Trudeau Liberals tell Netflix to push Canadian content with LGBTQ2+ and racialized focus

The Trudeau Liberals are pressuring the CRTC to enforce rules on streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime to distribute Canadian content. The streaming giants are currently not subjected to Canadian content rules.

The revelation comes from draft instructions to the regulator obtained by National Post, and would be issued once the Broadcasting Act, B C-10, passes.

The bill's summary says that it aims to "add online undertakings — undertakings for the transmission or retransmission of programs over the Internet — as a distinct class of broadcasting undertakings," which will "ensure that online undertakings are required to contribute appropriately to the support for and promotion of Canadian programming and Canadian creators."

The bill also specifies that the new laws would include content from "Canadians from racialized communities and Canadians of diverse ethnocultural backgrounds," and the policy direction obtained by the Post states that the CRTC would regulate in a way that "supports and promotes opportunities for programming led by women, the LGBTQ2+ community, racialized and ethno-cultural communities, and other equity seeking groups or communities, recognizing the challenges faced by these groups in the broadcasting system."

French-language programming will also be prioritized.

The bill gives just nine months for the CRTC to enforce the new laws on Netflix.

In an email statement to the Post, Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault said the “draft instructions demonstrate our government’s priorities and our commitment to ensuring that Francophone, Anglophone, Indigenous, disabled, racialized and LGBTQ2+ creators have the means to tell their own stories, from their own perspective.”

The head of the CRTC, Ian Scott, was appointed by the Trudeau government in 2017.