Standing up for cultural sovereignty requires a steel backbone

TORONTO—A shared pride in the ongoing Canadian experiment unites us despite regional differences. We may live in Toronto, but we share with fellow-citizens in Kamloops, or Cape Berton, or Sherbrooke, and vice versa. We can cherish the settlement of Saskatchewan and the arrival of immigrants in Nova Scotia. We know why we have a Charter of Rights and what it means. We can celebrate summers on our lakes, the beauty of our forests and the sugaring of maple in the spring. And every November, we remember the sacrifice of all of those who fought in two world wars and other conflicts. We know what it means to be a Canadian. It is all of this and more that helps make us a country. But how do we keep this heritage alive and build and evolve our narrative into the future? Here we depend not only on our creators—our artists, writers, musicians, and others—but also on having the resources and platforms to keep the flame alive. This is all at risk in this new digital age of streaming media and the cultural imperialism of the huge media mega giants that now dominate while bleeding away, from Canada, the resources to sustain our own voices and how they reach fellow citizens. To take one example, in 2005, conventional television broadcasters had $2.2-billion in revenue-, a net profit of $61.2-million, and 8,202 employees. In 2023, the industry had revenues of $1.5-billion, a net loss of $416.9-million, and 4,478 employees. The big platforms alone—Netflix, Prime, Disney, HBO, Paramount, and others—draw several billion dollars a year from Canada and put little back. We have to fight back if we are to have a country we can call our own. The latest initiative is the Online Streaming Act, or Bill C-11, which requires U.S. streamers—Netflix, Prime, HBO, Disney, Paramount and others—to set aside five per cent of their revenues for Canadian productions and to require that Canadians know these productions are available. This brings the foreign streamers under similar rules that have applied to Canadian broadcasters for many years. The U.S. streamers will do all they can to weaken and defeat this effort to strengthen Canadian identity. Their next step could be to enlist the U.S. government to step in to pressure Canada. This would be a big test. Standing up for Canadian cultural sovereignty will require a steel backbone. We do have allies. Canada is far from alone from wanting to create content for its own productions, stories and narratives. Our legislation is a test case, which is another reason why U.S. streamers want to shoot it down. A joint declaration from producers in 10 countries in Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand, along with European Union organizations and Canada have signed a joint declaration—Global Screen Producers Statement on Streaming Platform Regulation & Intellectual Property Protections—on digital streaming platforms and cultural sovereignty principles. “Local content has both significant cultural and economic importance and is a strategic national asset,” the declaration states. Without a sense of its history and shared culture of experience, institutions, values and cultural expression, do you even have a country? Or do you become the vassal state of another country and its culture? The declaration goes on to state that local audiences should have access to a broad range of local content across all the platforms they use, and that “all platforms that derive financial benefit from conducting business in the local market should financially contribute, proportionately, to the creation of new local content for the benefit of local audiences.” Government has an obligation to ensure there is both the creation of local screen content, as well as a healthy screen sector, including development, production, post-production and distribution. This is about jobs as well. Moreover, it argues “independent screen businesses are critical to achieving this cultural and economic objective.” This includes ensuring that independent screen businesses “own and/or retain control of the intellectual property rights in their work, including the right to financially participate in the success generated in their work on a platform, created as part of a nation’s own unique cultural heritage.” Ownership of the intellectual property—the copyright—is critical, and needs to be under the control of independent screen businesses that create content. “This principle,” the declaration says, “will assist businesses to remain strong and sustainable, thereby enhancing their capacity to invest in the development and production of new IP.” That can be seen in the experience of a Canadian independent production company, Shaftesbury, which produced Murdoch Mysteries. It owns the copyright and licensing to broadcasters in different countries gives it cash flow to take risks on new productions. Without copyright ownership, Canadian companies will lose their potential for growth. The CRTC is setting out the definition of “Canadian content”. It is vital that it require Canadian ownership of copyright by Canadian producers. The U.S. has little sympathy for Canadian concerns. Typical is a recent attack in The Hill, a Washington paper covering the U.S. government, by Marc Busch, a former U.S. trade official and now a business professor at George Washington University. In it he urges the U.S. government to challenge the Online Streaming Act under the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Trade Agreement, dismissing Canadian efforts to boost Canadian content as “cultural protectionism, plain and simple.” A challenge by the U.S., he argues, would have wider benefits since “it would deter other countries from getting carried away with their own cultural protectionism," including local content quotas for streaming services in Australia and Europe. America First in culture. Busch looks with hope to the next Canadian election. “Many Canadians,” he writes, “hope Bill C-11 will be short-lived. Pierre Poilievre, the leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, vows that, if he’s elected, he’d repeal the legislation and replace it with the Free Speech Act.” That is something Canadians should consider with their next vote. What kind of Canada do they want: a vassal state or a sovereign nation? David Crane can be reached at crane@interlog.com. The Hill Times

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Standing up for cultural sovereignty requires a steel backbone

The U.S. streamers will do all they can to weaken and defeat the Online Streaming Act and its effort to strengthen Canadian identity.

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