Conservatives' copyright law changes could backfire

By now, even the most determinedly optimistic Conservative Party strategist has grudgingly accepted the factthat their relentless efforts to turn Justin Trudeau's leadership into a Reefer Madnessreboot has fizzled.

Canadians even those of the big-and-little C conservative persuasion just don't seem to be buying into the theory that the sole priority of a Trudeau-led Liberal government would be to put a child's-eye-level marijuana display in every corner store.

• Resounding agreement onCAMH call for marijuana legalization
• Trudeau's pot stance in line with 1 in 3 Canadians, poll suggests
• Justin Trudeau's pot plan: Are Conservatives blowing smoke?

Even the venerable Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Torontono hotbed of wild-eyed weed evangelists hasjust come out infavour of legalization,a move that prompted the Liberal Party toput out a press release "welcoming" theannouncement and reiterating their support for "a well-regulated, legal system for marijuana access."

For the Liberal communications team,the CAMH newswas likely one of the few bright spotsto emergeduring what has beenwidely, if unofficially, declared the worst week the party has experiencedsinceTeamTrudeau tookcentre stage.

Coming out against the government's proposal to expand Canada's role in the ongoing ISIS conflict in Iraq was always going to be a controversial move for a partywhose path to victory lies straight through thepolitical centre.

CF-18 comments as ad fodder

Having their leader who hasalready come under fire on more than one occasion over his seeming insouciance onforeign policy matters launch the debateby making a joke about Canada"whipping out" its C-18smade it even harder to sellhis party'sposition as a reasoned, responsible alternative plan.

• Trudeau says PM 'hasn't even tried' to make case for expanded Iraq role
• Video: Don't just 'whip out CF-18s,' Trudeau chides

It's not hard to imagine the Conservative advertising departmentworking overtime to come up with a new adcentred on aclip of Trudeau's now infamous comments.

If done right and until Trudeau came along, that ad departmenthad an excellenttrack record, at least as far asdemolishingthe credibility of Liberal leaders a campaign focusing on Trudeau's mostungainly on-camera moments of latecould at least start to make up for the time and money wasted in trying to depict him as Canada's newPrince of Pot.

But last spring, representatives from Canada's major broadcasters CBC, Radio Canada, CTV, Rogersand Shaw, owner of Global served notice to all political parties thatthey were seriously considering imposing a collective blackout onads making use of their proprietary footagewithoutthe explicit permission of the copyright holder.

Under that policy, ifthe Conservative Party can'tstrikea deal with one of the networks that happened to be filming Trudeau at the time, theywould likely find the ad blocked from the airwaves.

The quote would still be fair game, of course, andcould be highlighted on screen, accompanied by ominous music orcontemptuously toned voice-over.

The visual proof that he said it, however, would be effectively off limits.

Copyright exemption plan could be high-risk

And that, in a nutshell, is why thegovernmentis reportedlyplanningto install a newbackdoor in Canada's copyright laws that would give "political actors" including parties a free hand to make unfettered use of news footage, even against the express wishes of the copyright-holder.

• Copyright exception for political ads mulled by Conservatives

Leaving aside the legalquestions,the moveto streamrollover certain intellectual propertyrightswouldcarry its own political risk.

If passed, every ill-considered answer givenduring a one-on-one interview and every pointed critique put forward by a pundit on a political panel would become fair game for future ads.

As Maclean's columnist Paul Wells noted last week,it could makereporters, hosts and anyone else not keen onthe idea ofmaking a cameo appearance in a future attack admore likely to think twice aboutwhat they say, and show, on air.

Itwould also force the parties particularly the Conservatives, who would rightly be seen as the primary proponents of such a scheme to publicly defend"going negative" as a valid, even desirable aspect of modern Canadian democracy.

Make no mistake, there's little doubt thatattack adscan workmiracles, as far as influencing the electorate.

Butby and large, mostCanadians,including likely voters, profess to disapprove strongly of such tactics, whichareviewed as an unwholesome,unwelcome import fromsouth of the border.

Despite the government's preliminary efforts toframeit as afight for freedom of speech, it's hard to see how it won't trigger a parallel debate over thelegitimacy of the practice itself.

Even if the Conservatives ultimately triumphintheirbattle against the broadcasters, as far as public opinion goes, they run the very real risk of losing the war.