Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Mr. Louis, for the question. Briefly about the Quebec situation, it was AQPM, the producers organization in Quebec, that negotiated an agreement. I believe it was under the provincial status of the artist act in Quebec. Whichever is the case, they have an agreement wi

Canadian Heritage committee  Again, because of my colleague's legal background, I would like John Rowley to respond if he would.

Canadian Heritage committee  If I may, my counterpart has a legal background. If he would, I would like him to answer that question.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much.

Canadian Heritage committee  At the time a piece of music is composed, under the Copyright Act in Canada, the composer is the sole owner of that copyright. When we negotiate our deals with independent producers, there is an imbalance of power—we have to face it here—and in that negotiation, they are frequen

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, there are other composers, and they do essentially.... It's a take-it-or-leave-it proposition for some members of the CMPA. We should be clear here: This is not all media producers by any stretch, but it's increasingly common that they're exerting that pressure. We have had

Canadian Heritage committee  That is essentially it.

Canadian Heritage committee  We first approached CMPA through the DGC, who is present here today, in a sort of partnership back in 2015. I forgot to thank you for your question. I'm sorry. At the time, we were told there was simply no appetite on the part of CMPA for including composers in the agreement.

Canadian Heritage committee  I appreciate your thoughts and couldn't agree more. I could never have imagined I'd be appearing before a heritage committee to talk about this, but over time it's become clear that there just isn't the interest on their part. Because of the slight unclarity in the act—and this

Canadian Heritage committee  We have on multiple occasions requested that CMPA sit down in good faith to negotiate the type of scale agreement that the Status of the Artist Act makes possible, and that CMPA has negotiated with every other organization that represents creative and technical contributors to fi

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the committee, it is my distinct pleasure to appear before you today to discuss the Status of the Artist Act. My name is John Welsman. I'm president of the Screen Composers Guild of Canada. With me is John Rowley, vice-president of the SCGC. SCG