Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to present a petition on behalf of over 100 Canadians. The recent commercial television and radio decision of the copyright board retroactively reduced the royalties of Canadian music creators and adopted the American practice of forcing individual music composers to negotiate directly with large broadcasting corporations. By adopting the American scheme the copyright board has failed to respect parliament's longstanding commitment to the collective administration of the copyright of Canadian creators.
The petitioners request that parliament strongly reaffirm this commitment and that the Minister of Industry immediately appoint a judge to chair the copyright board and respect parliament's intent that the board be a competent and objective quasi-judicial tribunal.