It’s almost an open secret: Pablo Rodriguez would leave the Heritage Ministry during an upcoming cabinet reshuffle.
In the department’s offices in Gatineau, deputy ministers and civil servants already appear to be assuming they will have a new “boss” when Parliament returns in the autumn. There are even whispers that it would be Pascale St-Onge, musician and trade unionist, elected MP for Brome-Missisquoi in the September 2021 election. She is currently Secretary of Sports.
It’s not that Pablo Rodriguez is exhausted — although he has more than one reason to be — but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes the Liberal Party would really need his services to mobilize Quebec during the general election. It could take place next year, maybe even in the spring. Rodriguez, Honoré-Mercier Member of Parliament, was Minister of Heritage for the first time from July 2018 to November of the following year, then for the second time since October 26, 2021. He has been “lieutenant” of the party in Quebec since 2019. This relatively unknown responsibility is anything but easy. It requires a lot of travel and meetings.
Is it the right time?
It’s obvious that Pablo Rodriguez can provide the Liberal Party with the services he will need leading up to Quebec’s next general election, but is it time to sack him from the heritage ministry? The implementation of the Law on Online Streaming and the Law on Communication Platforms is just beginning and the hostile attitude of the digital giants does not encourage Meta (Facebook and Instagram) or Google, neither their dissatisfaction nor their intentions. While Google hasn’t announced anything yet, Meta has announced that it will no longer publish Canadian news on its platforms. Minister Rodriguez announced yesterday that his government is suspending advertising on Facebook and Instagram until further notice. The bloc and the NDP were already calling for this.
A few hours earlier, Quebecor and Cogeco had also stopped advertising on these platforms. The cities of Montreal, Quebec and Longueuil followed in the afternoon. Radio-Canada/CBC did the same earlier in the evening. François Legault, who had initially stated that he did not want to follow Ottawa’s example, changed his mind a few hours later.
Ottawa’s response, like that of Cogeco, Quebecor and others, could not be more logical. I hope Bell and Rogers do the same.
POILIÈVRE ET CIE AGAINST
Minister Rodriguez’ mandate was marked by the passage of two highly controversial laws. For some as for others, Conservative opposition has been bitter and it continues. Without saying so, Pierre Poilièvre relied on the erroneous arguments of Michael Geist of the University of Ottawa throughout the debate. Arguments that Peter Menzies supported without reservation or nuance. The former Alberta journalist, CRTC’s vice president of telecommunications from 2013 to 2018, has become Geist’s most loyal crowbar.
Geist, Chair of the University of Ottawa’s Internet and E-Commerce Research Chair, “strongly” opposes the powers conferred on the CRTC by the legislation in question. According to him, they violate the total freedom that the Internet must have and harm our audiovisual industry and our information media. Unfortunately, Geist, Menzies, and a few other dumbheads like Michel Morin, former Commissioner of the CRTC, are the only ones who think so. Seldom have laws achieved such unanimity among the industry, the various unions involved, and the populace in general.
