Video — Keynote speech by Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, at the National Culture Summit: The Future of Arts, Culture and Heritage in Canada - NAC, Ottawa, May 3, 2022
The dialogue alternates between English and French throughout the video. For a translation when the dialogue switches languages, select the cc (closed captioning) button on the video player.
Transcript of Keynote speech by Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, at the National Culture Summit: The Future of Arts, Culture and Heritage in Canada - NAC, Ottawa, May 3, 2022
Video length: 18:17
[♪ Music – The National Culture Summit branding appears. Text on screen: National Culture Summit: The future of arts, culture and heritage in Canada]
And now, it's our pleasure to welcome the Honorable Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez.
Hello, everyone.
[Translated from French] We’re finally here together. I said it last night, Sorry! I also said that the pandemic has been rough, really rough. Especially for those of you in the culture industry. I’d like to thank you very much for being here today.
[Translated from French] And thank you, Christopher. Thank you to the entire National Arts Centre team for hosting us for such a long-awaited summit.
[Translated from French] You know, when I talk about the importance of arts and culture, I often say: Imagine one day without art and culture. Just one day. I know I’m preaching to the choir. But just for a moment, immerse yourself in this day with no art or culture. No books, no newspapers, no magazines. No movies: not on TV, not on tablets. No going out to museums, the theatre or the library. No music either. Nothing.
[Translated from French] It would be boring, right? Not just boring. It would be sad. Infinitely sad and cold.
[Translated from French] It wouldn’t be us, it wouldn’t be human, it wouldn’t be us. Because our culture is us: it’s our stories, our songs, our past, our present, our future, and the way we talk to each other. And it’s also how we understand the world around us.
[Translated from French] One of the reasons I care so much about culture is because of my personal history. You know, when my family and I arrived in Canada as political refugees from Argentina, I spoke neither English nor French. Some people tell me I still have work to do. I spoke only Spanish. But it was through culture, through music, through films, books, television that I learned the language, that I integrated into our society, that I fell in love with our country.
So, guys, let me share a little secret here. But don’t tell anyone, okay, just between us. So, after the last election, I asked the Prime Minister to come back to heritage and he said, yeah? Yeah, I said, yeah! He said, yeah? Yeah! Okay. And he said, why? Okay, it didn’t happen exactly that way, but he said, why? I said because it’s the best job in Canada. I want to go back because I care about culture. Because I care about the commitments we made in our platform. Our commitment to modernize and increase funding to the Media Fund, to Telefilm. Our commitments to deliver on our promises to support our artists, our creators. And we will deliver on those commitments.
I care about the arts. I care about our culture. I care about heritage. And I care about Canadian stories, just like you all do. But how we find and share our stories is changing. The world is changing. It has been changing and it keeps changing. And you say, okay, that’s a cliché. It is a cliché, but it’s still true. And the digital revolution is changing our lives. And it’s definitely changing the way we create and consume culture. And you guys know this better than anyone else. Better than anyone else. And that’s what I really want to talk to you about today. This morning.
So how do all types of culture flourish in this digital revolution? There are so many topics we’re going to touch on throughout the summit, but I want to stop here for a second and talk about it because technology is transforming the way you do what you do. And while you are in the middle of the change and trying to keep up and adapt, you are also at the heart of absolutely incredible opportunities. Now, think about it for a minute. At the beginning of the pandemic, you were the first to learn how to do things differently. You were the first ones. And with the guiding principle of bringing us together and sharing our stories, that’s exactly what you did throughout the pandemic. Every day, you found ways to use platforms and digital technology to showcase your work and share these stories. And you found ways to share access to your collections, your exhibitions, and your performances with audiences across the country, but also across the world.
Now, I know there are some real challenges and the transition to doing things virtually was not necessarily easy. It was expensive, difficult, but you guys did it and you were able to bring us together when we had to stay apart. That’s almost a miracle. It’s amazing what you guys were able to do. Now, the question really becomes, how do we continue to harness this digital revolution and protect our culture at the same time? Now, let’s remember, Canada’s strong culture is no accident. We made that call. We made that decision. We chose to be different. We chose to be different from our neighbours to the south. We chose our culture sovereignty. We made that decision. We made that choice with the Massey Commission 70 years ago, and again 50 years ago with the Broadcasting Act. And now, we’re at a turning point in this digital revolution and we need to act. Because what happens online influences what happens everywhere else, on our stages, at festivals, in our museums, public libraries, in the streets, communities, here in Canada and across the world.
[Translated from French] So, if we are asked whether we want to defend our culture so that it flourishes or whether we just want to leave it be, the answer is obvious. We will never let this happen; we will always protect our culture.
Let’s go back a little bit. Let’s rewind, like we used to do with our cassettes back then.
[Translated from French] With the growth of the Internet and the innovations of the 90s and 2000s, our whole life, our whole society has opened up. It has been a huge change. The potential for connectivity, productivity and growth has become exponential. So, let’s remember how back then, when all of this was happening and continuing to happen, we thought that the Internet would bring incredible opportunities for our economy, for our democracy, for our creativity, to connect us. And we were right. The Internet offers all these opportunities. But the digital revolution has also brought its share of challenges. And the pandemic has given a big boost to digital.
[Translated from French] More than ever, we see disinformation campaigns. Every day we see injustice, harmful online content, a polarized society, public confidence in our institutions plummeting.
[Translated from French] Again, we have a choice. Do nothing or take action. Take action and decide what values – our values that are so important to us – to factor into our decisions as a society.
[Translated from French] Solidarity, equity, social justice, responsibility, compassion: these are fundamental values for all of us and each of us. And it is these values that guide the three bills that support our culture in the digital age, while protecting Canadians. And you’re familiar with these bills.
[Translated from French] The first, well known, is C-11, the Online Streaming Act, for platforms to contribute to the creation and distribution of Canadian works. Then, C-18, the Online News Act, which is especially important on this World Press Freedom Day, so that platforms that use news from our news media share their revenues with them. It’s simply a question of justice and equity. And our future bill on online security that we are working on, to have safe and respectful spaces online, while respecting, and this is very important, freedom of expression. We also want to amend the Copyright Act to better support our educational book publishers. That is also extremely important to us.
So, at the end of the day, our goal, with this legislation, is to make the Internet fairer, more inclusive, more competitive, safer for all Canadians. Now, do we have all the answers? Absolutely not, we don’t. We don’t. But that’s why we need to have a thoughtful and constructive debate and we’ll have that debate also in the next few days. And freedom of expression is fundamental, it’s always at the heart of everything we do, and we will always welcome all ideas that bring us closer to a just and inclusive digital society. So, we have to put all those things together.
Now, a bit earlier I said that solidarity, fairness, responsibility, compassion are values at the heart of our decisions. Decisions that will affect the future. Now, again, we have a choice. We can leave it up to big tech. And they say (inaudible) this very respectfully and the global digital platforms. Or challenge them to be better, to be more accountable to the public interest, to us, as citizens, and also to us as a society. Platforms have enormous power. And with enormous power comes enormous responsibility. Now, if our online experiences are largely governed by those tech giants, should they not be held to some level of public oversight and accountability? I think that’s a fair question.
Now, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were used to support really important causes. Remember Idle No More, Me Too, Black Lives Matter? And when Russia invaded Ukraine, platforms like YouTube have blocked channels like RT. Now, while we agree with this as progressive, what happens if a platform makes a decision, or a series of decisions that goes against the public interest due to the impulses of the people who control it, whether it’s intentional or not. What happens? And this is an issue that former President Barack Obama recently spoke about at the Cyber Policy Centre at Stanford University. He said, Obama, and I’ll quote him, “Just like every other industry that has a big impact on our society, that means these big platforms need to be subject to some level of public oversight and regulation.” Obama is convinced that it is possible to preserve this transformative power and promise of the open Internet when at least mitigating the worst part of its harms. And finally, he said that platforms need to find the right combination of regulation and industry standards that will make democracy stronger.
Well, I think we can all agree with President Obama on this one, well many other (inaudible) things too, in my case, but definitely on this one. And right now, platforms operate according to their own rules. But we can choose to hold them more accountable through a framework that serves the public. Now, we’re not inventing anything here, it’s based on our values and a choice we made over 50 years ago for. For more than half a century, the CRTC has been doing extensive work on culture policy ensuring that Canadians have access to diverse Canadian content on different platforms, and by regulating more than 2000 broadcasters on radio and on television. They’ve been doing that. But in 2022, today, our system should take into account online streaming. It has to.
[Translated from French] And businesses like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney are already investing in the economy. They invest a lot, and we love it.
Guys, keep investing, we love it.
[Translated from French] But we’d like to do a little more together. You know, we’re happy that they choose to produce their projects here in Canada, and they do it for many reasons, but one of the reasons is that we have incredible talent here at home, because in many cases we are among the best in the world.
[Translated from French] So, as I said earlier, I think that by working together we can do a little more together for our Canadian cultural sector. But to do that, well, it takes a level playing field for everyone. And that’s one of the first things I said when I was first appointed Minister in 2018, and I still say it today: There is one basic rule: if you benefit from the system, you must contribute to the system. Period.
Now, I’ve heard concerns about the modernizing of the broadcasting framework. One example is the CRTC, but this could apply to other institutions. Some critics argue that the CRTC is not responsive to consumers and creators, that it lacks the expertise and resources to deal with the new legislation that is there in front of us. Basically, they say that the CRTC doesn’t get the Internet; and I hear those concerns. I hear these concerns and, to be honest, government and technology hasn’t always worked together so well. Definitely not. But let’s not forget that the CRTC has a long history of supporting Canadian culture and they’ve done a lot of great things. Now, this is new territory. It is new territory not only for us here in Canada but across the world. New territory for us, but the CRTC has more expertise than anyone else in this and we’re going to work with them to make sure that they have what they need to deliver. That they get all the resources they may need. And we want to make sure that we have a modern regulator, and that’s an absolute priority.
It’s time, I would say, to modernize our cultural institution, to modernize the sector in a way that it is open to new ideas and new ways of doing things. And I want to be clear, this also includes modernizing Canadian content. There’s a lot of work ahead of us guys, together, all of us.
[Translated from French] I’ve talked a lot today about the role of technology, but obviously that’s not the only thing we’re going to discuss over the next few days. There are so many other fundamental things to discuss. We’re going to talk about the Canadian cultural experience, the one offered by our orchestras, our theatres, our operas, our museums, our libraries, our festivals. It’s this experience that gives value to our lives; it’s this experience that gives us a sense of joy and beauty in life.
And I’m really looking forward to hearing from you, all of you, at this summit. And we have some fundamentally important questions to answer. For example, how do we grow and remain competitive in the long term? How do we bring audiences back and engage new ones? How can we position these sectors as mirrors of social change?
[Translated from French] How can we make our culture shine internationally, and also, how can our institutions (inaudible), like museums and art galleries, continue to feed our curiosity and be at the forefront of progress?
[Translated from French] So, I want to hear from everyone. I want to hear your vision for our arts, our culture, our heritage.
And I’ll be sticking here guys, I’m not going anywhere. I told the boss that I’m not going to Parliament, so they have to find someone else for Question Period. I’m staying here. So, if you see me in the corridor, come and see me, it’s always a pleasure to talk to you. I want to talk to all of you.
And I know that we’re not going to solve everything at this summit, but man, am I excited to get into these conversations. So, thank you so much for being here.
[Translated from French] Thank you very much. Enjoy the summit!
[♪ Music – The National Culture Summit branding appears. Text on screen: National Culture Summit: The future of arts, culture and heritage in Canada.]
[The Canada Wordmark appears.]
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