Tod Maffin covers federal moves the mainstream media misses: a cyber-attack reporting bill giving government power over telecom equipment, bail reforms reversing the burden of proof, and banking rules requiring explicit consent for wire transfers. He also notes the Copyright Board set music video royalties at roughly 3% of platform revenue or 7 cents per stream.
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I read the Canada Gazette so you don't have to, and here are this week's stories that the lamestream media is too lazy to cover. Some bills got royal assent this month. One requires federally regulated places like banks and telecoms to report cyber attacks to Ottawa within 72 hours or face fines up to $15 million. It can also order telecom companies to remove equipment that it considers a security risk. And considering the White House thinks all of our aluminum is a security threat to their country, I know what country shit we should be yanking out. Second, some changes to bail and sentencing, and one pretty controversial change. Normally at bail, the Crown has the Crown has to prove why someone should stay locked up. Now it's the opposite. The accused will have to prove why they should be let out. Also, people found guilty of some specific sex crimes won't be allowed house arrest. Police will be able to publish the name of a young person if it's an urgent public safety matter. And consecutive sentences will now be required in certain cases. This, by the way, pretty much gives the Conservatives exactly what they were asking for in terms of getting violent repeat offenders off the streets. Some banking news now. 9 million Canadians currently hand their banking passwords to third-party apps. It's called screen scraping. Exactly as reckless as it sounds. Now banks will be able to let accredited services access your data through secure connections instead. Also, the government will now require banks to get your permission before enabling wire transfers on your account. Right now, your account can probably wire transfer up to $50,000 without any alarm bells ringing. So if someone breaks into your account, they send themselves cash and they're gone. Now you will have to specifically tell your bank you want your account to have the ability to do wire transfers. Also, and I cannot believe that this has not been a thing until now, new rules will now require banks to report broad data to Ottawa. I know. Hey, do you remember the Online News Act? The one that Mark Zuckerberg had a temper tantrum over and so now we can't see any Canadian news on Facebook? One tiny part of that act is that the online news sites also have to pay to administer that law. The government this week published that bill. $2.7 million bucks. But the government brought in $100 million from Google alone, so the numbers work out. More charities lost their status for not filing paperwork, including a volunteer fire department in Nova Scotia, the Newfoundland Historical Society, and the Electric Vehicle Learning Centre in Scarborough. The Copyright Board finally certified royalty rates rates for online music videos published between 2014 and 2018. Yes, they are that far behind in decision-making. The new monthly fee is actually tied to the revenue of the platform, just under 3% of the total revenue of the service for the month, or 7 cents per stream, whichever is more. But this rate doesn't apply to platforms that mostly stream audio like Spotify or user-generated apps like TikTok or the CBC, which has its own separate deal. Finally, someone is appealing to the Trade Tribunal over whether their platinum engagement ring from the US is subject to Canada's surtax. The hearing is July 14th because nothing says romance like a tariff dispute. And that was the week in Canadian bureaucracy. If you like this, you'll probably love my free weekly newsletter. Today's issue covered the criminal history of the toonie. You can sign up for free at farandwide.news.
