Commentary
In the 1990s, the internet was a nascent phenomenon and was an ungoverned wild west of interactive communication. This prompted the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to initiate a process in 1998 to determine if the internet should be regulated by the government. After spending a year studying the issue, CRTC commissioner Françoise Bertrand announced, “The commission does not believe that regulation of the new media would further the objectives of the Broadcasting Act.”