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Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada

Hon. Arif Virani

  • Member of Parliament
  • Minister of Justice Attorney General of Canada
  • Liberal
  • Parkdale—High Park
  • Ontario
  • Voting Attendance: 64%
  • Expenses Last Quarter: $120,537.19

  • Government Page
Context: House Hansard - 176 - Mar/30/23
Mr. Arif Virani
  • Mar/30/23 1:13:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there is no hidden agenda in this bill. Algorithmic control would remain with the online streaming platforms. What is important is the notion of ensuring that a portion of the profit that online streaming platforms, particularly those from other parts of the world, are already making from Canadian content is contributing to the creation of that Canadian content. That is a win for Canadian creators. Arguably, it is probably a win for Netflix as well, because it will just have more like The Tragically Hip to put on their streaming platforms.
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Context: House Hansard - 167 - Mar/9/23
Mr. Arif Virani (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)
  • Mar/9/23 10:51:35 a.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-11 
Mr. Speaker, I really enjoyed the speech by the member opposite on this very important bill, as well as his comments on freedom of expression. I would outline that I have found that the bill explicitly states that all user-created content on social media platforms and streaming services is excluded from the purview of the bill, which means that the experience of creating, posting and interacting with other user-generated content would not be touched at all by this bill, which I think is important. The question I have for the member opposite, and this is what I hear from creators in my riding, is whether the contrary is absolutely the case, as in this bill would actually promote the liberty of expression by virtue of creating more financial resources to support Canadian creators who are promoting that Canadian content in Quebec or in other parts of the country.
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Context: House Hansard - 37 - Feb/28/22
Mr. Arif Virani
  • Feb/28/22 4:16:01 p.m.
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  • Re: Bill C-11 
Madam Speaker, I appreciate the member opposite's service on the justice committee and I look forward to working with him in this Parliament. I think he makes an interesting point on the tactic taken with legislative drafting. However, one thing is clear in the context of the debate on this bill, and it was quite vociferous regarding Bill C-10 in the 43rd Parliament: People want a surety that user-generated content by an individual person posting something to a platform like YouTube will not be caught. That is why we put an express exemption to that very effect into this legislation. This has been cast wide because the platform and the nature of the streaming services are wide. However, with an adequately tailored exemption, I think it is clear to Canadians that we are not here to limit freedom of expression unnecessarily. What we are trying to do is to actually empower freedom of expression by creating more of that expressive content and by empowering the creation of more Canadian content through this funding model.
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