If you’re struggling to participate in the CRTC consultation on defining Canadian content, Open Media has your back on that one.
Back in November, Canadian regulator, the CRTC, launched a consultation on defining what is and is not Canadian content. The consultation is continuing on until January 20th, so you still have time to put in your two cents. The thing is, if you look at the consultation pages, it’s… well… let’s just say I’m glad I chose to be an English major to buzz saw my way through the copious amounts of text and make a submission. That skill really came in handy for me.
For those who are familiar with the CRTC consultation process, this is sometimes referred to as the barbed wire approach to consultation. The goal, as far as some are concerned, is to discourage ordinary Canadians from participating while keeping the handful of elites into the loop. This while pretending to be open to the public and saying, “Hey, we’ve consulted with Canadian’s and this is what we heard” after. It’s a pretty bad and, arguably, corrupt system to keep ordinary Canadian’s out of the process.
Lucky for Canadian’s, however, one organization is finding a way to simplify the process. Open Media is offering a survey to make it as simple as possible to have your voice heard at the CRTC. The survey can be found here and asks a series of questions – some of which can be optional. I didn’t submit my answers because I already made a formal submission to the CRTC, but in my test run, I found it to be quite easy. Many of the questions are multiple choice and feature optional questions where you can type out your thoughts on a given topic.
I know it’s easy compared to the alternative because it took me about 3 days of work to craft my response (and that’s going at a pretty good pace, all things considered). The survey, however, took me all of maybe 15 minutes or so (and that’s with filling out the text fields that were optional anyway).
While a fully customized response is probably preferred here, this survey is very easily the next best thing. If you aren’t going to be crafting a fully referenced multi-page response, then definitely consider the Open Media instead. It’s honestly the second best thing you can do. After all, the alternative is saying nothing at all and letting the large corporations decide on a more uncontested basis. Given what I know about the debate, I can safely say that is about the last thing Canadian’s want.
Again, submissions are due on the 20th, so you’ll want to get your submission in sooner rather than later.
