Good evening. My name's Pierre-Michel Tremblay.
For over 30 years, I've been writing for theatre, television, comedy shows and, to a lesser degree, movies. The first fields mentioned already keep me fairly busy. Over those 30-some-odd years, I've often practiced my art by means of a copyright. When we write a project that doesn't yet exist in the public space, that generates very little income. It's the works that are circulated and disseminated that help create future income, partly through copyrights. If I'm here speaking to you this evening, it's because I feel it's essential to remind the government that creators need a copyright law that protects them, that ensures that they can continue to create, despite the upheavals caused by the advent of digital. That's what creators expect from the review of the act.
Imagine a profession where, for more than 30 years, a professional saw almost no improvement in the increase of income. That seems unthinkable for the vast majority of professionals and, yet, that's what my author colleagues and I are experiencing. Worse still, our income from our rights have fallen since the modernization of the act in 2012 that, in particular, recognized a range of copyright exceptions, including certain educational institutions, that thus deprived authors of pay that was to come from the use of their works. The review that is underway must be used to correct the situation so that the act does what it's supposed to do, namely protect authors and given them the means to continue creating and thus contribute to Quebec and Canada's internationally recognized culture.
Thank you for listening to me.