Peter Menzies: This year, I'm grateful for Canada's growing independent media

The only “safe space” is an independent media operated by curious people with the courage to think for themselves and challenge convention.

Every year at Christmas time, The Line runs a series of articles about things we should be thankful for — just like we’re thankful for you. Happy holidays from your friends at The Line.

By: Peter Menzies

There are times these days when I wonder where the country might be without independent online media.

The government, for instance, has been forced to dismantle the Online Harms Act. Although still horrible, the legislation is at least being broken apart so that the really authoritarian parts have been separated into segments that, with luck, will just die after being starved of attention and ambition. While mainstream media attention played some role in that decision, opposition was driven by independent and social media.

The Online Streaming Act, which granted the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) authority over all audio and video content on the global internet, is steadily sludging its way through that regulator’s processes. The bill gave the CRTC the power to regulate podcasts — an emerging and increasingly influential medium. The government persistently misled the public by denying that was the case, disinformation that was reported as legitimate. In the end, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge admitted the truth and instructed the CRTC not to use that power. This would not have happened without the persistence of those making their arguments, primarily through independent online media.

Then there’s the Online News Act, created along with hundreds of millions in tax credits and direct subsidies for a legacy newspaper industry in palliative care. Morally flexible enough to rely for their survival upon those the public expects them to scrutinize, they unashamedly refused (with the exception of Andrew Coyne in the Globe) to carry commentary critical of the legislation. The act also led to, as The Line pointed out a year before the bill passed, a conflict so profound that Canadians can no longer post news links on Facebook and Instagram.

These have been matters of particular interest to me and, I believe, the public, since November 2020 when the first version of the streaming act — Bill C-10 — was tabled in Parliament. Back then, even the Conservatives, motivated by its perceived popularity in Quebec, were backing the legislation that interpreted the internet as a cable network. Even though the bill was poised to have a massive impact on Canadians’ freedom to create and communicate, legacy media initially showed little interest. Matters that aren’t contentious on Parliament Hill don’t often catch their eye, which is why online independent media are so important.

For months, trying to bring attention to the perils of a government determined to end the era of a free and open internet was a Sisyphean task reserved for the likes of Dr. Michael Geist and myself. Frequently gas-lit, the only “safe space” for we dissidents was the internet and independent media operated by curious people with the courage to think for themselves and challenge convention. Thanks to them, pieces like this appeared in The Line.

Lest I be accused of sucking up only to Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney, they are not alone. Other independent operators have stepped up to give space to contrarian views that legacy media, while lobbying for government favours, actively suppressed. Without the independent thinkers, the public would be significantly less well informed about illiberal legislation that threatens two of democracy’s foundational liberties — freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

My friends at The Hub, Western Standard, Blacklock’s Reporter, The Broken Typewriter, Lean Out and a few more have stood fast in their view that media that depend on government are undermining the public’s trust in not only their organizations but the craft of journalism. They have been supported by non-news organizations such as the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Internet Society of Canada.

It isn’t easy to make money in media these days and the long, frustrating days involved trying to do so have led to plenty of burnout and despair. It used to be easy. I remember when I first went to the Calgary Herald from the Calgary Sun, a colleague explained how, once he’d passed probation as a reporter in the Business department, an old hand took him aside and explained that he could now calm down and that “three bylines a week” is plenty good enough. True story. So while there were a great many hardworking, honest people within it, it’s little wonder that when the easy money that once poured in through classified ads disappeared, the newspaper industry was defenceless in the face of technological change.

It has been sad to watch that decline and the moral flexibility it inspired. But with decline comes renewal and it has been encouraging to keep company with principled, independent online media people who represent the future.

The news business won’t be saved by subsidies or the subsidized. The speed with which they are replaced will be up to a future government that hopefully understands the internet has and will continue to change the manner in which people create and consume media.

No one knows exactly what that will look like but only those who retain the public’s trust will still be around to enjoy it.

And that’s why, when I count my blessings and sing my tone-deaf heart out at Christmas services this year, I’ll say a little prayer for independent online media and be grateful for those within it who have kept the faith.

Peter Menzies is a senior fellow with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, past vice-chair of the CRTC and a former newspaper publisher.

---

The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.

---

The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Follow us on Twitter @the_lineca. Fight with us on Facebook. Pitch us something: lineeditor@protonmail.com