Thank you, Mr. Chair.
On behalf of our 26 post-secondary institutions across Canada, representing over 300,000 students, we'd like to thank you and the members of the committee for inviting CASA here today.
We come before you to bring your attention to the importance of creating education as a new category of fair dealing. The inclusion of education as fair dealing is viewed by our membership as one of the most important changes the Government of Canada can make through Bill C-32.
The importance of an education fair dealing right cannot be understated. Our neighbour universities and colleges in the Unites States are able to capitalize on their fair use education right to drive innovation, but the growing reality for Canadian post-secondary institutions is that they are being financially and legislatively left behind.
If this category is not created, students will be getting double-charged, sometimes triple-charged, for access to materials they've paid for through a variety of fees collected, whether they be through collective licensing, library, or tuition fees.
Licensing collectives, such as Access Copyright, are looking to expand their scope beyond photocopying, to include fees for digital copies of already purchased articles, quotations in PowerPoints, and even to colleagues sharing texts over mail.
Beyond that, the economic argument for a more liberal fair dealing regime is clear. Modern tech-heavy creative industries in the United States rely on fair use to find innovative ways to generate more wealth and income for their country. Studies point to the fact that this fair use economy amounts to 17% of the U.S. GPD, and education forms a significant proportion of that in direct contributions and training for future contributors.
If Canada seriously wants to be a 21st century leader in innovative sectors, the U.S. example shows liberalizing fair dealing must be a cornerstone. Simply, we must allow access for the sake of education or sit by and watch our competitors pass us by.
However, as it is currently drafted, the educational fair dealing right is not enshrined as a true right but as a secondary right that can be overwritten by a digital lock. Creating a balance in the bill is important, and digital locks have their role, but allowing them to override fair dealing undermines the very concept of fair dealing. If a work has a digital lock, a copyright holder can limit any use of it. And fair dealing means there can be no inherent limit of the purpose, if the purpose is just.
This is more restrictive than the copyright regime in the United States and goes beyond Canada's obligation under international treaties. If we are to take fair dealing seriously, it needs to be a true right and it needs to not be trumped by a digital lock.
There are also two further amendments to the bill that CASA is proposing. The first is an amendment requiring libraries to self-destruct articles they lend through interlibrary loans. Students have two options when taking on such an article: either print one copy of it on paper, or let them destruct five days after receipt.
This clause undermines the way modern study operates. The benefits to digital articles are immense. They can be carried everywhere, organized in new ways, volumes can be searched in seconds, and citations can be automated. By requiring students to physically print out these articles, the law would actively bring education research back into the 20th century, at a loss to all Canadians.
The second amendment requires professors and students to destroy their course materials 30 days after the end of the course. This is absurd. In the 21st century, students are taught to be information gatherers and synthesizers who can find the information that exists in the world and bring it together in a way that generates new and original knowledge.
Tests that were once closed-book in the 20th century are now open-book in the 21st. Requiring students to destroy the information they've built their skills on after the course is over is to force them to take an open-book test without the book, to build a house without their hammers, when they enter the workforce. It's needless and it doesn't impact the bottom line of rights holders.
Because students gained access to these lessons in an economically fair manner in the first place, if the cost of an education doesn't carry with it the ability to use that education in the workforce, I ask: what are students paying for?
Thank you, Mr. Chair.