Michael Geist: Prentice’s Moment

Michael Geist: Prentice’s Moment

For the Industry Minister, there is an opportunity to turn this into a political and policy win. He has seen first hand the passion of Canadians who seek balanced copyright. He can now turn to the thousands of Canadians who have written and called over the past 10 days and invite them to participate in an open consultation process. The government should use the next six weeks to develop a consultation paper that outlines its preferred approach and invite all Canadians to comment. A winter consultation could lead to a new bill by late spring, still offering the chance to reform Canadian copyright law in 2008. While there has been considerable criticism leveled at Prentice, this is the same man who two weeks ago did the right thing on the wireless spectrum auction by putting the interests of consumers first. He now has the chance to put the interests of all Canadians first by launching a copyright consultation early next year.