By: Brad McNeil, PhD Candidate (McMaster University)
This monthly lobbying report follows Google’s lobbying activities through the months of January and February 2023. The charts included in this blog post indicate that much of Google’s lobbying focus during this period relates to Bill C-18, the Online News Act which would force major tech platforms like Google and Meta to negotiate revenue sharing deals with Canadian media corporations for news links shared on their platforms. This blog post draws on news articles published during this lobbying period to contextualize Googles lobbying efforts.
Google Canada Corporation: January 2023 Lobbying Summary
While January 2023 was a quiet month for lobbying for most major tech companies, Google remained active reporting four meetings with various government officials. All four meetings were on the topic “Broadcasting and media”. More specifically, Google notes that its lobbying activities involve, “Communicating with the Government of Canada about Bill C-18 (An Act Respecting Online Communications Platforms), more specifically about the regulation of online content”. As noted in an earlier blog post, Bill C-18 would effectively force tech companies hosting digital platforms, like Google and Meta, to negotiate financial compensation with Canadian news organizations for news links shared on its digital platforms. Google’s four January meetings with government officials about broadcasting and media took place mere weeks after Bill C-18 passed in the House of Commons on December 14, 2023 . Bill C-18 is now headed for review in the Senate.
Bill C-18 is designed for major platforms like Google to “compensate journalism publications for reposting their content”. As noted by Canadian journalist Roger Belgrave, newspaper revenues have been depleted by platforms like Google and Facebook which often circulate news articles done by journalists on their platforms. Belgrave notes that, “big tech corporations have reportedly captured well north of 70 per cent of all digital ad revenue in Canada.” Tech platform’s grip on Canadian journalism has forced closure of many newspapers. According to Heritage Canada, “more than 450 news outlets have closed since 2008, with more than 60 of those closures coming in the last two years”. According to the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC), financial strain related to the COVID-19 pandemic caused many of Canada’s ethnic newspapers either stopped printing or shifted to digital modes of distribution eliminating print media. Ethnic newspapers hope that Bill C-18 will “give ethnic press the bargaining power with online platforms like Google to attract much needed advertising dollars.” According to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Bill C-18 would reportedly funnel $150 million per year into the news industry. Although some are skeptical that major broadcasting corporations like “the CBC, Bell, Shaw, and Rogers” would get the lions share of this funding.
| Communication Date | Lobbied | Subject Matters | Responsible Officer |
| 2023-01-19 | Julie Miville-Dechêne, Senator for Québec Senate of Canada Paula Simons, Senator for Alberta Senate of Canada | Media, Broadcasting | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-01-19 | Thomas Owen Ripley, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Cultural Affairs Canadian Heritage (PCH) | Broadcasting, Media | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-01-24 | Peter Harder, Senator for Ontario Senate of Canada | Broadcasting, Media | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-01-25 | Lionel Fritz Adimi, Policy Advisor, Policy and Cabinet Affairs Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) | Broadcasting, Media | Sabrina Geremia |
Google Canada Corporation: February 2023 Lobbying Summary
Google ramped up its lobbying communications in February 2023. In February, Google held eleven meetings with various members of Canadian Government. Ten of these meetings were on the topics of “Broadcasting and Intellectual Property”. Undoubtedly, much of Google’s lobbying efforts remain focussed on Bill C-18 which is now under review in the Senate. Since publishing a blog post titled “It’s Time to Fix Bill C-18″ in November, 2022, Google has communicated several concerns with Bill C-18. Google worries the bill would lead to a link tax, forcing them to pay news organizations for links to articles regardless of their quality. Additionally, Google fears that the bill would subsidize “non-authoritative or biased news sources”. Google also worries that further amendments to Bill C-18 would mean that the company would have to extend payments to more types of media organizations like community radio stations.
On February 22 it was first reported by the Canadian Press, that Google would be “blocking some Canadian users from viewing news content” as a test of a potential response to Bill C-18 should the Bill be passed in the Senate. Google confirmed that the test would affect approximately 4% of Canadian Google users – which would affect roughly one million Canadians – and run for a period of five weeks. During the news blocking experiment, Canadians would still be able to access news sites by typing web addresses directly into their web browsers. However, searching for news through a typical Google search would no longer be a function of Google Search for effected users. The change applies to Google’s search engine as well as the Discover feature on Android devices, which also carries news and sports stories.
Google spokesperson Shay Purdy defended Google’s news blocking experiment noting “We’ve been fully transparent about our concern that C-18 is overly broad and, if unchanged, could impact products Canadians use and rely on every day. We remain committed to supporting a sustainable future for news in Canada and offering solutions that fix Bill C-18”. Google has attempted to frame their Canadian news search experiment as one among the many “thousands of tests” that the company runs each year to “asses any potential changes to Search”.
It should be noted that although Google claimed only 4% of Canadians would be affected by their experiment, there has been some speculation that the experiment has either affected more than 4% of Canadians or is disproportionately targeting journalists. President of News Media Canada, Paul Deegan, notes “we were somewhat surprised by the company’s statement that this only affected 4% of users, given the number of journalist who have come forward to say they noticed it”.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called Google’s experiment a “terrible mistake” and expressed his disappointment that Google “decided that they’d rather prevent Canadians from accessing news than actually paying journalist for the work they do”. As response to Google’s news blocking experiment, the federal government has discussed pulling its own advertising from Google. Additionally, MPs of the Commons heritage committee, chaired by Hedy Fry, have requested a special meeting with Google executives to understand and question Google’s “damaging and reckless behaviour”. Liberal MP Anthony Housefather expressed his desire for Google chief executive Sundar Pichai to be called to testify and “explain to parliamentarians and Canadians why they have taken the action to test blocking of news sites in Canada”.
Heritage Minister Rodriguez condemned Google for using “scare tactics” to prevent the bill’s passage through the Senate. The Heritage Committee passed Liberal MP Chris Bittle’s motion which called for four of Google’s top executives to appear before the Parliamentary committee. The motion also requires Google to hand over all copies of “documents and messages related to its decision” to run the news blocking experiment. The Committee also requested a comprehensive list of Canadian news organizations being targeted by the company for blocking. Bittle’s motion calls on the following Google executives to appear before the Heritage Committee: Kent Walker, Google’s President of Global Affairs and Chief Legal Officer; Richard Gingras, Vice President of News at Google; Sabrina Geremia, Google’s Country Manager for Canada; and Sundar Pichai, Google’s CEO. Sabrina Geremia is the responsible officer for all communication reports filed by Google on the Registry of Lobbyist website between January and February 2023. She was also the author of the November Google blog post “It’s Time to Fix Bill C-18″. With the passing of Bittle’s motion, these Google executives would be required to appear before the Heritage Committee before March 6.
To further contextualize Google’s news blocking experiment as a response to Bill C-18, in October 2022, Meta also warned that it would block the sharing of news content in Canada on its platform as a response to Bill C-18. It should also be noted that Bill C-18 is based on Australian legislation which also received similar responses from Google and Meta. When Australia introduced the Australian Online News Act, Google “threatened to close its Australian search engine, while Facebook cut all third-party content from Australian accounts for more than a week.” Although Google and Meta tech struck deals with Australian media companies Google has also previously threatened to withhold its services within countries considering passing media legislation.
Spokeswoman Laura Scaffidi of Heritage Canada noted that such scare tactics did not work in Australia and will not work in Canada either because “Canadians won’t be intimidated.” Heritage Canada maintains that “At the end of the day, all we’re asking the tech giants to do is compensate journalists when they use their work” On February 1, 2023, Google LLC signed a contract with Invest in Canada worth $113,000 for work related to advertising services.
| Communication Date | Lobbied | Subject Matters | Responsible Officer |
| 2023-02-13 | Jude Welch, Chief of Staff Office of the Minister , Canadian Heritage (PCH) Brian MacKay, Senior Policy Advisor Office of the Minister, Canadian Heritage (PCH) Ron Ahluwalia, Director of Policy Office of the Minister, Canadian Heritage (PCH) | Broadcasting, Intellectual Property | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-13 | Rachael Thomas, Member of Parliament for Lethbridge House of Commons Andrew Scheer, Member of Parliament for Regina—Qu’Appelle House of Commons | Broadcasting, Intellectual Property | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-14 | Fabian Manning, Senator for Newfoundland & Labrador Senate of Canada | Broadcasting, Intellectual Property | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-14 | Scott Tannas, Senator for Alberta Senate of Canada | Broadcasting, Intellectual Property | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-14 | Tony Loffreda, Senator for Québec Senate of Canada | Intellectual Property, Broadcasting | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-15 | Peter M. Harder, Senator for Ontario Senate of Canada Brian Laghi, Director of Parliamentary Affairs Office of the Government Representative, Senate of Canada | Intellectual Property, Broadcasting | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-15 | Roy Rempel, Director of Policy Office of the Leader of the Opposition, Senate of Canada | Broadcasting, Intellectual Property | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-15 | Donna Dasko, Senator for Ontario Senate of Canada | Intellectual Property, Broadcasting | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-21 | Jaxson Khan, Policy Advisor Office of the Minister, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) | Privacy and Access to Information, Science and Technology | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-23 | Lionel Fritz Adimi, Policy Advisor Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) | Intellectual Property, Broadcasting | Sabrina Geremia |
| 2023-02-25 | Anthony Housefather, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Services and Procurement House of Commons | Intellectual Property, Broadcasting | Sabrina Geremia |