Federal election kits highlight relevant cultural issues

Thursday, October 15, 2015

How can the culturally aware prepare for their rendez-vous with the ballot box on October 19?

Two national arts and culture organizations have released election primers that offer some help.

The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC)

TWUC’s election kit highlights three cultural issues it deems most significant for the current federal-election campaign. Among them is a call for an immediate review of the Copyright Modernization Act, which passed in 2012. The rationale behind this decision is primarily due to the ongoing concern expressed by Canadian creators and publishers over the education sector’s interpretation of the new education “fair dealing” exception. This has led the majority of Canadian universities, colleges and school boards outside Quebec to adopt “fair dealing” content use guidelines that set out what can be copied without compensation to creators and publishers. 

The Canadian Arts Coalition

The Canadian Arts Coalition has also released an election primer for October 19 that focuses on five cultural issues, including increasing financial support of the Canadian Council for the Arts, providing more international opportunities for Canadian artists as well as encouraging the creation and distribution of digital content and so forth.

Its election tool-kit is comprehensive and includes everything from responses from the main federal political parties to a questionnaire sent to them from the Coalition, ways to use social media this campaign as well as tips on hosting an election-debate party.