CRTC hears debate on including a 'cultural element' in new definition of CanCon

What is Canadian content?

Photo: The Canadian Press

A person navigates to the on-line social-media pages of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in Ottawa on Monday, May 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The CRTC is considering whether it should include a "cultural element" in its new definition of Canadian content.

A consumers’ group says having a test that attempts to define who or what is culturally Canadian would be “highly problematic.”

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre says the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission should stick to its current approach, which looks at whether Canadians are employed in key creative positions.

The broadcast regulator has heard from others during its two-week hearing who are in favour of including culture in the modernized definition of CanCon.

The National Film Board has argued that now is the time to include cultural elements in the definition of Canadian content.

It says the lack of a cultural element in the definition could result in harmful long-term consequences and risks erasing "what makes us who we are."