Francophone music group loses CanCon case against CRTC

A group representing Francophone and Acadian musicians outside Quebec has lost its court fight against the CRTC. The L'Alliance nationale de l'industrie musicale (ANIM) was seeking damages from the commission for allegedly violating the Official Languages Act (OLA) and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In a September ruling , Federal Court of Canada Justice Nicholas McHaffie also denied a request requiring the CRTC to impose conditions of licence. The case had its genesis in the 2012 renewal of the licence for satellite broadcaster SiriusXM Canada Holdings Inc. The commission ordered the company to contribute 4 per cent of its gross income to Canadian Content Development (CCD) initiatives. A minimum of 20 per cent was to go to Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings (FACTOR), 10 per cent to Fondation Musicaction, and 5 per cent to the Community Radio Fund of Canada. The rest, the discretionary contribution, was to be divided equally among Canadian French-language content initiatives and Canadian English-language content initiatives. At one time FACTOR and Musicaction received equal payments. ANIM charged that the new formula caused a significant negative impact on funding of Francophone CCD initiatives. Alleging a breach of the OLA, the lobby group filed a complaint with the Commissioner of Official Languages (COL). The commissioner released a final report in July 2019, six years after the complaint was filed and one year following the expiry of the SiriusXM license. The COL ruled the ANIM case was unfounded. For its part, the CRTC argued that as an administrative tribunal and court of record it has absolute immunity against claims for damages. Such immunity is not overridden by the OLA or the Charter, it added. Justice McHaffie based his findings on a ruling by the Supreme Court in the case of Ernest v Alberta Energy Regulator. The high court ruled the regulator did not have to pay damages to the plaintiff. “ANIM accepts that Ernst confirms that the CRTC’s quasi-judicial obligations (meaning its adjudicative functions) are at least protected by an immunity and that the OLA does not preclude this immunity,” McHaffie noted. “I agree.” ANIM said the commission did not properly notify Francophone and Acadian minority communities about the SiriusXM licence. This caused harm to the communities, the group alleged. “In my opinion, it is plain and obvious that such allegations are directly related to the CRTC’s adjudicative functions,” the judge wrote. “CRTC decisions and the process that leads to its decisions are at the heart of this tribunal’s quasi-judicial obligations and therefore at the heart of the immunity that renders a remedy of damages ‘inappropriate and unjust’ according to the Ernst analysis.” He also stated the Federal Court could not rule on a Charter challenge as this was the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal. --Reporting by Paul Park and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Francophone music group loses CanCon case against CRTC

Broadcast | November 2, 2021

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Francophone music group loses CanCon case against CRTC

Broadcast | November 2, 2021

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