News

“A victory for culture, a victory for Canadian ownership”

OTTAWA -- The Federal Court has effectively restored the foreign

ownership restrictions of Canada’s Telecommunications Act by quashing

the federal government’s decision to licence foreign-owned wireless

telecom Globalive.



“The Federal Court has said that Cabinet is not above the law,” says the

President of Canada’s largest telecommunications union, Dave Coles.

“If Stephen Harper and his Cabinet want to change the Telecommunication

Act, they have to have the guts to go before Parliament,” he said,

noting that “the decision says ‘Cabinet mis-drected itself in law’.”

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP),

ACTRA, and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were intervenors in the case.



In December 2009, the federal government granted a wireless license to

Globalive, a company backed by Egypt’s Orascom, overturning an earlier

decision to block the permit by Canada’s broadcast regulator. The

Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission had rejected the

application on the grounds it violated rules banning foreign control of

the sector.



“Overturning the Cabinet decision is a victory for Canadian ownership

rules and a victory for Canadian culture,” said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s

National Executive Director. “Globalive was potentially the beginning of

the end of our foreign ownership laws, we’re ecstatic that the courts

have stopped the train in its tracks.”



The cultural coalition had intervened on the same side as Telus and

Public Mobile in opposing the government’s decision. However, they were

the only ones to bring cultural concerns to the table, asserting that

telecommunication companies have a responsibility under the

Telecommunications Act to strengthen and safeguard Canadian cultural

sovereignty.



Increasing convergence between telecom and broadcasting has made the

need to maintain Canadian-ownership of both even more acute. In the few

months since the cultural groups were granted standing in this case two

major telecommunications companies have converged with broadcasters –

Shaw with CanWest, and BCE with CTVglobemedia.

                                   

“Foreign ownership was a looming threat to our entire communications

industry, our ability to control our media and to protect our culture,”

added Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the Friends of Canadian

Broadcasting. “The federal court’s assertion that our foreign ownership

rules matter has brought a sigh of relief across our entire industry.”



For more information:

Dave Coles

613 299-5628



and



Carol Taverner

ACTRA Public Relations Officer

416-644-1519, ctaverner@actra.ca, cell: (416)768-3336