The Canadian Teachers’ Federation is a national alliance of provincial and territorial teacher organizations that represent nearly 200,000 elementary and secondary school teachers across Canada. The CTF’s take on digital locks: The Canadian Teachers’ Federation supports amendments to section 41 that would permit users to circumvent technological measures in situations […]
Post Tagged with: "ctf"
C-32 Legislative Committee Discussion Marked By Copyright Confusion
Today’s Bill C-32 Legislative committee hearing, which featured only two witnesses, may have marked a new low given the amount of confusion and misinformation coming from MPs and witnesses. The panel should have delivered a good debate on C-32 and fair dealing given the presence of the Canadian Teachers Federation […]
The Battle over the CTF
The Toronto Star on "culture vs. profit in the digital age."
McGrath on the CTF
Denis McGrath posts his insightful submission to the CRTC on the proposed changes to the Canadian Television Fund.
Canadian Cultural Policy Must Adapt to an Internet World
My weekly Law Bytes column (Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) focuses on the need to adapt Canadian cultural policy to an Internet world. Given our easy access to Hollywood movies and U.S. television programming, it is unsurprising that Canadians have long placed great emphasis on cultural policies. To avoid marginalizing homegrown talent, Canada has set Canadian content as a key objective in the Broadcasting Act, established foreign ownership restrictions within the cultural industries, and safeguarded cultural policies in its international trade agreements.
As a result, Canadian television and radio broadcasters must be Canadian-owned and comply with Canadian content requirements, while funding programs at the federal and provincial level help the Canadian cultural sector compete on the global stage. These policies have enjoyed a measure of success – Canadian musicians and children's television programming are particularly noteworthy in this regard – however the emergence of the Internet and new media is rendering many current policies increasingly irrelevant.
I argue that two pillars of Canadian cultural policy need to be reconsidered.