Speech
REFLECTING CANADA'S DIVERSITY IN ITS BROADCASTING SYSTEM
Notes for an address
by Andrée Wylie
Vice-Chairperson, Broadcasting,
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission
to the Canadian Media, Race and Cultural Diversity in the 21st
Century - A national forum on racial and cultural diversity in the film,
broadcasting and new media industries
Montréal, Quebec
February 15th, 2002
(CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY)
Introduction
Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you Shyla (Dutt) for your generous
introduction.
Thank you for an invitation to your conference. I am very happy to be here
today to talk to you about how Canada's broadcasting system reflects this country
in all its diversity and, more importantly, how, with your efforts and ours, it
can even better reflect this country's diversity, in keeping with the pace of
change in Canada's demographics.
Conferences, such as this one, on policy initiatives and promising practices
on racial and cultural diversity in film, broadcasting and new media are
instrumental in helping to create that ideal broadcasting system.
Even before I was appointed to the CRTC, I had the opportunity to work with
many industry participants involved, like you, in the development of a
broadcasting system that represents and serves all Canadians.
Today, I plan to paint a broad overview of the CRTC's approach to diversity in
broadcasting and, even if you allow me to brag, I'll leave some time for
questions. One of my fellow Commissioners, Andrew Cardozo and two of our
excellent CRTC staff members, Martine Vallee, Director of Discretionary Services
and Social Policy and Jane Britten, Senior Policy Analyst on Social Issues are
also here and are participating on panels. I am sure that they would be happy to
answer your questions, particularly the more detailed ones, or the ones for which
I found no answer.
CRTC role and mandate
Like many of you in attendance today, I have been involved in these issues for
quite a while. As a lawyer, I may even be able to quote relevant passages from
the Broadcasting Act.
What is less easy, and requires more than lawyerly skills, is putting such
passages into practice to create and nurture a broadcasting system in which all
Canadians will see themselves, will see each other, and will learn about each
other.
The Commission is an arm's length federal agency charged with regulating and
supervising broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada. On the broadcasting
side, its marching orders are laid out in the Broadcasting Act - which
like all things, is revised from time to time.
Section 3(1) (d) (iii) of the Broadcasting Act requires that the
Canadian broadcasting system, "through its programming and employment
opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests, and
reflect the circumstances and aspirations, of Canadian men, women and children,
including equal rights, the linguistic duality and multicultural and multiracial
nature of Canadian society and the special place of aboriginal peoples within
that society."
I don't mean to put you to sleep, but I think it's important to note how much
there is in just that one clause of the Act. It illustrates the complexity and
breadth of the competing interests that we must ensure the broadcasting system
serves.
A delicate balancing act is what is required of us at the CRTC.in every
decision we make.
Decision-making is indeed not always easy. It needs the input of groups such
as the CRARR, whether on policy or licensing issues. Groups such as yours can
play an important role in pressing us, other public bodies and the industry to
ensure that the identity we shape for Canada encompasses racial and ethnocultural
diversity.
In the time allowed, I would like to zero in on three main areas of the
Canadian broadcasting system where, taking its cue from the goals of the
Broadcasting Act, the Commission has devised policies, issued licences, and
implemented regulations to further the objective of diversity and balanced
reflection in the system.
First we revised our 1985 Ethnic Broadcasting Policy in 1999. Secondly,
we have an updated policy governing aboriginal broadcasting and, thirdly, we are
looking at accelerating improvement in the contribution to diversity and balanced
reflection that the conventional or mainstream broadcasting system must make.
These three aspects reflect the overall approach of the CRTC.
Ethnic broadcasting
I will start with the Ethnic Broadcasting Policy. Let me clarify that,
when the CRTC refers to ethnic broadcasting, it means broadcasting in a third
language other than an aboriginal language and broadcasting in either English or
French aimed at a specific ethnic group.
The Commission has always recognized the role of ethnic broadcasting to ensure
the full participation of members of different ethnic groups in Canadian society.
Even before 1985, it had licensed ethnic radio stations, one ethnic television
station and three ethnic specialty services.
In 1985, when we wrote the first version of our Ethnic Broadcasting Policy,
we really were reflecting what we had already done in terms of ethnic
broadcasting in Canada and laying the groundwork for what we hoped we could
improve for the future.
In 1999, taking into account the input we received from the public, interest
groups and industry players, our ethnic broadcasting policy was streamlined, to
provide more flexibility to the stations operating within it and to encourage
increased participation, in recognition of the rapidly changing demographics of
Canada. However, the core objectives of the policy remained the same. These are
to:
- develop broadcasting services that reflect Canada's cultural and linguistic
plurality, which is essential to the Canadian social structure;
- ensure access to ethnic programming for as many Canadians as possible,
given resource limitations; and
- foster opportunities for greater understanding among people with different
cultural backgrounds.
We also revised the definition of an ethnic program, given the differing needs
of newer generations of Canadians and the different patterns of immigration to
Canada. Now, an ethnic program is one that is specifically directed to a
culturally or racially distinct group, other than a group that is Aboriginal
Canadian, or from France or the British Isles, whether or not it is in a language
other than French, English or an Aboriginal language.
We believe the new policy now better reflects the growing importance of
official-language ethnic broadcasting as a bridge between non-ethnic and ethnic
members of Canadian society and between different generations of Canadians.
Canadians now enjoy 14 ethnic radio stations, which serve Montreal, Toronto,
Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver.
The Commission recently licensed CPAM in Montreal to provide service to
various French-speaking ethnic communities.
And a recent decision will add a new ethnic radio station to the dial in
Ottawa.
Both Montreal and Toronto have local ethnic TV stations, and a new one was
licensed yesterday for Vancouver.
There are five Canadian ethnic specialty services serving Chinese, Italian,
Hispanic, South Asian and Greek audiences. And among the hundreds of digital
specialties licensed just over a year ago, we awarded 42 so-called Category 2
ethnic specialty services, of which a number have already launched. Since then,
the Commission has received several more applications for ethnic Category 2
services.
Although, the number of SCMO services is hard to assess accurately, we know
that Canada's larger urban centres enjoy numerous such radio services, including
some in Korean, Persian, Indo-Pakistani, Greek, Chinese, Tamil, German and East
Indian languages.
Vancouver ethnic television decision
The licence issued yesterday for a new television station in Vancouver was
granted to Multivan Broadcast Corporation. The new station will be a locally
owned service whose shareholders include members of Vancouver's ethnic
communities.
Multivan had very strong competition from CFMT-TV, a division of Rogers
Communications Inc., who put forward an excellent application.
In weighing the respective strengths of the two proposals, the Commission
concluded that Multivan would not only bring fresh blood, diversity of ownership
and enthusiasm to the Vancouver broadcasting arena, but that it would also bring
pride through local and ethnic ownership and an increased opportunity for a
better understanding of the needs of the communities that the new station will
serve.
Other recent decisions have shown that we're taking such factors into account.
For instance, this month, Flow 93.5, Toronto's first urban music station,
operated and owned by black Canadians, is celebrating its one-year anniversary of
going on air. As well, CPAM, which I've already mentioned, was licensed in
November 2001. Owned by a Haitian-Canadian, we expect CPAM to be on the air in
the near future.
And, finally, some mainstream broadcasters such as CITY-TV Toronto and CHCH
Hamilton have included blocks of ethnic programming in their schedule for some
time.
As you can see, the range of services available is impressive. But at the same
time, the need continues to grow. Montreal alone is home to more than 80 ethnic
groups.
Aboriginal broadcasting policy
I would now like to look at the proud place of Aboriginal broadcasting and
programming in the Canadian broadcasting system.
The primary role of Aboriginal broadcasters is to address the specific
cultural and linguistic needs of their audiences, while creating an environment
in which aboriginal artists, musicians, writers and producers can develop and
flourish.
Today, there are roughly 120 community-based native radio stations, mainly in
remote areas. There are also a number of native community-based television
services. And joining these services, soon there will be four new native radio
stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Ottawa under the banner of Gary
Farmer's Aboriginal Voices Radio.
In 1999, the Commission licensed the Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network.
APTN, the world's first national indigenous television network has been launched
and provides programming by and about Aboriginal peoples from all regions of
Canada, in English, French and up to 15 Aboriginal languages.
To ensure that APTN would reach a wide audience and have reasonable resources
to develop, the Commission took the unusual step of requirimg the carriage of
APTN on larger cable systems for a fee levied on all subscribers.
APTN, along with the newly licensed aboriginal radio stations in major
centres, will bring programming by and about aboriginal peoples to both
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal audiences.
Mainstream broadcasting
We know that licensing aboriginal and ethnic services meets the information
and entertainment needs of many Canadians. However, we are also acutely aware
that our goal of accurately and fairly reflecting racial and ethnocultural
diversity cannot be met fully without the participation of mainstream
broadcasters, be they public or private.
All Canadians, whatever their colour or racial or cultural heritage want, and
are entitled, to be seen and heard in the media; whether in a national or local
newscast, a dramatic series or a public affairs magazine show. Even more
importantly, all Canadians, whatever their racial or cultural heritage, want to
be portrayed with fairness and respect.
They know that mainstream television reaches millions of Canadians from the
furthest tip of an outport to the depths of our urban centres. They know that
mainstream broadcasters therefore exert a strong influence on how they are
perceived by other Canadians.
TV Policy
Our recently revised TV policy, Building on Success - A Policy Framework
for Canadian Television, identifies two clear objectives for the conventional
Canadian television system with respect to cultural diversity:
One, the broadcasting system should be a mirror in which all Canadians can see
themselves and see themselves fairly portrayed; accurately, and without
stereotypes.
And two, that the broadcasting system should be one in which producers,
writers technicians and artists from different cultural and social perspectives
have the opportunity to participate.
In the new TV policy the Commission indicated that it expected all
conventional television licensees to make specific commitments to initiatives
designed to achieve these goals.
Licence renewals, TVA, CTV and Global
Therefore, as part of their licence renewal, the three largest conventional
television groups in Canada, TVA, CTV and Global, agreed to develop and provide
the Commission with a plan outlining the concrete actions they would take to
better reflect the presence of cultural and racial minorities and the Aboriginal
peoples in the communities they serve. We are now in the process of examining
their plans.
TVA, CTV and Global also agreed to devise yardsticks to measure their efforts
and to submit annual progress reports detailing their success. These progress
reports will be required for every year of their new licence terms.
TVA, CTV and Global also agreed to participate in, and financially support, an
industry task force on cultural diversity on television.
Cultural diversity task force
Following up on this initiative, this August, the Commission issued a Public
Notice that called upon the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to prepare an
action plan to create a cultural diversity task force. The task force will
consist of representatives of the broadcasting industry and community groups and
will be responsible for examining and finding ways to improve the representation
of Canada's cultural diversity on television.
The task force will submit an action plan to the Commission today, February 15th,
2002. And of special note, the task force will conduct what will be a landmark
study on the state of the representation of cultural diversity on Canadian
television. This study will be crucial as, of course, it's important to know
where we are to assess where we should be instead, and how to get there.
Encouraging diversity on the air waves
That brings me back to you and the importance of input from those of you in
this room. While I cannot point to one regulatory initiative that would overnight
change the face of Canadian broadcasting, gatherings such as these are important
to the process. This is a remarkable gathering of people, many of whom have had
career-long commitments to increasing the diversity of broadcasting both in front
of, and behind, the camera. Your input is essential to the Commission.
Our door is always open and we are always ready to discuss your challenges
which, by the way, are also ours.
Thank you.
- 30 -
Contact: Denis Carmel, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2
Tel.: (819)
997-9403, TDD: (819) 994-0423, Fax: (819) 997-4245
e-Mail:
denis.carmel@crtc.gc.ca
Toll-free # 1-877-249-CRTC (2782)
TDD -
Toll-free # 1-877-909-2782
This document is available in alternative format upon request.
Date Modified: 2002-02-15 |
