Full Comment Forum: Without CanCon, would there still be Rush?

18.05.12

Lorne Gunter in Edmonton: I’m with Marni. Even if it could be shown that CanCon rules had some positive impact on the development of Canadian talent by protecting it from foreign competition, on a philosophical level the rules were always wrong, wrong, wrong. Why on Earth should a government commission (the CRTC) have any role in deciding what free adults choose to listen to on the radio or watch on television, especially in an era of hundreds of channels and limitless “radio” services online and via satellite? CanCon’s affront to freedom has always been greater than the “need” to develop a homegrown cultural industry. I used to joke that if ever I were elected PM, my first act upon hearing that the CBC decision desk had declared my government elected would be to call the chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) and tell him to clear out his and his staff’s offices. Then I’d order in the wrecking balls, level the building and pour salt in its foundations (the ancient preventative against the recurrence of a plague). Of all the arrogant, meddling institutions created during the Trudeau era to re-engineer Canadian society, the CRTC was the most arrogant and meddlesome. Thankfully, it has grown far less so over the decades, but why should it have any say on the content of our airwaves or the information on the Internet. (The CRTC hasn’t, as yet, devised a way to regulate the Internet, but it regularly tries to find ways. And the attempts themselves are indicative of its lack of philosophical commitment to free expression.)

Source: National Post