TORONTO – Canadian actor R.H. Thomson joined union members to demand government action on cultural issues at the Canadian Labour Congress Convention (CLC) that began in Toronto Monday.
"We’re turning up the volume on culture at the house of labour today," said Thomson. "Canadian workers agree that government censorship of the film and television industry as proposed in Bill C-10 is bad news for culture, bad news for jobs, and bad news for the economy."
A policy resolution on cultural issues was on the floor for CLC debate today, the first day of the five-day CLC convention being held May 26-30.
"It’s a great day when labour puts culture first. Canadian culture matters to all workers because it’s our identity, who we are as a nation. Action is needed, and through the CLC, we’ve got three million voices behind us," said Arnold Amber, Director, CWA-SCA Canada (Communications Workers of America/Syndicat des communications d’Amérique).
"Big media is erasing local news, not only costing thousands of jobs, but clotting the flow of information – the very lifeblood of democracy," said Peter Murdoch, vice-president media, Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.
The resolution calls for government action on a range of issues including limiting foreign ownership of media companies, denouncing media convergence, fixing the so-called crisis in Canadian dramatic television programming, restoring local news and deleting the censorship provisions from Bill C-10 that would give the Heritage Minister arbitrary powers to deny tax credits to film and television productions after the fact if their content broke the law.
Cultural workers are represented by CLC affiliated unions including: ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), CWA-SCA Canada (Communications Workers of America/Syndicat des communications d’Amérique), the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), Teamsters Canada and the United Steelworkers (USW).
