They cross Quebec’s borders every year by the thousands. They threaten Quebec’s language and culture. It is a great replacement that is taking place on our screens and in the music we listen to. Yes, you will have understood, I am talking about American and foreign cultural content which occupies a growing space in our cultural consumption!
The immigrant will have been the useful enemy of the Quebec identity during the election. It’s always easier to attack someone smaller than yourself. However, it would have been wiser to tackle something bigger than yourself. To attack the platforms and algorithms of the giants of the Web, which concretely threaten our ability to share a common identity. The most powerful levers of action to see and name us collectively, and in all our diversity, are in the hands of GAFAM and not of immigrants.
While in Quebec, our radio stations have a legal obligation to broadcast a minimum of 55% French-language music during prime time, French-language Quebec works represent only 6% of listening on the most popular platforms. A culture that is not consumed is a culture that is dying. Our artists, who are struggling to make ends meet, would benefit from campaigning for a reappropriation of our ability to name ourselves collectively by improving the accessibility and discoverability of their works on all online platforms.
However, Quebec politicians have a long tradition of defending Quebec’s cultural sovereignty when new technologies came to shake up the way we consume information. In 1929, Taschereau’s Liberal government attempted to control broadcasting. In the 1970s, Robert Bourassa attempted to regulate cable television. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court ruled each time that telecommunications fell under federal jurisdiction.
Cultural sovereignty
Robert Bourassa used to say that common sense dictates that an English-speaking majority should not be entrusted with ensuring the cultural security of a French-speaking minority. This is why he promoted the principle of cultural sovereignty according to which the State of Quebec should aspire to be the sole implementer of cultural policies on its territory.
In its “new project for Quebec nationalists”, the CAQ mentions its desire to strengthen Quebec’s powers in the area of culture. However, it failed to defend the cultural sovereignty of Quebec against the giants of the Web. However, it had the opportunity to claim more powers in the context of federal Bill C-11 which is currently before the Senate and which aims to update the Broadcasting Act to better regulate the giants of the Web.
The Broadcasting Act works quite simply. It establishes a Canadian Broadcasting Policy that sets out in fairly broad terms what the Canadian broadcasting ecosystem should aspire to and delegates broad regulatory and decision-making powers to an administrative body (the CRTC). It is CRTC decisions and policies, such as setting quotas, setting tariffs and issuing operating licenses, that form the basis of communications law in Canada.
Although the federal Parliament is prohibited from purely and simply delegating its telecommunications powers to a province, Canadian federalism allows regulatory powers to be delegated to an administrative body reporting to a provincial parliament. This is called the oblique delegation of competence.
Lack of ambition
Thus, to advance the Quebec vision of cultural sovereignty in a spirit of cooperative federalism, the Government of Quebec could simply have asked to recognize in the Canadian Broadcasting Policy that the existence of the Quebec nation calls for a distinct implementation cultural policies on its territory by empowering the federal government to delegate its powers to a provincial administrative body (a form of CRTC Quebec) which will exercise in Quebec the powers of oversight of broadcasting in place of the federal CRTC.
With this approach, the CAQ could have moved Quebec forward on the path to cultural sovereignty within the federal framework to improve its control of Web platforms for the benefit of our artists. We would therefore no longer have to worry about the bilingualism of the president of the CRTC or the maintenance of French-language music quotas, since the body responsible for making policy would be more connected to the needs and reality of the Quebec cultural scene. The main threat to the Quebec identity for the CAQ is unfortunately immigration and not the giants of the Web or the hold of the federal government on our culture.
Bill C-11 will likely improve the situation. In particular, it amends the Canadian Broadcasting Policy by recognizing that “French- and English-language broadcasting, despite certain points in common, differ in terms of their operating conditions, in particular the minority context of French in North America”. To be satisfied with such progress, however, is to be satisfied, as Robert Bourassa feared, with entrusting an English-speaking majority with the task of ensuring the cultural security of a French-speaking minority. It is sorely lacking in ambition for Quebec.