Image credit: Reuters
As Canada’s cultural community assesses the make-up of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new Cabinet, two common phrases come to mind, “Hope Springs Eternel” and “Grasping at Straws”. The cultural and copyright industries have a number of legitimate concerns, which were well articulated in a pre-election brief published by the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE), as I outlined in an earlier blog post. Among the CDCE’s requests in the area of copyright was a plea for fair remuneration for writers and publishers for the use of their works in the education sector. There was yet another reminder of the need for the long-promised establishment of an Artists Resale Right in Canada, along with a reiteration of the request to extend the private copying regime to electronic devices (as is done in Europe), a measure that would help in restoring royalties in the music sector. The final copyright ask was to amend the definition of a sound recording to ensure that performers and record labels receive compensation for the audiovisual use of their works. CDCE’s brief also argued for “proper implementation” of the Online Streaming Act so that streaming services and social media platforms contribute financially to the production of Canadian content as well as support for retention of–and increased funding to–the CBC. There were also policy positions regarding the use of copyrighted content for AI training purposes.
What are the chances that all or any of these requests will be addressed by the new Carney government? One might think that with all the hoopla during the election about Canadian identity in the face of repeated attacks on Canada’s integrity by Donald Trump, there will likely be some significant measures taken to strengthen Canadian culture, although the Liberal election platform does not have much to say on Canadian cultural enterprises–other than the CBC. The CBC gets some love as a “cornerstone of our national identity” and will not only not be defunded, as threatened by the opposition Conservatives, but will get an additional $150 million cash infusion as well as having its funding put on a statutory basis. As a quid pro quo the national broadcaster will have to strengthen accountability and its commitment to local news, promote Canadian culture and combat disinformation. Increased funding (we don’t know how much) will be provided to the Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Media Fund and the National Film Board. That is all good stuff, but there is not a whisper of copyright reform or of changes to copyright legislation in the platform.
The lack of any overt reference to copyright issues is probably understandable given the focus of the election, which was on standing up to Donald Trump and building the Canadian economy. It is not a bread-and-butter issue for most voters, important as it is to the cultural community. Therefore, we have to look beyond the Party Platform to the roster of appointed ministers and examine their backgrounds to see if there is any prospect of progress. On this score, the story is a bit more positive.
The two key ministers, the Minister of Industry, Science and Economic Development (which holds the statutory mandate for administering the Copyright Act), Mélanie Joly, and the new Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, formerly labelled Canadian Heritage, (a ministry that has an important though subsidiary role to play on copyright), Steven Guilbeault, both represent Quebec ridings. This is significant given the importance of support for culture and cultural enterprises in the province and the influence of the creative community there. Guilbeault is also Carney’s “Quebec lieutenant”, which gives him extra influence. Joly, most recently Foreign Minister, is a former Minister of Canadian Heritage herself, as was Guilbeault in a previous incarnation. Thus, they know the cultural files. The CDCE was quick to congratulate both on their election, noting Joly’s appointment was a “promising signal” with respect to copyright.
Maybe. But it is unlikely that either Joly or Guilbeault will pick up the copyright ball unless they are pushed to do it. If they do, given the minority government status of the Liberals, they will need the support of another party. The Bloc Quebecois, with 22 seats(or 23, depending on what happens in the riding of Terrebonne where the Liberals won by exactly one vote out of almost 50,000 votes cast), would be logical supporters for the kind of changes to the Copyright Act sought by Canadian creators represented by the CDCE.
While having familiarity with cultural industry issues from having spent time in the past as Canadian Heritage minister is a plus, the reality is that while both Joly and Guilbeault are strong ministers, both struggled during their previous tenures at Heritage. Guilbeault’s first love is the environment, a role he held for 4 years under Justin Trudeau as Minister of Environment and Climate Change, making him Public Enemy No. 1 for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Her new public enemy is the current Environment Minister, Julie Dabrusin, who served briefly as Guilbeault’s Parliamentary Secretary at Environment. Dabrusin would have been an inspired choice for Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture given the role she played as Chair of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage that produced the report “Shifting Paradigms”. Among other things, her Committee recommended changes to the Copyright Act to narrow the problematic education fair dealing exemption that has done so much damage to writers and publishers in Canada. But it was not to be. However, she will do just fine as Minister of the Environment. As for being attacked by Danielle Smith, that is probably a badge of honour for any environment minister. The only scenario under which Smith would not attack a federal environment minister is if Carney pulled a page from Donald Trump’s playbook and appointed someone with such an anti-environment track record (like current EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin) as to effectively disqualify them from the job. But I digress.
Joly and Guilbeault are not the only ministers who will play on copyright issues. Among the new ministers announced on May 13 was Evan Solomon, the Minister for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation. This is a new Ministry (having an Minister for AI may be a world first) and it is not altogether clear what Solomon’s mandate will be, as pointed out by Michael Geist. This is especially true as he does not have a functioning department to inherit. There are lots of issues for him to resolve, including the salient one of how and on what conditions AI developers will have access to copyrighted content for training AI algorithms. Canada has no text and data mining exception in its copyright law, let alone a broad exemption for AI training such as AI developers are seeking in the US and elsewhere. Some Canadian AI developers have been quick to use the pretext that AI development will flee Canada if they are not given free and unfettered access to creative content of others, a self-serving scare tactic if there ever was one, as I wrote about here. The fact is all countries are wrestling with the issue of how to protect valuable cultural industries while enabling responsible AI to develop. Licensing is the most obvious solution.
The CDCE had three requests with respect to AI training.
- no Copyright Act amendment to allow technology development companies to continue using protected works, productions, and performances to train generative AI systems without authorization or compensation
- implementation of legally binding measures requiring the disclosure of training data used in AI systems, and
- ensuring that all AI-generated content is clearly identified, so that the public is fully informed about the nature of the content it consumes
Solomon no doubt will become involved in these questions. His background is as a journalist, a prominent one at that. As such, one might surmise that he has some understanding of the role of content creators and the need to foster and protect creative expression. But he will be subjected to lots of attention from the tech community, so we will just have to see how it plays out.
When I read all these tea leaves, I have the uneasy feeling that the times are not particularly propitious for the kind of political leadership sought by the cultural industries in Canada, particularly those sectors needing some attention to the copyright file. However, as I noted at the outset, “hope springs eternal”. And if hope fades, one can always “grasp at straws”. There are quite a few of them lying around. But are there enough to build any kind of useful structure? That is the question.
© Hugh Stephens, 2025. All Rights Reserved.