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View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
I call the meeting to order.
Welcome back, everyone. Welcome to meeting number 47 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted in committee on April 12, 2021, the committee has commenced consideration of the study of fair compensation in the field of educational publishing in Canada.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format. Most of us will be in our own respective virtual rooms, or in the case of Madame Bessette, a virtual environment with a beautiful backdrop. Hopefully you'll get to see that later.
As you know, of course, when you're viewing us from the webcast, the person speaking is the only one you will see on the screen.
Now we get to the crux of the matter. The way this format is going to work is that instead of an hour with each of the witnesses, we're going to have all witnesses. We have six witness groups with us today. We'll carry on. If we need a health break, we'll do that halfway through; nevertheless, we will continue to move on.
I introduce our first witness only because he is not yet with us. He is having a few technical issues. We'll get to him towards the end when he's able to log back on. That would be Bryan Perro, who's a writer, and he's appearing as an individual.
We now go to the organizations. From Access Copyright, we have Roanie Levy, who is the president and chief executive officer; from the Association of Canadian Publishers, Glenn Rollans, who is past president; from the Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers, Sylvia McNicoll, author; from the Writers' Union of Canada, John Degen, who is the executive director; and from Universities Canada, Philip Landon, who is the chief operating officer of that organization.
To our witnesses, we've all had our sound checks and are ready to go. We'll have five minutes of your opening statements, and following that, we'll go to each of the caucuses represented here on our committee.
That said, Ms. Levy, I'm going to start with you. You have up to five minutes to begin.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you very much.
Now we go to Glenn Rollans from the Association of Canadian Publishers.
Mr. Rollans, you have up to five minutes.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you, Mr. Rollans.
We're now going to move on to the Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers. Here is Sylvia McNicoll.
Ms. McNicoll, go ahead, please.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you, Ms. McNicoll.
Now we go to the Writers' Union and John Degen, who is the executive director.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you, Mr. Degen.
We go now to Universities Canada. Philip Landon is the chief operating officer.
You have up to five minutes, sir. Go ahead.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you, Mr. Landon.
Now we go to Mr. Perro, who is our final guest.
Mr. Perro—I hope I've pronounced that correctly—it's nice to see you back online. We're going to do a sound check with you to make sure we can hear you. Just one word—
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
That is much better.
Go ahead, Mr. Perro. You have up to five minutes.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Thank you, Mr. Perro.
I think wishing you happy birthday is in order.
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Oh, was it? Well, happy belated birthday.
Okay, everyone, thank you very much. That ends our testimony from our witnesses' opening statements.
Now we go into questions, and I have a couple of tips for everyone.
We're now on an expanded list of witnesses, as you know. We have all six of them here. Colleagues, it would help us greatly if you could identify who you want to ask your question to, as opposed to saying that you have a question and anybody can answer. That tends to chew up a lot of time and creates a bit of confusion, since we have six witnesses here. You could help me out.
As for our witnesses, now when I give colleagues time of five or six minutes, the time is their own. If you wish to get in on a conversation, you could wave your hand if you wish, or do something of that nature to try to get the attention of the person asking the question. I would ask my colleagues to be aware of that.
We are now going to the Conservatives and Mr. Rayes. Mr. Rayes, you have six minutes.
View Alain Rayes Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to all the witnesses for being here. I'd like to say a special hello to Mr. Perro, my fellow Quebecker.
You listed so many of your achievements and bestsellers. I have three children, and you were my son's favourite author. We have all 15 of your Amos Daragon books at home. Congratulations on your tremendous success. An author from my neck of the woods, Alain Bergeron, whom you no doubt know, also wrote quite a few children's books.
I can attest to the impact your work—and the work of all the creators who are here today—has on young people. Not only does it help them gain language skills, but it also helps them discover the world. The young people who read your books benefit from all that creativity you capture on paper. We all know how important reading is for the acquisition of language skills.
I used to be a high school teacher, as well as a principal at an elementary school and a high school. Unfortunately, I have seen how challenging it can be to ensure copyright rules are respected when staff make copies of material. They aren't necessarily doing it with ill intent, but it just goes to show how important it is to have good regulations and to ensure they are enforced in all schools, to support authors.
Mr. Perro, I will have a question for you, but my first question is for Ms. Levy, from Access Copyright.
As you mentioned, we sent a letter to Mr. Guilbeault. In May 2019, all the political parties took part in a study conducted by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. That was over two years ago. You pointed out that recommendations 18, 20 and 21 could be implemented immediately to help authors.
Can you explain the three recommendations to committee members and those watching us today?
View Alain Rayes Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you.
Ms. Levy, why haven't the recommendations been implemented yet?
We've met before, and I've met with some of the other witnesses here today. It seems to me it would be fairly easy to make that change. We are coming up on two years since the report was released, and we all know how difficult things are for many authors.
Can you tell us what the roadblock might be? There are always two sides to a situation, so there must be a reason why governments are not doing anything about a problem that would be pretty easy to fix.
View Alain Rayes Profile
CPC (QC)
Thank you, Ms. Levy.
I don't have much time left.
I have a question for Mr. Perro, who is an author.
I would think that an unknown author who is just starting out and isn't able to earn a living from their craft would really have no recourse if they were the victim of a copyright infringement. I would think the author would be left to their own devices in navigating the justice system and taking on some big organization.
View Alain Rayes Profile
CPC (QC)
View Scott Simms Profile
Lib. (NL)
Merci.
I provided a little bit of flexibility for our witnesses, but I can't provide too much, as much as I would love to. It's very interesting, though. Thank you.
We will now go to Ms. Ien for six minutes, please.
View Marci Ien Profile
Lib. (ON)
View Marci Ien Profile
2021-06-21 11:47
Mr. Chair, thank you so much, and I send special thanks to our witnesses for joining us here today.
Mr. Degen, I noticed that your hand was up, so I want to give you the floor and then proceed from there. Please feel free to say what you wanted to.
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