Source : Cablecaster

OTTAWA - At a conference yesterday, a group of unions, actors and Canadian cultural nationalists pledged to fight any government moves towards increasing the levels of foreign ownership of Canadian media and telecom companies.

Canadian cable and telecom companies, along with some broadcasters, have long been lobbying for relaxing the rules on foreign investment in their companies, saying that maintaining the current level of restrictions on foreign ownership (which maxes out at about 47%) hinders the growth prospects of their respective businesses.

Increasingly, the federal government has been sending signals that it is sympathetic to the wishes of the telecom and cable companies, although it's far from clear if restrictions would be lifted for broadcasters.

Citing a poll of 2,000 Canadians it commissioned in December 2003 (click here for more detail on the poll), the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union said yesterday at a press conference that "most Canadians support the maintenance of controls on the foreign ownership of our media and telecommunications companies and an almost equal number will vote for the politician who supports that position," reads its press release.

The poll results were released during a day-long conference looking at the status of foreign ownership in the broadcast and telecommunications sectors.

The conference was attended by representatives of CEP, l'Union des Artistes, ACTRA, the Council of Canadians, the Telecommunications Workers Union, Société des Auteurs de Radio, Télévision et Cinéma, the Directors Guild of Canada, the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, the Canadian Conference of the Arts and l'Association des réalisateurs et réalisatrice du Québec.

"The group agreed to mount a co-ordinated campaign to keep the media and telecommunications sectors in Canadian hands," said its communiqué, since, "two thirds of Canadians strongly support the maintenance of existing foreign control regulations and 57% are prepared to back their opinion up with their vote in the next election," added Peter Murdoch, media vice-president of the 150,000-member CEP, quoting the poll results.

The conference also heard from NDP leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois MP Christiane Gagnon that those two parties are in favour of maintaining existing regulations on foreign ownership.

"The Chrétien Cabinet came out in support of the lifting of foreign ownership regulations while (Prime Minister Paul) Martin has remained coy. We want him to end any uncertainty by declaring now that Canada and our communications infrastructure is not for sale," said Murdoch.

© Cablecaster Magazine

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