US On What Makes A Good Canadian Heritage Minister: Willing To Disappoint Canadians To Please Big Business

from the wow. dept

Fri, Apr 29th 2011 8:12am — Mike Masnick

As a separate followup to the Wikileaks leak showing US influence on Canadian copyright issues, Michael Geist points us to a particularly ridiculous memo from the US embassy in Ontario, discussing the Canadian Heritage Minister at the time (in 2005, Liza Frulla) and her position on licensing for satellite radio, in which they make an observation on what makes a good Canadian Heritage minister:

Canadian Heritage ministers must be strong enough to disappoint that core constituency in order to strike compromises with other departments, primarily Industry Canada.

Yeah, read that again. They must be strong enough to disappoint the people they represent, in order to please big business. US politics at its finest. The same memo notes that Frulla might not be well suited for this role, because she's "too close to cultural-nationalist interests to handle the job effectively." Yes, how dare the Canadian Heritage minister actually care about national culture instead of big business...

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Filed Under: canada, copyright, politics

22 Comments

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Pickle Monger (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 7:17am

All tactics and no strategy...
I seem to recall that in one of the cables released by Wikileaks, an ambassador to Canada complaining in a memo to State Dep't that Canadians appeared to enjoy bashing US... This latest release ain't going to help... :-\
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- Trails (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 9:40am
  
  Re: All tactics and no strategy...
  As a Canadian, this makes more inclined to bash Canadian politicians for not slamming this outright.
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The eejit (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 8:17am

Someone, somewhere, will declare war on American business interests. Mark my words.
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- Christopher (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 9:00am
  
  What do you think piracy is?
  Piracy is the only effective weapon available to corporate disobedience. That, and corporate short-term thinking that will, in the long run, destroy themselves by destroying the middle class.
  
  -C
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fogbugzd (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 8:19am

Wikileaks, the gift that keeps on giving.
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crade (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 8:22am

It's changed a bit, now it's:
"Canadian Heritage ministers must be strong enough to disregard that core constituency"
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Atkray (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 8:31am

So much fail.
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- Jay (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 8:48am
  
  Re:
  Looked up Liza.
  
  She's out of politics for the time being. Still, this can't be good for any endeavors she's currently pursuing once Canada looks at all of it.
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kellythedog (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 9:11am

if this had only been brought forward a couple weeks ago it might have had some influence in the election.
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weneedhelp (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 9:14am

A....... But...... Just........ FACEPALM.
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Prashanth (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 9:50am

Wow
Wow. Just, wow. That's, wow, that's really I can, wow, say upon reading this. Just, wow.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2011 @ 10:01am

Why does every country listen to us? Who the fuck are we? Is Canada concerned we'll invade them if they don't concede to our lobbyists?

We spend 1.5 trillion more a year than we bring in, our economy could collapse at any moment, our leadership is weak, our congressmen and senators are corrupt and are only motivated by 1) money & 2) what can win them re-election, we're fighting 3 wars, 2 of them are endless........ WHO THE FUCK ARE WE?
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- Gwiz (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 10:14am
  
  Re:
  WHO THE FUCK ARE WE?
  
  Simply put:
  
  We are the Romans before the collapse of the Empire.
  
  History has that nasty habit of repeating itself.
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- crade (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 10:19am
  
  Re:
  The U.S. is our military ally, and an important (essential?) trading partner, etc (the list goes on) and certainly we should be taking what is good for the U.S. into consideration with our policy when they ask for our help with stuff even if they don't always ask nicely.
  
  We really should also make sure we aren't being taken advantage of though and take what is good for Canada into account once in a while as well.
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  - Christopher (profile), 30 Apr 2011 @ 2:58am
    
    Re: Re:
    Frankly, 99% of the time what is good for the United States is not good for the rest of the world, excepting our Bill of Rights which every country in the world should adopt.
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Joe Publius (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 10:11am

As a person who believes in the power of competition, I as a US citizen give other nations the permission to tell our government to stuff it* whenever we make a demand that can be reasonably argued as serving our own commercial interests at the expense of your own culture** or commercial interests.

*You may also specify to our government where to stuff it, which direction, and how often.

**May be void if cutltural interests include random violence on unwilling participants, cannibalism, animal cruelty, and/or more episodes of DeGrassi.
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Don, 29 Apr 2011 @ 10:19am

I love Wikileaks. As long as there's no cable on there about me.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2011 @ 10:39am

First they argued that IP laws exist because people want them. Now they argue that IP laws should exist in spite of the fact that people don't want them.
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Apr 2011 @ 6:58pm
  
  Re:
  "Canadian Heritage ministers must be strong enough to disappoint that core constituency in order to strike compromises with other departments, primarily Industry Canada. "
  
  Also, how are these absurd copy protection lengths and penalties in any way a "compromise"? More like a one sided decision.
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  - Christopher (profile), 30 Apr 2011 @ 3:02am
    
    Re: Re:
    Good point. The fact is that copyright lengths should be, at most, 5 years. Any longer than that and you should have gotten your money and gone on towards making your NEXT piece of music or movie.
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drakonis, 29 Apr 2011 @ 1:08pm

Are they retarded?
Why are our (canadian) leaders so stupid and useless.
Why do we vote them in if this is how they fail to lead properly.

This moron wilkins... why isn't he fired, deported, and working in siberia?
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Wayne Borean (profile), 29 Apr 2011 @ 5:52pm

Minor Quible
Mike,

Could you please reword the article so that it's clear that the Canadian government is ignoring Canadian Creators in favor of American Businesses. A lot of people who I know misunderstood the article, and thought you meant the general public.

Yes, the Canadian Government ignored the general public as well. But they betrayed writers and musicians. I know. I are one.

Wayne
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