APTN News is the winner of this year’s RTDNA Canada President’s Award, the highest honour bestowed by the association to acknowledge individuals and organizations who have brought recognition and distinction to electronic and digital journalism in Canada. Darrell Bricker, Ipsos’ Global Chief Executive Officer and Sean Simpson, VP, Public Affairs, received the 2021 RTDNA Bill Hutton Award of Excellence. Formerly known as the “Friend of RTDNA Canada Award” the award was renamed in 2009 to honour the late Bill Hutton, RTDNA Canada’s first president and is given to individuals or organizations who have shown a true commitment to RTDNA and the betterment of journalism in Canada. Find the full list of RTDNA National winners here and its Local News Award winners here.
The Atlantic Journalism Awards (AJAs) have announced the 2020 Gold and Silver winners. Among them, Radio-Canada Acadie in Moncton claimed Best Information News Radio Program for Émission spéciale: la tuerie de Portapique en N.-É., while VOCM St. John’s News at Noon won Best Radio Newscast. Garrett Barry of CBC St. John’s won Best Video Journalist with Best Television News Broadcast resulting in a tie for Gold between Le Téléjournal Acadie Édition (Radio-Canada Acadie) and CBC PEI’s Compass. View/listen to all of the 2020 finalists here.
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) are among 30 signatories to a letter that ran this week as a full-page ad in The Hill Times, Toronto Star and Le Journal de Montréal urging swift passage of Bill C-10. The appeal comes as the Liberals moved to limit committee study of the bill on Monday, which passed 181-147 with support from the Bloc Quebecois. The rare tactic to shut down committee work – that would have seen the bill amended clause-by-clause – hasn’t been used in two decades and comes amid ongoing concerns about Bill C-10’s freedom of speech implications following removal of a clause that exempted user-generated social media content from its purview. In the meantime, ACTRA National has enlisted a raft of Canadian celebrities to endorse its efforts from Kim’s Convenience star Jean Yoon to Murdoch Mysteries’ actor/director Yannick Bisson.
Google has spoken out on what it calls Bill C-10’s “unintended consequences.” “If Bill-C10 rules were to go into effect as currently written, people would be seeing suggestions not based on their personal preferences or even what is most relevant, but what the government decides is ‘Canadian,’” writes Jeanette Patell, Head of Public Policy, YouTube Canada. “The rules around what is considered Canadian content are complex and it is very difficult to qualify. This stands to impact all creators but we are especially concerned about the impact on new and emerging creators as they will be up against players who have been following these rules for decades.” The digital giant also notes that Canadians “punch above their weight” on the platform with over 90% of watch time of Canadian content coming from viewers outside of Canada.
The CRTC is inviting comments until Sept. 1 on whether there is a need for a three-digit number, such as the 9-8-8 three digit code in the U.S., for a national mental health crisis and suicide prevention service. The CRTC is examining the advantages, challenges and costs associated with the deployment of a three-digit number.
CBC/Radio-Canada has unveiled its new 2021–26 environmental strategy, Greening Our Story. The public broadcaster says the five-year plan will see it take a leading role in advancing sustainable production practices in the media industry, actively eliminating waste and carbon emissions from production workflows. Among its commitments are to measure the carbon footprint of 100% of its in-house productions using albert, a tool that calculates the carbon emissions of productions.
