- Patrick Campbell/Staff Photographer
Sheila Copps, Canadian Heritage Minister.
Erica James-King, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE CANADIAN government is hanging tough in defence of its Investment Act, which stipulates that no overseas-based company can have majority shares in any Canadian-based newspaper or media operation.
According to the Canadian Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, her government has no plans at this time to amend the Canadian Investment Act. However, the Canadian government is willing to facilitate the forging of partnerships between The Gleaner Company and Canadian entities.
The Canadian Heritage Minister, under whose portfolio the communication industry falls, is insisting that the Act guarantees the protection of Canadian companies and the Canadian public, from the proliferation of overseas cultural norms and overseas domination in the media.
"Forty years ago in television and newspapers we were getting drowned by strictly American material. So we have passed a law that said, if you distribute in newspapers or television or in the areas of cultural diversity, you have to have a Canadian partner," explained the Minister in an interview with The Gleaner Wednesday.
Explaining that the legislation is a powerful safeguard to the Canadian people, Ms. Copps added: "In the law right now, an American company could not come in and buy out a Canadian newspaper and that's how we have protected our own voices."
IMPACT NEGATIVELY
Although the Act impacts negatively on publications like the Canada Extra, a free newspaper targetting Caribbean nationals, published and owned by The Gleaner Company NA Inc., the Canadian Minister said that her government cannot give concessions to The Gleaner Company in this matter. "The way it works now under NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) and the World Trade Organisation - if we give a preference to one, then we get taken to court by the other. So what we have to do is obviously not cut out the voices, but at the same time make sure that we do not open the door to wholesale takeover of all the Canadian newspapers, television and radio."
She is of the view that concessions to The Gleaner Company or any company in the Commonwealth region would set a wrong precedence to many American companies that have tried to challenge the laws governing the media and book industry in Canada.
Knocking the "overarching dominance of the American culture which is everywhere", the woman at the helm of the Canadian Heritage Ministry said: "Time life (an American company) are trying to come into Canada and they have already taken us to court. They took us to the WTO over our magazine policy because we give preferential treatment to Canadian magazines."
In the meantime, the Canadian Heritage Ministry re-emphasised that it is willing to facilitate the forging of partnerships between the Gleaner Company and Canadian entities.
"They (The Gleaner) put in an application and were turned down... you have to have a Canadian partner to make it happen," said Ms. Copps. "So what we have suggested to The Gleaner is to get a Canadian partner."
Further elaborating on her commitment to facilitate The Gleaner, Ms. Copps said: "I think our department has been working with the publisher (of The Gleaner) in securing Canadian partners so that he can meet the objectives and at the same time reach his target audience, which is Jamaican-Canadian."
The Canadian Heritage Minister said her ministry is working with The Gleaner Company to encourage the survival of the Canada Extra, without going the route of concessions. "Obviously, The Gleaner is not going to overtake Canada, but the principle is to say, we need to have Canadian partnership in voices and that includes phone, television and newspapers."
Ms. Copps was speaking in an interview with The Gleaner at Half Moon Hotel in Montego Bay, prior to the official opening of the Commonwealth Games Federation Assembly.
The Canada Extra is a free publication targetting persons of Jamaican and West Indian parentage and the publication started in December last year. The Gleaner Company (NA) Inc., which was registered in Ontario in 1990, is the publisher of Canada Extra.
LOBBYING
For over 11 months, The Gleaner Company (NA) Inc. has been lobbying the Canadian government to reconsider its policy regarding foreign ownership of newspapers, in the interest of "the principles of free trade and a free press."
The Gleaner Company points out that it has already satisfied a 'net benefit' test to which media houses are subjected and the requirements already fulfilled include:
Ensuring that economic benefits accrue to Canada
Ensuring that there is a high level of Canadian participation in the media product. The Gleaner states "all of our employees are Canadian residents or citizens and all the contributors to Canada Extra are Canadians."
However, The Gleaner Company (NA) Inc. could be asked at any time to cease publication of the Canada Extra, if there are no changes to the Canadian Investment Act.
In the meantime, the discussions between The Gleaner Company (NA) Inc. and the Canadian Heritage Ministry are continuing.
