ARCHIVED — Speaking Points — Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages

Speaking Notes for the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages on the occasion of a Press Conference on the Introduction of Copyright Legislation

Montreal, Québec June 2, 2010

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Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the media and friends,

It is a pleasure for me to be here today to speak to you about a subject of concern to me, not only as Minister, but also as a citizen and big fan of cultural property.

These days, Canadians purchase music, visit exhibitions or stay informed on the latest news online, in various formats. We use new technologies, but our laws have not kept pace with technological advances.

In fact, the last time that the Copyright Act was modernized, we were talking about vinyl records and audio cassettes. A personal computer was most often a curiosity and words like "blogger", "tweeter", MP3, iPad and Google were far from being a part of our vocabulary.

Times have changes and the time has come to change our laws.

Last summer, my colleague Minister Clement and I held national consultations on copyright. I was pleased to see the strong participation of Canadian individuals, groups and associations from every corner of the country. They presented us with different points of view and excellent ideas which contributed to our reflection and to our work.

They also asked us to present them with something pertinent and logical so that people like you and I, as well as our content creators, can use a wide range of technologies, from traditional to cutting-edge, in their daily activities.

At the end of this exercise, our government prepared legislation on copyright legislation which will place Canada in the vanguard of the digital economy. The bill that we introduced in the House of Commons today is fair, balanced and relevant in today's technological world. It will benefit all Canadians, creators as well as consumers.

The formula that we are proposing will harmonize copyright legislation with the new technological environment and current international standards. It will protect jobs and encourage the creation of new ones. It will also permit us to promote innovation as well as to attract investors.

Canadian business will profit. For example, the video game sector is experiencing rapid growth right here in Montreal and is directly responsible for creating more than 14,000 jobs across the country and injecting more than $2.2 billion into our economy.

Another example is the arts and culture sector. This sector employs more than 650,000 people across the country. It is also essential to protect these jobs by modernizing our copyright legislation in order to ensure that Canada remains a centre of creativity and innovation.

With today's announcement, we are honouring our commitment to present Canadians with a bill that modernizes the legal framework surrounding copyright while remaining technology neutral.

Our Bill is flexible enough to permit it to adapt to the constantly evolving technological environment. At the same time, it will allow Canadian consumers to legally benefit from digital technology, and allows creators to receive fair compensation for their work.

It will confirm Canada's role as a leader in both content creation and the digital economy.

Thank you.