While visiting the University of British Columbia (UBC) on Wednesday, Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge announced $129,375 in funding for UBC’s Municipal Mis/Disinformation project, which responds to the problem of online climate misinformation and disinformation at the local level.
The project is receiving the funding through the federal government’s Digital Citizen Contribution Program, which supports the priorities of the Digital Citizen Initiative by providing financial assistance to Canadian researchers and civil society organizations that promote a healthy information ecosystem and help Canadians and the government understand online disinformation and its…
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Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge announced Monday the appointment of an advisory committee that will provide policy advice on the role, mission and governance of Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada.
The committee composed of seven experts and specialists will be tasked with providing advice “on how to strengthen and renew the public broadcaster so it can continue to fulfill its important social, cultural and democratic functions,” says a Heritage press release.
“CBC/Radio-Canada is a cornerstone of Canadian culture,” St-Onge said in a statement. “For almost 90 years, our public broadcaster has been a…
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Canadian Heritage announced via X on Thursday that Claire Anderson has been reappointed as CRTC commissioner for British Columbia and Yukon for a second five-year term.
The official order in council dated May 3 says her reappointment is effective Aug. 26, 2024.
A citizen of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation and based in Whitehorse, Anderson is the first Indigenous woman and first Yukon resident to be appointed as a CRTC commissioner. Her original appointment started in August 2019.
Called to the Yukon bar in 2014, Anderson started…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA – The head of CBC came to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on Tuesday proudly declaring that the public broadcaster’s “financial outlook has improved” since last December when it announced plans to cut 600 jobs to offset an estimated shortfall of $125 million, and had been reduced to about $20 million, resulting in no need for further payroll cuts to balance the books at CBC/Radio Canada.
But several members of the committee, which has been scrutinizing the employment reduction at the English-French broadcaster, were more focused on…
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This is part two of a three-part feature. Please read part one here.
By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
In my last piece, I suggested that the critical definition of Canadian Content was that set out in the Income Tax Act and Regulations and administered by the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO) and asked why the ongoing debate focused instead on the definition used by the CRTC.
In this piece, I’d like to look a little closer at the CAVCO role. In my…
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By Ahmad Hathout
Google is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to allow it to argue that the CRTC should have included in its new broadcasting fee regulations an explicit exemption for advertisements that are placed on user-generated content.
The CRTC ordered in March a new way it was going to calculate revenues and collect fees for its operations, lowering traditional broadcasting obligations with the transfer of some of that collection to online platforms in line with the new Online Streaming Act that will bring the latter services under its ambit.
During the intervention phase of that 2023 proceeding,…
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By Doug Barrett, adjunct professor in the Arts, Media & Entertainment MBA program at the Schulich School of Business
It is well known that the Canadian government has directed the CRTC to review its definition of Canadian content, and that the Commission is currently wrapping up a vast series of Canada-wide and industry-wide consultations on the topic. Everyone is treating this as an important and vital process.
But the CRTC is not the principle Canadian content certification authority. That role belongs to the Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO). CAVCO is an office within the Department of Canadian Heritage which certifies the…
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By Connie Thiessen
The 2024 federal budget includes support for media and the cultural industries, with a focus on bolstering publicly-funded broadcasting, fortifying the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI), and championing diverse storytelling in film and television.
Budget 2024, released Tuesday, proposes to provide an additional $42 million in 2024-25 for CBC/Radio-Canada news and entertainment programming, on top of its $1.4-billion public funding allocation.
CBC President and CEO Catherine Tait said in a statement that the one-time funding would help the corporation “manage its financial challenges in a more stable manner.”
“This is welcome news. This investment, together with the steps we have taken…
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Bell confirms April 11 appearance before Heritage committee
In a message titled “Facts Matter” published Thursday on its website, Bell outlined what it says are the facts about its recent restructuring, which includes the elimination of 4,800 positions across the telecom and media company.
The web post appears to have been prompted by what Bell sees as inaccurate information circulating about the situation, saying, “As some distort the truth, here are the facts about Bell’s restructuring as announced on February 8.”
“Bell is supporting each affected team member with…
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During CBC’s broadcast of the Juno Awards on Sunday night, Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge announced the federal government is renewing and boosting the Canada Music Fund to help Canadian music creators.
Federal funding of $32 million will be delivered over the next two years (2024-25 and 2025-26) “to keep supporting initiatives that enhance the careers of Canadian artists, while strengthening the competitiveness and stability of the Canadian music sector,” says a press release Sunday from Canadian Heritage.
The funding will be administered by the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR)…
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