Cultural panel on a known tune

What about culture in this federal election? We talked very little about it, as the host Catherine Perrin pointed out at the opening of a debate on culture broadcast on Monday. A debate ? Rather a continuation of discussions and current subjects, without surprises. On the menu: broadcasting law and potential oversight of Web giants, copyright and employment support for self-employed workers, including cultural workers.

Five men formed the panel brought together by the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDEC) and the Communication Department of the University of Montreal. The Minister of Heritage, Steven Guilbeault, could sit down on the historic investments made by the Liberal Party in culture in two terms and through its pandemic aid measures. He had to endure the criticisms of Alexandre Boulerice, of the New Democratic Party (NDP), and Martin Champoux, from Bloc Quebecois : the election call nipped in the bud all the work done on Bill C-10 to revise the Broadcasting Act and, according to them, undermined any liberal credibility in culture.

The old discussions on the subject have been replayed: the Liberals and the NDP see quotas of Quebec content imposed (“a goal of results” required, as presented by Mr. Guilbeault) where the Conservatives, through the voice of Steve Shanahan, detect a desire to control content and an infringement of freedom of expression. Virtually all parties agree that a digital services tax of 3% of the gross income of the web giants would settle the matter. For the Conservatives, the cultural industries would only have to reinvest these amounts in advertising, on YouTube for example, to increase their visibility and their discoverability, according to Mr. Shanahan’s suggestion.

Clarify the statutes

All agreed on the urgent need to amend the Copyright Act. The more specific question of the need to change private copying royalties, thought during its drafting to provide compensation to creators for copies of music made on cassettes or CDs for personal use, left Mr. Shanahan on. the tile. More broadly, Mr. Guilbeault announced his party’s intention to perpetuate the additional investment in the Canadian Book Fund of $ 40 million per year as long as the work on the Copyright Act is not completed.

On employment support and employment insurance, Mr. Guilbeault announced “that for the arts and culture, we must maintain the measures [d’assurance-emploi instaurées pendant la pandémie] until return to normal ”. Mr. Boulerice specified that with the specificity of several independent cultural workers, who are often individuals-small businesses, employment insurance had to find a way to clarify the status of employer or employee. The Bloc took the opportunity to talk about the need to reopen the provincial Status of the Artist Act.

The Green Party, represented by Martin Goyette, was more than erased on Monday. And more than a debate, it is a resumption and variations of themes known and already heard that the spectator of this panel attended: either in a support, not openly admitted but apparent for those who know the files, towards the initiatives of the Liberals (except for the Conservatives), or in opposition by all to the vision or the proposals of the Conservatives

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