Over the past few months, Access Copyright has worked with a small group of authors to test out a book mailing campaign to push Prime Minister Trudeau and the federal government to reform the Copyright Act so that Canadian creators and publishers are paid for the use of their work by the education sector.

 

You may have seen authors such as Sylvia McNicoll, Robert Rotenberg and Amy Stuart on social media sharing that they mailed one of their books as well as personal letter to the PM.

 

Many of the authors who have taken part have received letters back from the PM’s office confirming their mailing were getting through and thanking them for sharing their work with the Prime Minister.

 

With that welcome news, it is now time to take this campaign to the next level.

 

That’s where we hope you will get involved.

 

It’s all part of an effort to bring to Ottawa’s attention the urgent need to address the education fair dealing exception, which has resulted in much of the education sector refusing to pay approximately $150 million in royalties for educational copying.

 

The federal government plans to introduce a bill later this year to update the Copyright Act to address its obligations under Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement to extend the term of copyright protection. They are also in the process of conducting a series of consultations around various aspects of copyright law which will inform additional the amendments to the Act. At this time, the government has not indicated any intention to address the harm caused by the education fair dealing exception.

 

This is deeply concerning as our creative sector has been dealing with the impact of this issue for almost a decade now. That’s why we are asking you to join this campaign today and share your work and your thoughts on what it means to be a Canadian creator with the PM, and why the federal government needs to take action to fix fair dealing.

 

Here is how you can get involved  

 

Mail one of your books to Prime Minister Trudeau: Who better than you to share a Canadian story with the PM? Along with a book, include a personal note to him describing what trying to build a living as a professional writer looks like in Canada. How do you make ends meet? What sacrifices do you have to make? How has the loss of royalties from the education sector affected you? The mailing address is:

 

Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, P.C. , M.P.
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

 

Share your mailing on social media: Before you mail out your book, please take a picture and post it to your social media platforms, with an explanation of why you are sending your book to the PM—for example, “I mailed my latest book to Prime Minister Trudeau to remind him what supporting Canadian creators really means.” It’s important that Canadians see the faces behind our stories and their rich diversity.

 

Here is how to make your message heard

 

  • Tag Prime Minister Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau), Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault (@s_guilbeault) and Innovation, Science and Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne (@FP_Champagne).
  • Use the hashtags #IValueCdnStories & #cdnpoli.
  • Tag our organization as well as Access Copyright (@AccessCopyright) and I Value Canadian Stories (Twitter: @valuecdnstories; Facebook: @IValueCanadianStories; Instagram: @ivaluecanadianstories).
  • Please email editor@accesscopyright.ca to let us know you have mailed a book to the Prime Minister.
     

Encourage others to get involved: Help build the momentum by encouraging others in your network to take part.

 

Amplify what others are doing: Share posts related to the campaign. Just search for #IValueCdnStories on Twitter, Instagram, on Facebook and then RT, share, like and comment away!

 

Have questions? We’re here to help. Email Access Copyright at editor@accesscopyright.ca.