Status of the Artist

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What is Status of the Artist and what should be done about it?

In 1980 Canada signed on to a UNESCO declaration committing signatories to improve the socio-economic situation of artists, principally by enabling artists' professional organizations to bargain collectively with producers and publishers on payment and working conditions.

Today Canada has SotA legislation in the federal sphere, but most artists' contracts fall under provincial statutes and regulations. Quebec (two laws: here and here) and Saskatchewan are the only provinces that currently have SotA legislation in place. For more detail on the state of affairs in Canada, have a look at the report jointly sponsored by the CCC and DAMIC, on The Working Conditions of Creators in Québec and Canada.

Ontario is committed to introducing SotA legislation, and consultations are going forward actively.

Most member organizations of the Creators' Copyright Coalition have submitted briefs to the Ontario government and to Aaron Milrad, the government's advisor on this subject. We present several of those briefs here as PDF files.

Briefs on Status of the Artist
submitted to the Government of Ontario