3.0 Conference (registration)

Credits:

CPAC, CRTC Chair Ian Scott Speaks About Internet Neutrality

FairPlay Canada Urges CRTC Action Against Online Theft

Transcript:

LawBytes Podcast, Episode9.mp3 | Convert audio-to-text with the best AI technology by Sonix.ai

Michael Geist:

This is LawBytes a podcast with Michael Geist.

Ian Scott:

This organization has a long tradition of being at the