By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – This morning, the Transport and Communications Senate Committee (TRCM) met again to hear testimonies from Unifor, the Writers Guild of Canada, the Screen Composers Guild of Canada and the Provincial Council of the Communications Sector of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
Except for the latter, all support the bill but brought up issues regarding employment, intellectual property, and the Status of the Artist.
Contributions from the online broadcasters should be provided to produce local news, said Unifor and CUPE, which are unions representing workers in that sector.
“We need an amendment in Bill C-11 to ensure that local news has a dedicated revenue stream. To this end, Unifor supports the passage of Bill C-11 and recommends amending section 11.1 (1),” said Randy Kitt, media sector director at Unifor.
CUPE, which represents workers in the media sector in Québec, also wants amendments to section 11.1(1) to include local news and community media.
The amendment to the independent production sector could revive the in-house production of programs for traditional broadcasters.
“We therefore support the amendment of this clause but would like to see it clarified to confirm that the wording does include broadcasters themselves,” said Tulsa Valin-Landry, president of the Provincial Council of the Communications Sector of CUPE.
The Screen Composers Guild of Canada took issue with amendments to the bill, introduced during clause-by-clause at the heritage committee.
The guild’s president John Welsman (above), stated: “Bill C-11’s amendments to exempt online undertakings from the Status of the Artist Act and to dilute the importance of independently produced content in the system both make the question of IP ownership and negotiating parameters even more critical.”
“But speaking on behalf of Canadian creators, any definition of ‘Canadian content’ must put a priority on the continued use of Canadian talent. Content created and owned by Canadians should have more weight within the legal framework than content that happens to be about Canadians. We creators are asking that Canadians remain at the heart of any definition of ‘Canadian content’ and that Canadian creators retain the right to be compensated for the work and IP they create,” said Welsman.
This is an issue also supported by the Writers Guild and they both agree the exclusion of online undertakings from the federal Status of the Artist Act “represents a serious threat to the ability of Canadian creators to bargain collectively because it allows streamers to ignore guild certification and simply refuse to deal with us or any other guild…” as stated by Neal McDougall, acting co-executive director, director of policy of the Writers Guild.
“We have obtained a legal opinion demonstrating that it is fully within the federal government’s jurisdiction to legislate in this area, and indeed, the amendment may be unconstitutional given the protections for freedom of association in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As such, we ask you to reverse this ill-considered amendment and restore the regular application of bargaining rights to federally regulated online undertakings,” he said.
The hearing continues tomorrow evening.
