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The letter to the editor I sent to the Hill times was too long, so Kate Malloy (Editor) did her magic and published: We need to move ‘broadcasting’ and ‘copyright’ from Canadian Heritage, to Innovation, Science and Economic Development: McOrmond   The following is the unedited version with hyperlinks added. I've been active in related areas of policy since the 1990's, so have watched the damage caused by the Department of Canadian Heritage (created in 1993 and given royal assent in 1995). This is a department whose Minister was granted jurisdiction over "Canadian identity and values, cultural development, heritage and areas of natural or historical significance to the nation" (from 4(1) of An Act to establish the Department of Canadian Heritage). Department of Canadian Heritage Act (S.C. 1995, c. 11) The departmental mandate includes Official Colonial Languages. Given what I have finally learned since the start of 2020 about what the Governments of Canada continue to...

This week's NS 115 class and reading has, yet again, forced me into thinking in a new way. I wanted to share some of those thoughts and possibly get some feedback and/or discussion. The first theme was multiculturalism.  It came up in the lecture, but also a thread that Dr. Kim TallBear posted to twitter prior to the lecture.   when we are told to simply trust SCIENCE---"LET THE SCIENCE SPEAK"--are we supposed to ignore that science has been built on the bodies of the marginalized with little regard for our agency & capacity to consent? are libs truly this ignorant of their colonial foundation? — Kim TallBear (@KimTallBear) January 23, 2021 To put the thinking in my own words, multiculturalism in a Canadian sense allows diversity in those spaces which are not predetermined by the systems of Canada.  Dr. Tallbear regularly talks of the collaboration between Church, State, and Science. As a British subsidiary, the laws of Canada were adopted from British laws, and all...

This afternoon, on unceded Anishinabe Algonquin territory currently the subject of treaty negotiation, a British colonial ceremony was held. With parliament only retaining British tradition, we were reminded by a "speech from the throne" that to this day the settler-state doesn't fully recognize the two groups who make up Canada: European colonialists/settlers and the peoples who had already been here for thousands of years. As I read the text of the Speech from the Throne I noticed a few themes. I could easily put them under an overall headline of the continuation of narrowly harnessing European world views to attempt to further public policy goals. A  romanticization of over 150 years of the members of our European settler-state parliament dealing with challenges, with no recognition or harnessing of the experiences of the peoples who were already here for thousands of years. The continuation of the European entitlements vs responsibility world view around rights, whic...

At the end of June I joined a twitter thread started by George Soros where he referenced a short podcast essay he made about rethinking debt.   Inheritance is also a key part of systemic racism, allowing those whose wealth was gained off the (often whipped) backs of others to be perpetuated intergenerationally. So much of failed economic policy is tied to counterproductive cultural entitlements. — Russell McOrmond (@russellmcormond) June 30, 2020   While the thread was short, it touched upon some interesting ideas I wanted to expand upon. Read outside your echo chamber One person suggested that my comment came from within an echo chamber. In fact, what I wrote is what it sounds like when someone of European descent (ancestors primarily indigenous to Ireland) finally exits the Eurocentric echo chamber. Persons of European descent often imply that economic discussions are linear thinking between the theories of two Europeans: Scottish Adam Smith (Capitalism, 1700's) and German ...

On Page 8 of the July 27, 2020 issue of The Hill Times, a letter I submitted was published. Re: “Forty-nine days of racism in the news,” (The Hill Times, July 13, by Rose LeMay). Racism isn’t merely a matter of an individual person having a conscious dislike of another individual or a group. To quote Dr. Robin Diangelo, racism is “a default system that institutionalizes an unequal distribution of resources and power between white people and people of colour. This system is historic, taken for granted, deeply embedded, and it works to the benefit of whites.” While most people will focus on the present, I would like to suggest we fix a historical injustice. Under Canada’s British Westminster parliamentary system, we never adopted an equivalent of their House of Lords, or their Upper House. The House of Lords developed from the “Great Council” that advised the king. When Europeans came to Turtle Island there were already people here with their own traditions and governance. When a new go...

I checked Federal Budget 2018 for new support of Canadian content creators.  What I found under the title of "INVESTING IN CANADIAN CONTENT" ( Chapter 4 ) is disappointing, as it is media creation that continues the conflict of interest tie with the broadcast sector. The CMF receives funding contributions from the Government of Canada, but it advertises as also receiving "contributions" from Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors (Broadcast Distribution Undertakings, or BDUs).  CMF contributions are mandated by the CRTC, shouldn't be thought of as donations, and BDUs shouldn't be "thanked" for actually paying what they owe. CMF contributions should be thought of as a highly justifiable tax on BDUs as compensation to the public for the right-of-way and other privileges which BDUs have been granted by multiple levels of governments.  The CMF contributions page should only list the Government of Canada, with special taxes collected from BDU...

CBC runs InCanada , an "online" Canadian Media Panel. I put "online" in quotations because while the panel is online, the CBC's broadcaster bias is always visible in how they ask questions. The latest survey is no exception. The survey was essentially about Alias Grace , a Canadian-American miniseries that will air on CBC on September 25, 2017, and on Netflix on November 3, 2017. The survey typically conflates Netflix with broadcasters, when Netflix is not a broadcaster . This is about as nonsensical as confusing a radio station with a record store when discussing music, and yet the legacy broadcasters continue to try to push this nonsense. I sometimes make the comparison to the difference between an outhouse and indoor plumbing: Like broadcasting, people made use of outhouses before modern conveniences like indoor plumbing came along. And like indoor plumbing, people aren't likely to want to go backwards once they get used to online streaming. While outhous...

When the current Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly suggested that someone saying " Without culture, nobody would be on the internet" was thoughtful, and possibly even a new idea, I became aware that this is a area of policy that is new for Ms Joly. We now see a new campaign aimed at the Minister called Focus On Creators launched by several associations which has a similar message the Minister may not have a context for. While I am an author of software and non-software works, and in my policy analysis and activism I always have a Focus on Creators, I do not agree that all the groups who are promoting this campaign have that same focus.  All too often representatives of these groups claim the interests of some intermediary is synonymous with the interests of a group of creators, and are focused on that intermediary.   Technology giveth, and technology taketh away It is normal technological and societal progress that new technology disrupts old technology, as well as the busines...

In response to articles discussing an advertisement free CBC , I had the following to say: #DigiCanCon @howardalaw I would rather that money went to distribution mechanism neutral content creation: #CBC via #Netflix #GooglePlay etc — Russell McOrmond (@russellmcormond) November 29, 2016 When I was asked to elaborate, I realized I need to give context as most people in the content industry do not think the same way as I do as a system administrators with decades of experience in the technology industry. The layered approach to communications technology 4134   COMMISSIONER DENTON: Mr. McOrmond, interesting brief. I see it is informed by an internet idea of the world. 4135   So in your preferred solution then there would be essentially some kind of bandwidth to the house, whether wired or wireless, it would be part of a municipal infrastructure such as sewage or water, and applications would float on top of that or through it. 4136   ...

While many participants in the "Canadian Content in a Digital World" consultations are focused on funding issues, real support is needed from the Minister of Canadian Heritage and the Department of Canadian Heritage to reduce barriers that exist between Canadian creators and their potential audiences. While some people would prefer we all sit down and watched broadcast television like we did in the old days, the industry is moving forward in ways I discussed earlier in Canadian Content Creators harmed when Netflix claimed to be a "broadcaster" . I noted how people are moving to online content libraries away from broadcasting. While this is a major improvement over broadcasting, there are still barriers between creators and their potential audiences. While I can hope the Minister and Department will help, I also ask that they do no further harm. A number of policies that have been proposed previously, as well as some brought up during the consultations, put up more b...