If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Regulate ‘Em

“Armed with colour-coded charts that show an embarrassingly small amount of truly Canadian programming on TV or Canadian feature films in our theatres, [two prominent Canadian actor-directors] lambasted the federal government yesterday for doing next to nothing to support or promote Canadian culture.” The union representing workers in the Canadian film and TV industries is demanding that Ottawa institute new regulations which would more or less require cinemas, video stores, and television networks to devote a certain percentage of their space to homegrown content. CanCon laws, as they are known, have been on the books for decades, but the regulations have been loosened in recent years, just as many see the threat of creeping Americanism growing stronger.