John Ivison: Rookie heritage minister retreats after stepping into news regulation minefield

Justin Trudeau’s new heritage minister appeared on CTV’s Question Period show on Sunday to offer the nation the benefit of his inexperience.

He was grilled by host Evan Solomon about a report from a panel tasked by the government to review Canada’s communications legislative framework.

A key recommendation was to extend licences currently granted to radio and television stations to all media content, along with a much stricter compliance regime.

Did the minister buy the recommendations, he was asked?

The reply was unequivocal. “We would ask that they have a licence, yes,” he said.