TORONTO – Jesse Wente has been appointed director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office, a role he will assume starting February 1, 2018, it was announced today.
The ISO is an initiative first announced by the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, at the Banff World Media Festival in June.
A film expert, broadcaster and cultural industries leader, Wente (pictured) has spent two decades working in the creative community and advocating for Indigenous rights. He has been director of film programmes at the TIFF Bell Lightbox for the past seven years, and has contributed to CBC Radio as a critic,…
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IT’S BEEN MORE THAN 25 years since legislation guiding the communications sector came into force. There have some minor changes, but both the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act have remained largely the same – their objectives essentially left untouched. They have stood the test of time, some say. Others, however, point to the enormous impact of the Internet in arguing for big changes to these laws.
“The Internet has really become the central communication mode in our life now, and yet we have legislation that makes a distinction between telecom and broadcasting and also between wireless and wireline. It…
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TORONTO – The Canadian film, television and print production industry “is in a death spiral” that only government action can halt, several experts agreed at a digital media conference held Saturday in Toronto.
The former Harper government, current Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly, the CRTC and private broadcasters came in for heated criticism for failing to give content producers the tools to fight the falling advertising which print publications have been seeing – and the flight of viewers from conventional television to Netflix, Facebook, Google and others.
There were no shortage of solutions offered, but speakers on a film and TV panel…
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IF YOU’RE AGAINST THINGS like theft and plagiarism, then support of the FairPlay Coalition is a no-brainer.
Over 25 companies, unions, associations and other groups have banded together to file an application to the CRTC to try to curb blatant content piracy in Canada. The group (a list of organizations who are often at each other’s throats) is calling themselves the FairPlay Canada Coalition and the application (to which Cartt.ca was granted early access) calls for the creation of the Independent Piracy Review Agency, an independent, third party organization with a strong mandate to protect both net neutrality as well…
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Proposes new agency to battle billion-dollar problem
OTTAWA – FairPlay Canada, a new coalition of Canadian artists, content creators, unions, guilds, producers, performers, broadcasters, distributors, and exhibitors is has filed an application with the CRTC urging the Regulator to have Canadian ISPs shut down access to websites which enable content piracy.
According to the coalition, the jobs of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who work in the creative sector (songwriters, set builders, TV writers, makeup artists, reporters, as well as cable technicians, engineers and customer service reps) are at risk as a result of increasing online piracy…
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OTTAWA – Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly will once again return to Prime Time in Ottawa (PTiO) for a sit down with CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin on the state of the Canadian screen-based industries.
This will mark the third time that Minister Joly has attended the annual confab. The 23nd edition of PTiO will take place January 31 to February 2, 2018 at The Westin Ottawa.
“Canadians are fiercely proud of our creators and creative industry professionals,” said Minister Joly, in a statement. “I am delighted to join industry leaders here at Prime Time to discuss how we can…
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Q HOST TOM POWER is a good interviewer. But even he can’t penetrate Heritage Minster Mélanie Joly’s ability to avoid giving a direct answer to a direct question.
The Minister appeared on CBC’s Q last week (screen-capped at right) to talk about the #MeToo movement (she was in Toronto to meet with a number of groups on that topic) as well as discuss Canadian content in the new, digital era. We’ll pick up the chat at the 6:40 mark.
After mentioning Netflix’s planned $500 million investment in making content in Canada, which was the centrepiece of Minister…
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TORONTO – Broadcast and music industry veteran and philanthropist Gary Slaight will receive the 2018 Humanitarian Award at this year’s Juno Awards.
Given out annually, the Humanitarian Award celebrates and recognizes the philanthropic efforts made by Canadian artists or industry leaders who have made a positive impact on social welfare worldwide. It will be presented at the Juno Gala Dinner & Awards on March 24, 2018 in Vancouver.
Slaight personifies the essence of the award through his devotion to Canadian music and emerging Canadian artists as well as his philanthropic support of health care, social service, culture and at-risk youth at…
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A curious omission, though
OTTAWA – Just before the federal government shuts down for the holidays, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly and Innovation Science and Economic Development Minister Navdeep Bains co-signed a mandate letter for the committee about to begin the process of reviewing the Copyright Act.
“While often underappreciated, the Copyright Act impacts Canadians every day, shaping what we see and hear, and enhancing our systems for the creation and use of content,” wrote the minsters to the chairman of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology, which will lead the statutory review in the new year.
The letter asks the…
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Search continues for new CEO
GATINEAU – Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly named five new directors to the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors on Tuesday.
The new members are:
− Harley Finkelstein (Ontario), mandate effective immediately
Mr. Finkelstein is an entrepreneur, lawyer and chief of operations for Shopify. He is a member of C100's board of directors and advises Felicis Ventures, which makes him involved in two organizations that promote innovation. He was also one of the dragons on CBC's Next Gen Den. Mr. Finkelstein was a recipient of the Order of Ottawa in 2016 and recently received Canada's Top 40 Under 40 award.
− René…
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