ANYONE WHO CARES ABOUT Canada’s cultural policies would have had a difficult time during the federal election finding information on where the four major parties stand when it comes to supporting the arts. Most of their platforms focused on legislating major broadcasters and streaming platforms like Netflix. None mentioned copyright reform, despite the fact that the Copyright Act has been under a mandated review for several years. And if you are going to increase the amount of Canadian content required on these behemoth platforms, you might want to also ensure that the people producing that content are adequately paid.
Roanie Levy, CEO of the national non-profit Access Copyright, expressed disappointment on behalf of the organization that none of the leaders spoke at all about copyright policy. In a pre-election interview with Q&Q associate editor Ryan Porter, Levy said, “Without a strong and effective copyright regime, we really don’t have our own domestic culture.”