Industry Committee on May 31st, 2018

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

You have this crown copyright in your archive. Someone comes along and says, “I'd like to access it”, and it's a big to-do for you because—

[Nancy Marrelli]

You can access it in our reading rooms.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

If they physically come....

[Nancy Marrelli]

Exactly.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

If they don't physically show up, you're effectively making a copy. Is that it?

[Nancy Marrelli]

We want to digitize a lot of these materials—

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Oh, you want to digitize them.

[Nancy Marrelli]

—because they have historical interest.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Okay. If it's not digitized.... I see.

[Nancy Marrelli]

We can't digitize it and put it on the Internet without permission.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

You don't have the right.

[Nancy Marrelli]

And it has to go document by document.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I see.

[Nancy Marrelli]

If you want to digitize a folder, which might include 5,000 documents, you have to go document by document to get the permission.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

If I understand it, your archives, the people you represent, have crown copyright documents.

[Nancy Marrelli]

Most archives in Canada do have crown copyright.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

They'll have these crown copyright documents. They will be physical documents, a book, say.

[Nancy Marrelli]

Right. It could be a letter from an MP to a—

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

If someone wants to see that letter from an MP, they have the right to show up and say, “Show it to me”—

[Nancy Marrelli]

Yes.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

—but you don't have the right to copy it and put it out there.

[Nancy Marrelli]

That's right.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Even if you wanted to put it out there, you'd have to physically go through every piece to get it....

[Nancy Marrelli]

Yes, and if the researcher wants to use the material, they have to get permission from the department.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Each department, too.... It's not even centralized.