[Advisors] Fwd: Advisory: Petition to Members of Parliament for Community Access Media Fund

[Marita Moll]

Hello all.  Below is a petition CACTUS wants to get into the House of 
Commons under the new rules (see below).  But before you look at it, 
allow me to offer a brief prelude.

I went to the community media conference that was held in early December 
and funded through a SSHRC grant (Carleton journalism department) for 
community participation and organized mainly by CACTUS (Canadian 
Association of Community Television Users and Stations). I considered 
carefully the lengthy discussions on this list re: community media 
before I went to this conference.  So thanks for helping me keep on the 
right track.

It was a good conference and well attended. I met 2 CRTC directors there 
-- Peter Menzies, Vice-chair and Raj Shoan from Ontario who were not 
speaking, but listening.  Commissioners, at the moment, are eager to get 
out and listen to the community. This is quite a new development.

However, as a group of community media organizations, CAP sites (as 
community media organizations) had NO presence in this conference -- 
although they should have.  I still think that community access sites 
(CAP) have a stronger presence in Canadian communities than community 
cable. There was a large contingent from the on-line gaming community as 
new representatives of community media. Had there been a desire to do 
so, TC could have assisted in the 2-year process that led up to this 
conference. There were people funded from across the country to attend. 
There had already been a substantial survey of community media 
organizations/users. Would be nice to know if anyone here heard about 
this and participated. A similiar survey of CAP sites was done under the 
CRACIN project a few years ago.  But the opportunity for sharing our 
extensive studies and experience was already past. Perhaps I shouldn't 
gripe -- I was invited to chair a panel -- but it was late in the day -- 
well after I had already registered, indicating my intention to attend.

Safe to say this community has either fallen off the map totally, or are 
seen as competition. I didn't participate in the policy part of this 
process as was my intention.  This it was just coming from a completely 
different place, more of a traditional media place (despite the gamers) 
and it was too late in the process to really make a difference. I could 
not find a comfortable fit.

CACTUS has its own agenda (not to be confused with the conference agenda 
which included other groups).  CACTUS is proposing around 200 major 
media sharing centers be set up around the country to meet community 
media needs -- a far too centralized model for my liking.

Nevertheless, the petition below mostly just raises the issue that there 
are funds at the CRTC for community media. The basic "ask" in this 
petition might still fit within the CAP  frame: THEREFORE we call upon 
Parliament to i) re-affirm the role of community media and the need for 
regulatory and financial support to ensure a diversified and robust 
Canadian media system and ii) specifically to direct the $130 million 
collected by cable companies to a Community-Access Media Fund to enable 
not-for-profit community media organizations to deliver multi-platform 
digital media skills training and distribution of community-generated 
media.​

All CAP sites are not-for-profit community media organizations after 
all.  So, what do you think -- would this be a petition you could sign 
on behalf of your community media organization.

CAP sites should really start flexing some muscle to let people out 
there know that community access sites, in their various forms and 
styles are alive and well. The process at the CRTC is long and arduous.  
Getting access to any fund will take years.  Maybe start a petition to 
get community access sites directly on the federal agenda. Could it get 
500 signatures?

  Marita

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Advisory: Petition to Members of Parliament for Community 
Access Media Fund
Date: 	Wed, 16 Dec 2015 09:39:58 -0500
From: 	Cathy Edwards <cathy at timescape.ca>
To: 	Cathy Edwards <cathy at timescape.ca>
CC: 	Kirsten Kozolanka <Kirsten.Kozolanka at carleton.ca>



Dear ComMedia 2015 attendee,
(une version francaise de ce courriel suivra sous peu... en traduction)

For those of you who attended the Nov. 24th day-long policy forum and 
attended the presentation made by CACTUS regarding a proposal to 
establish a Community-Access Media Fund to provide stable operational 
funding for community media, you may be interested to support the 
petition by CACTUS member Sid Tan of Vancouver, below.  (Sid presented 
at the conference in the Multiplatform Distribution panel.)
A new piece of legislation went into effect last week whereby any 
e-petition that garners at least 500 electronic signatures and is backed 
by an MP will be presented on the floor of the House of Commons.  Sid's 
intent is that this petition be presented during January, prior to the 
CRTC's review of community and local television.  (Under previous 
legislation, citizens had to collect at least 500 hard-copy petitions.)
As the policy forum participants seemed universally to support the 
concept and need for such a fund, we thought you might like to know 
about the petition and to have the opportunity to 'cast your vote'.  
Clifford Lincoln's advice to CACTUS on Nov. 24th was that the solution 
to the financial challenges facing community media lie with politicians, 
and that the CRTC will not act in isolation.
https://www.change.org/p/members-of-parliament-create-a-community-media-access-fund-for-diversified-robust-canadian-media
Kind regards and best wishes for the holiday season.  It is a season of 
hope and renewal!
(BTW, we have obtained copies of videos of the conference panels, which 
will be posted soon we hope.  They are in the process of being 
compressed for the web.  Please also send us your presentation if you 
have not already done so.  We have received many requests for them... in 
particular to assist individuals preparing for the upcoming CRTC hearing.)
Cathy Edwards
Conference Co-ordinator
ComMedia 2015


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