A resident of Parkdale High Park has passed along a promotional flyer indicating that Sam Bulte is back as she and the Parkdale Federal Liberal Riding Association will be hosting a holiday celebration next Saturday. The return of Ms. Bulte comes as a bit of a surprise, given that two […]
Post Tagged with: "CRIA"
Oda Back on the Hotseat over Fundraising
Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda's fundraising activities were back in the spotlight yesterday in the House of Commons as NDP Heritage critic Charlie Angus expressed concern that Oda's fundraising activities may have played a role in the government's decision to delay the renewal of an important television development fund. Angus asked whether, in light of funding from the broadcast industry, is the delay "a case of he who pays the piper is calling her tune?" Oda responded:
Mr. Speaker, the government supports the production industry and our broadcasting industry. We understand the importance of the television fund and the role it plays. The fund is being processed in consideration. We want to ensure that the money will be used and that it provides value for the dollars.
Given that non-answer, Angus then asked Treasury Board President John Baird whether "first, the cheques for last week's cancelled fundraiser collected in cash? Second, would he give us a list of who gave those cheques so we can at least know who is helping to write the broadcast and copyright policy in our country?"
Quebec and Copyright
Today's Le Devoir features a noteworthy op-ed on copyright from many of Quebec's leading publishers. The gist of the op-ed is that copyright is crucial to Quebec culture, the educational exception proposed by Canadian Ministers of Education would have a devastating effect on that culture, and the Conservatives seem ready to support the education exception without any public debate.
Given the transparent efforts of the minority Conservatives to court the Quebec vote – this week alone Industry Minister Bernier gave two speeches in Montreal on economic development and the environment, while Heritage Minister Bev Oda opened an OAS conference on culture – it is worth considering how copyright reform will play in Quebec.
The working assumption is generally that culture is major issue in Quebec, that copyright is viewed as an integral part of cultural policy, and that therefore stronger copyright laws are an election winner in the province. Yet if the rumours about the contents of the forthcoming copyright bill are accurate, the Conservatives are about to fundamentally misread where the support for copyright reform lies. The bill is likely to contain two pillars – anti-circumvention legislation and the education exception (there will obviously be other provisions but these are the two issues designed to address the loudest lobby groups, namely CRIA and CMEC). Both issues are losers in Quebec.
Hill Times Letters
The Hill Times runs three letters to the editor in response to Barry Sookman's column last week including one from me.
CRIA Loses Judicial Review of Copyright Board Decision
The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a CRIA judicial review request of a Copyright Board decision that required it to notify its (shrinking) list of Class "B" members of its decision to no longer represent them in the CSI online music tariff.
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