During the appearance on 16 November 2022 of the CRTC before the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications regarding Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, the Chair was asked about concerns expressed by witnesses, including FRPP, about transparency and accountability. The Chair expressed perplexity and confusion, and said that the CRTC holds all of its public hearings in public, and publishes all of its decisions.
FRPC’s 17 November 2022 letter to the Chair provides the evidence about ‘faux’ public hearings and missing decisions which is published on the CRTC’s website. It shows that during Mr. Scott’s first five-year term, 25 of the 36 broadcasting ‘public hearings’ held by the CRTC took place in the absence of any applicants or members of the public, and the CRTC made 287 decisions that, while listed on the CRTC’s website, are inaccessible (including through the CRTC’s search engine).
The Forum’s position is that quasi-judicial tribunals such as the CRTC must operate in a way that is transparent and accountable, so as to ensure that Canadians can be assured that it is operating in the public interest. Sham hearings and secret decisions bring the administration of Canadian justice into disrepute.