Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
My first comment will be for Mr. McAvity. Earlier you said that the exhibition right had nothing to do with the copyright bill. That's no doubt because we have a very different approach, in English and in French. While, in English, we talk about a copyright bill, a bill on the right to copy, copyright, in French, we talk about a bill on copyright and creators. The difference between the approaches lies in large part in the way the bill is named. In a bill on copyright, the exhibition right makes sense because it is the right of authors of visual works to be compensated when their exhibition is made public. I simply wanted to emphasize that point of view.
Similarly, our approach is also very different from that of the Federation of Students. Reading between the lines of their brief, we see that they believe there is also a user right, whereas the creation always belongs to its creator. Creators can assign certain rights from time to time, a little or a lot, but the creator's fundamental right is that the creation always belongs to him, and he has the right to refuse to allow it to be made public, as was seen in the case of Gilles Vigneault during the Vancouver Olympic Games. I don't know whether you followed that affair in the newspapers, but he refused to allow his song to be sung in tribute to Canada, since his song Mon pays is a tribute to Quebec. So he refused, and it was his right to do so, because his creation belongs to him. That's a first case.
Now I want to talk essentially about artists' resale rights. You say you don't agree on resale rights. And yet 59 countries around the world have adopted that right, some of them nearly 100 years ago. To my knowledge, those countries, most of them European, nevertheless have a very profitable and vibrant art market.
You also mentioned that you're afraid this proposal might benefit only a very small number of well-known artists, not those who really need greater support. Incidentally, for those who really need greater support, the Department of Canadian Heritage has a range of subsidy programs. The Government of Quebec also has some. You said that benefited a very small number of artists.
Even if it only benefits a small number, why would you refuse to allow those artists to have a share in the prosperity generated by their renown and popularity?