Mr. Speaker, I have three sets of petitions to present. The first petition is signed by 59 Canadians who are concerned about the Copyright Board and the recent decision of the Copyright Board concerning commercial television royalties which will retroactively reduce the royalties of Canadian music creators and adopt the American practice of enforcing individual music composers to negotiate directly with large broadcasting corporations.
The petitioners are requesting that parliament strongly affirm this commitment: That the Minister of Industry immediately appoint a judge to chair the Copyright Board in respect of parliament's intent that the board be competent and objective as a quasi-judicial tribunal.