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While the CRTC was busy battling Netflix and Google as part of its 'Let's Talk TV' hearings, readers, print and digital, changed the channel to 'Let's Talk CRTC'

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Here's a good job for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission: Require that Netflix provide the same content here as in the U.S. We get some 4,000 selections and they get 10,000. We get B movies, Americans watch the A list. It would be a relief to see our CRTC do something useful.

Peter Ferguson, Kimberley, Ont.

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According to a 2014 CRTC report, 43.1 per cent of programs viewed on Canadian English-language services each week in 2013 were Canadian. Programs such as Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope, Rookie Blue and 19-2 routinely enjoyed over one million viewers – a lot for our market.

The people who make Canadian content, like our screenwriters, work for their money just like every other Canadian. Currently Netflix has the peculiar privilege – unlike Canadian broadcasters and distributors – of paying absolutely nothing into our broadcasting system.

A Netflix "tax" is not being sought by some "under the guise of cultural policy" – it is cultural policy. Of course if our content is not financially supported, in a small marketplace like Canada, we'll still be flooded with shows. They just won't be Canadian.

Maureen Parker, executive director, Writers Guild of Canada

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Even if I wanted to watch cable (not!), no way can I afford it. I'm still paying off my student loans. Netflix is a bargain. The CRTC is just so yesterday.

Jennifer Huang, Vancouver

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We should consider either abolishing or stripping the CRTC of most of its power. If it pushes Netflix to invest in or help pay for Cancon, expect more and more users (like me) to simply switch the plug to Netflix U.S. Stop trying to force feed me Cancon and start producing stuff I'll enjoy. It's a shame we live in such an amazing country, yet my television viewing is so third-rate and restrictive.

Jake Abramowicz, Toronto

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I'm not one to storm barricades or march down a street waving a sign when outraged. That being said, Jean-Pierre Blais and his companions at the CRTC have offended me enough to make me willing to stomp down Toronto's University Avenue waving a mobile tablet with a screensaver as my digital sign.

Canadians are not naive, nor are we a nation of idiots. We know this attack on Netflix and Google is nothing but an attempt on the part of the CRTC to justify its increasingly irrelevant existence in a world where their power over broadcasting has been curtailed and eroded by the changing face of content deployment and the decline of the traditional, borderline monopoly of the established broadcast model.

After all, in a world where people are not forced to consume traditional network programming for entertainment and can instead watch what they want, when they want, how they want, and from whom they want, the CRTC's ability to control what Canadians have access to ceases to exist.

And if they can't make us consume content generated to meet an outdated, artificial cultural mandate with no relevancy in a globalized society, the allocation of financial resources to fund the CRTC at current levels is no longer warranted and brings the efficacy of the organization into question.

The CRTC has also made the government look stupid because, for the life of me, I can't figure out how what I watch on Netflix meets the standards required to prove illegal trade practices under the culture clauses of NAFTA. Just because (for example) Murdoch Mysteries is available on Netflix doesn't mean I'm going to watch it. Ultimately, what I view is my decision and there is nothing the CRTC can do to influence that decision, just like it can't stop me from changing the channel now.

Perhaps Mr. Blais and his friends should download some fresh Java (script) and replace their VCRs?

Mari-Anne Ramson, Toronto

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Netflix and Google are self-interested, profit-driven, foreign-owned companies that don't give a damn about Canada, Canadians or the fragile hot-house flower that is Canadian culture. Their objective is to sell Canadian viewers foreign-made content and funnel the proceeds back across the border. They're far too powerful already and growing more so every day.

The CRTC, on the other hand, is charged with nurturing Canadian culture and ensuring that this country's airwaves and cable and telephone networks are operated in the best long-term interest of the Canadian public.

And, while it's too often been a paper tiger, the CRTC has some remarkable successes to its credit. Its Cancon regulations for radio, for instance, created the Canadian music industry at a single stroke.

If the CRTC's mandate is too narrowly written to encompass today's changing technological environment, that doesn't mean the institution itself is obsolete. It means the mandate should be expanded, and quickly, while there's still something identifiably Canadian left to preserve.

John McLeod, Toronto

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Netflix only succeeds because the "free" programming on TV is so inadequate that people are willing to pay for something to watch. We don't need the CRTC making things worse.

Philip A. Russel, Toronto

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The BBC collects an annual licence fee and provides a commercial-free service. Netflix charges a monthly fee and does the same thing. In principle, what's the diff? It could work for the CBC and prevent or postpone its Harper-planned extinction.

As for the CRTC, it should concentrate on regulating the telecommunications robber barons.

Malcolm Niblett, Kingston

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We are talking about our cultural integrity and that is none of Google chairman Eric Schmidt's business. If he wants to operate in Canada or any other country, he needs to do so according to its laws and rules. Not his place to do otherwise. Just a business and just entertainment in any event.

To have a foreigner who only wants to make money dictate our cultural agenda is idiotic. Live by the rules or sell your services somewhere else. Pretty simple.

Dave Cunningham, Calgary

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I lost all respect for the CRTC when they simply pretended Netflix and Google hadn't been there after they refused to hand over information. My three-year-old is more mature.

The CRTC can pretend it didn't hear them.

The rest of us did.

Maggie Johnson, Winnipeg

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ON REFLECTION Letters to the editor

It's war. Call it that

Re Canada To Take Combat Role In Fighting Islamic State (Oct. 3): The Prime Minister can call this a "counterterrorism operation."

But no matter what language he tries to use to sanitize matters, the stark truth is that he wants to send Canada to war – an ill-defined, open-ended war. Stephen Harper needs to call it what it is.

Anna Brady, Edmonton

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'Whip out our CF-18s'

Justin Trudeau shot the puck into his own goal once again when he made an asinine joke about the Conservatives' wanting to "whip out our CF-18s and show them how big they are."

According to recent polls, Mr. Trudeau's Liberals are Canadians' best chance to get rid of this condescending, dictatorial government.

When Justin Trudeau puts his foot in it, he is not only letting down all the hardworking Liberal volunteers, he is letting down all Canadians who cherish genuine democracy.

Smarten up, Mr. Trudeau!

Lloyd Atkins, Vernon, B.C.

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Stand with our allies

We can bicker all we want, but the fact is: We must stand with our allies, or one day, when the Northwest Passage is fully open, anyone can march in for a try here.

Then, if others say "Huh, it's too far away from us, we don't want to help," what do we do?

Edda Heinmaa, Toronto

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What Trudeau said

Re Joe Oliver Replies (letters, Oct. 2): Finance Minister Joe Oliver begins clarification of his statement with an incomplete quote from Justin Trudeau that budgets will balance themselves.

Mr. Trudeau, responding to a question about balancing budgets, said: "The commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy and the budget will balance itself."

Mr. Oliver distorted Mr. Trudeau's statement. The Finance Minister should show the same respect for other people's comments he demands for himself.

Agostino Di Millo, Toronto

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