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For a country obsessed with defining itself as "not America," Canada sure likes to copy US policies, especially the really, really terrible policies – especially the really, really, really terrible digital policies.
In Canada's defense: these terrible US policies are high priority for the US Trade Representative, who leans on Canadian lawmakers to ensure that any time America decides to collectively jump off the Empire State Building, Canadian politicians throw us all off the CN Tower. And to Canada's enduring shame, the USTR never has to look very hard to find a lickspittle who's happy to sell Canadians out.
Take anti-circumvention. In 1998, Bill Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a gnarly hairball of copyright law whose Section 1201 bans reverse-engineering for any purpose. Under DMCA 1201, "access controls" for copyrighted works are elevated to sacred status, and it's a felony (punishable by a five-year prison sentence and a $500k fine) to help someone bypass these access controls.
That's pretty esoteric, even today, and in 1998, it was nearly incomprehensible, except to a small group of extremely alarmed experts who ran around trying to explain to lawmakers why they should not vote for this thing. But by the time Tony Clement and James Moore (Conservative ministers in the Harper regime) introduced a law to import America's stupidest tech idea and paste it into Canada's lawbooks in 2012, the evidence against anti-circumvention was plain for anyone to see.
Under America's anti-circumvention law, any company that added an "access control" to its products instantly felonised any modification to that product. For example, it's not illegal to refill an ink cartridge, but it is illegal to bypass the access control that gets the cartridge to recognise that it's full and start working again. It's not illegal for a Canadian software developer to sell a Canadian Iphone owner an app without cutting Apple in for a 30% of the sale, but it is illegal to mod that Iphone so that it can run apps without downloading them from the App Store first. It's not illegal for a Canadian mechanic to fix a Canadian's car, but it is illegal for that mechanic to bypass the access controls that prevent third-party mechanics from decrypting the error codes the car generates.
We told Clement and Moore about this, and they ignored us. Literally: when they consulted on their proposal in 2010, we filed 6,138 comments explaining why this was a bad idea, while only 53 parties wrote in to support it. Moore publicly announced that he was discarding the objections, on the grounds that they had come from "babyish" "radical extremists":
For more than a decade, we've had Clement and Moore's Made-in-America law tied to our ankles. Even when Canada copies some good ideas from the US (by passing a Right to Repair law), or even some very good ideas of its own (passing an interoperability law), Canadians can't use those new rights without risking prosecution under Clement and Moore's poisoned gift to the nation:
"Not America" is a pretty thin basis for a political identity anyway. There's nothing wrong with copying America's good ideas (like Right to Repair). Indeed, when it comes to tech regulation, the US has had some bangers lately, like prosecuting US tech giants for violating competition law. Given that Canada overhauled its competition law this year, the country's well-poised to tackle America's tech giants.
Which is exactly what's happening! Canada's Competition Bureau just filed a lawsuit against Google over its ad-tech monopoly, which isn't merely a big old Privacy Chernobyl, but is also a massively fraudulent enterprise that rips off both advertisers and publishers:
The ad-tech industry scoops up about 51 cents out of every dollar (in the pre-digital advertising world the net take by ad agencies was more like 15%). Fucking up Google's ad-tech rip off is a much better way to Canada's press paid than the link tax the country instituted in 2023:
After all, what tech steals from the news isn't content (helping people find the news and giving them a forum to discuss it is good) – tech steals news's money. Ad-tech is a giant ripoff. So is the app tax – the 30% Canadian newspapers have to kick up to the Google and Apple crime families every time a subscriber renews their subscriptions in an app. Using Canadian law to force tech to stop stealing the press's money is a way better policy than forcing tech to profit-share with the news. For tech to profit-share with the news, it has to be profitable, meaning that a profit-sharing press benefits from tech's most rapacious and extractive conduct, and rather than serving as watchdogs, they're at risk of being cheerleaders.
Smashing tech power is a better policy than forcing tech to share its stolen loot with newspapers. For one thing, it gets government out of the business of deciding what is and isn't a legit news entity. Maybe you're OK with Trudeau making that call (though I'm not), but how will you feel when PM Polievre decides that Great Replacement-pushing, conspiracy-addled far right rags should receive a subsidy?
Taking on Google is a slam-dunk, not least because the US DoJ just got through prosecuting the exact same case, meaning that Canadian competition enforcers can do some good copying of their American counterparts – like, copying the exhibits, confidential memos, and successful arguments the DoJ brought before the court:
Indeed, this already a winning formula! Because Big Tech commits the same crimes in every jurisdiction, trustbusters are doing a brisk business by copying each others' cases. The UK Digital Markets Unit released a big, deep market study into Apple's app market monopoly, which the EU Commission used as a roadmap to bring a successful case. Then, competition enforcers in Japan and South Korea recycled the exhibits and arguments from the EU's case to bring their own successful prosecutions:
Canada copying the DoJ's ad-tech case is a genius move – it's the kind of south-of-the-border import that Canadians need. Though, of course, it's a long shot that the Trump regime will produce much more worth copying. Instead, Trump has vowed to slap a 25% tariff on Canadian goods as of January 20.
Which is bad news for Canada's export sector, but it definitely means that Canada no longer has to worry about keeping the US Trade Rep happy. Repealing Clement and Moore's Bill C-11 should be Parliament's first order of business. Tariff or no tariff, Canadian tech entrepreneurs could easily export software-based repair diagnostic tools, Iphone jailbreaking tooks, alternative firmware for tractors and medical implants, and alternative app stores for games consoles, phones and tablets. So long as they can accept a US payment, they can sell to US customers. This is a much bigger opportunity than, say, selling cheap medicine to Americans trying to escape Big Pharma's predation.
What's more, there's no reason this couldn't be policy under Polievre and the Tories. After all, they're supposed to be the party of "respect for private property." What could be more respectful of private property than letting the owners of computers, phones, cars, tractors, printers, medical implants, smart speakers and anything else with a microchip decide for themselves how they want to it work? What could be more respectful of copyright than arranging things so that Canadian copyright holders – like a games studio or an app company – can sell their copyrighted works to Canadian buyers, without forcing the data and the payment to make a round trip through Silicon Valley and come back 30% lighter?
Canadian politicians have bound the Canadian public and Canadian industry to onerous and expensive obligations under treaties like the USMCA (AKA NAFTA2), on promise of tariff-free access to American markets. With that access gone, why on Earth would we continue to voluntarily hobble ourselves?
A condensed overview of 15 hours of Fox News for the week ending 2/9/25
Decoding Fox News:
Last week the folks at Fox twisted themselves into knots to defend the actions of a maniacal corrupt billionaire hellbent on destroying entire government agencies without congressional oversight. They would never admit that their glorious leader, Donald J. Trump, was just a puppet for Elon Musk, a South African immigrant with extremist political leanings.
During one of the celebrations involved with Donald J. Trump’s inauguration Musk performed a hand gesture that looked suspiciously like a Nazi salute. When Musk was criticized for it instead of apologizing or clarifying what he meant he posted several inappropriate jokes about Nazis on his social media platform X.
Musk also enthusiastically backed an extremist staunchly anti-immigrant political party in Germany - the Alternative for Germany Party also known as AfD.
At a recent rally for AfD Musk said, in an apparent reference to the Nazi era, "frankly too much of a focus on past guilt and we need to move beyond that."
Musk has also publicly supported an extremist party in the UK. He’s also retweeted dozens of extremists on X (Twitter) as well as promoted several racist conspiracy theories. Openly pro-Nazi profiles have flourished on the X platform since Musk acquired it.
Of course, no one on Fox News brought up Musk’s extremist political leanings. His actions to slash and burn entire government agencies were framed as saving money for American tax payers.
[...]
Trump rewarded his benefactor with a position to helm the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, a task force set up by the executive branch.
What is DOGE?
DOGE was created via an executive order on January 20, 2025
It is a task force not an official government agency
Elon Musk is a special government employee
This status means he is not required to file a public financial disclosure
He did not need to have a confirmation hearing by the House or Senate
This is no mechanism to prevent Musk from interfering with an agency that might benefit one of his six companies.
Musk is essentially policing himself.
Musk has billions of dollars of federal contracts with this companies SpaceX and Tesla.
DOGE seems to mirror many of the proposals in Project 2025
DOGE faces several lawsuits meant to limit its power
What Has DOGE Done So Far
Attempted to completely destroy USAID
Musk called the agency a criminal organization
Musk requested to cut off all payments to USAID four days into the Trump admin.
President Trump issued an executive order suspending all U.S. foreign assistance.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a stop-work order for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Dozens of USAID’s top leaders were placed on immediate leave
Hundreds of employees have been let go.
The USAID website was taken down
The sign on the building USAID operated in has been covered up.
Offered a buyout to federal employees
Ended all remote work for federal employees
Claimed to have found fraud in various agencies - provided no evidence of fraud
Musk has claimed payments from Health and Human Services to various groups around the country are illegal.
DOGE employees gained access to the Department of Treasury payment systems
A federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing them.
Decoding Fox News has an excellent article on Fox “News” shilling for Elon Musk and DOGE.
So Donnie abrogated the USMCA Treaty between the US, Canada, and Mexico by imposing illegal tariffs on the latter two countries, citing bogus 'national security threats'. He did not identify or appeal any specific actions he deemed contrary to the Treaty, just willy-nilly saying it's over.
People sometimes forget that this Treaty was brokered at his request when he was previously president, replacing the NAFTA Treaty of 1994. He agreed to it, made a few adjustments unilaterally, to which Mexico and later Canada agreed, and signed it into law in 2020. It was HIS Treaty and he crowed mightily about it (although in reality it was just NAFTA 2.0).
This is nothing more than a cruel flex against smaller countries, the actions of a schoolyard bully. The sad part is it will cause widespread hardship in all three countries and permanently shatter the trust needed between partners.
I think USA have lost right to be casually named "America". That's the name of a whole continent, not some brawny imitation of a country. Especially since #trump destroyed NAFTA, threatens Mexico with military invasion, and Canada with occupation of their territory.
So my proposal is:
1. Refer to USA as "States". Because USA is in constant States of Decay, Mizery and Hyperpyrexia.
2. "Americans", those who live in USA will become "statoids" or some other form of this word.
Having country administratively divided into states isn't that unique, but USA makes such a huge deal out of it.
"Americans" are all the people who live in North AND South America. Hope this reminds statoids, that there are humans South of Texas.
Misija opravljena 3.0: Nafta je svoboda (in obratno) Ste v teh dneh začutili tisti nenaden sunek »svobode« v zraku? Ne, to ni bil januarsk
Misija opravljena 3.0: Je Venezuela postala nova ameriška bencinska črpalka? ⛽️🌎
Zgodovina se ponavlja, le da so tokratno kuliso za »dostavo demokracije« postavili v Južni Ameriki. Medtem ko svet opazuje aretacijo Madura, se v ozadju vrti stara dobra zgodba o težki nafti in strateških interesih.
Kje v tem naftnem šahu pa je Evropa? Na balkonu – opazuje sosedov pretep in se pretvarja, da jo kamin še greje, čeprav ji je že zdavnaj zmanjkalo kurjave. ❄️🇪🇺
Je to res konec krize ali le začetek novega poglavja odvisnosti?
👉 Celoten (sarkastičen) zapis si preberite na mojem blogu:
Na blogu in mojem Facebook profilu pa lahko najdete tudi vse moje prejšnje komentarje in analize o aktualnem dogajanju. Vabljeni k branju in debati! 💬👇
