Vancouver Province
for October 1, 1999

When are we finally going to recognize that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is as outdated as the buggy whip and ought to be, like my old Hardy cane rods, hung on the wall as a memento of bygone times? Now the CRTC does many things and my remarks today deal with the industry I’m involved in – broadcasting.

From the outset the CRTC has acted to promote and protect Canadian culture which for many of us meant what was happening in Quebec and Ontario with occasional glimpses at the rest of Canada seen through Montreal and Toronto eyes. In order to do this, it was essential to have as a mindset that censorship was good if it meant that Canadian artists were force-fed to the Canadian public and, somehow foreign influences (namely American) were blocked out of Canadian living-rooms. However much merit this notion may have once had, the CRTC could never keep up with the changes taking place.

Back in 1982, then Communications Minister Francis Fox decreed that Canadians could not take signals from satellites and have public viewings for profit. This was aimed at bars that showed hockey games patrons were interested in rather than the ones on the CBC which invariably featured the Toronto Maple Leafs. I installed a "dish" and had a party to which I invited a great many people who were required to pay a dollar for the privilege of seeing "illegal" television. Thereafter I bombarded Mr Fox with "confessions", demanding to be prosecuted. I received no replies because it was all nonsense. While Fox was trying to cleanse my living-room of foreign matter the satellite dish was bringing about the fall of the Iron Curtain. The Canadian government was, as usual, years behind the times.

Fast forward to 1999. We still have Canadian content rules (can-con) and they are more out of date than ever.

Talk to Terry McBride, the brilliant young Vancouver man who represents many of our stars and ask him how this all works. Before you get an answer you’ll have to wait until the laughter ends. Here, in short, is what is happening every day. Radio stations all over North America are available to any listener who has a computer and a bit of relatively inexpensive (and getting cheaper) software. There is less and less need for any Canadian to listen to music on a Canadian station because he can tune into a station in, say, Pittsburgh (which may or may not be licensed or indeed even operating off a frequency – it may broadcast exclusively through the ‘net) and hear what he wants. Moreover he can, with ever cheapening equipment, "download" any music he wishes onto his own compact disc and do his own compilations. In the meantime, Canadian stations forced to obey can-con regulations steadily lose audience.

And what do these can-con regulations do for the Canadian performer? According to McBride they "stigmatize" him. American producers faced with a Canadian "platinum" performance sneer (I think that’s a fair word) and say "but you have that stupid can-con stuff up there. That performance came from a closed not open market so I’m not very impressed." What is happening is that Canadians are making their initial big hits on American media where people like McBride can sell their talent as talent, not as talent with a nationality.

For years the CRTC and the Canadian government were merely years behind the times – now they are light years because things are changing so rapidly. As a personal example, I have just been advised to change the focus of my website by the same person who advised me on how to set it up. This isn’t because I got bad advice initially – I didn’t. I got very good advice. It’s just that in the last six months things have changed dramatically. I try to keep up – the Canadian Government and the national menace Sheila Copps are still, figuratively, playing with cats whiskers and a crystal set.

There are huge challenges facing Canadian artists and there are also fantastic potential rewards. The challenges include finding a way for piracy of performances being practiced on a monumental scale. The rewards come not from being played on Canadian radio stations because the government says they must be but being played world wide because the talent meets the tests of the worldwide marketplace.