| |
April 29, 2009: Request for Proposals
Professional Writers Association of Canada (PWAC) would like to present the entire Canadian magazine writing and publishing industry with a strategic set of best practices to ensure the strength and continuity of our important cultural industry. Round table discussions will take a specific focus on digital issues, payment, rights and responsibilities of all players. A comprehensive Best Practices document will be written, vetted and printed for the entire industry, branded with the names of all partner associations and the Canada Magazine Fund.
The Professional Writers Association of Canada requests proposals from any interested consultant regarding PWAC?s Magazine Industry Task Force Project, Phase Two: Round Table Task Force Meetings and Best Practices Document. This a joint project between Canadian magazine industry partners PWAC, Magazines Canada and the Canadian Society of Magazine Editors. It will be administered by PWAC, with the intention of creating a Canadian magazine industry best practices document outlining the various roles and responsibilities of all partners, and how we can all work together for the benefit of Canadian culture and our own industry. This project follows naturally from PWAC?s 2006 Canadian Professional Writers Survey Report and 2008 Magazine Industry Task Force Survey Report.
The Industry Consultation and Report involves the following tasks:
1. Meet with Task Force partners to discuss Phase One report in depth and to strategize best practices.
2. Facilitate the initial series of round table meetings in major publishing centers: most likely Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
3. Consultant to write up best practices from results of three meetings.
4. Meet with Industry representatives to vet best practices document.
5. Create final document for industry partners.
Desirable qualities: communications expertise; negotiation and/or mediation experience; maturity, subtlety, diplomacy.
Timeline for completion of all tasks and the delivery of report (including editing): June 15, 2009 to March 31, 2010
Compensation: Please calculate an estimated total cost for this project and include it in your proposal.
PWAC will not necessarily select the lowest bid on this project. All applicants will be considered, but preference will be given to professional consultants with demonstrated knowledge of the Canadian magazine industry and labour relations. Compensation will be commensurate with experience and based on the proposal.
Please send all proposals by May 18, 2009 to:
David Johnston, Executive Director
Professional Writers Association of Canada
215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 123
Toronto ON M5T 2C7
Electronic proposals may be sent to djohnston@pwac.ca.
To view this RFP as a PDF, click here.
April 29, 2009: Update from Access Copyright Regarding the Google Books Settlement
On April
28, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New
York, which is overseeing the Google Books Settlement, extended the
opt-out deadline from May 5, 2009 to September 4, 2009. The extended
opt-out deadline is the new date by which class members must decide
whether to remain in the settlement class and receive the benefits of
the settlement, object to the settlement, or opt out of the settlement.
Please refer to PWAC's Blog for more details about the Google Books Settlement.
The final fairness hearing in the class action has also been rescheduled from June 11, 2009 to October 7, 2009.
All
other deadlines in the case remain the same, including May 5, 2009 as
the date on or before which a book must have been scanned in order to
be entitled to a cash payment.
Online claims-filing and detailed information about the settlement are available here.
Access
Copyright will continue to update creators with information on the
Google Books Settlement as it becomes available. If you have any
general questions, please contact Access Copyright at (416) 868-1620
(or toll-free at 1-800-893-5777) or by email.
April 24, 2009: PWAC Member Ron Chepesiuk Awarded Prestigious Fulbright Scholarship
PWAC Northwestern Ontario member Ron Chepesiuk has received his second appointment as a Fulbright Scholar. Lake Superior news reports:
-------------------------
Thunder Bay-born award-winning author and journalist Ron Chepesiuk, currently living in South Carolina, has been awarded the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to Indonesia. From September 2009 to June 2010, Ron will be the Visiting Professor of Journalism in Jakarta at Indonesia's largest university. He will also be teaching workshops for Indonesia's working journalists.
-------------------------
Chepesiuk previously served as a Fulbright Scholar in 2003 at Chittagong University in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Read more about the Fulbright Scholarship here.
April 23, 2009: PWAC Member Nominations for the 2009 National Magazine Awards
Nominations for the 32nd Annual National Magazine Awards were announced yesterday. You can read the complete list of nominees here and purchase tickets online. Come to The Carlu on June 5, 2009 to celebrate excellence in Canadian Magazines with PWAC and other industry partners!
PWAC is pleased to announce that there are 4 PWAC members with nominations:
PWAC Guelph member Amy Baskin in the "Service: Health & Family" category for her article "Empty Nest Envy" in More. Read Amy's article here.
Also in the "Service: Health & Family" category, PWAC Toronto member Lisa Bendall for her article "Dating for Boomers with Baggage" in Carp. Read Lisa's article here.
PWAC Quebec member Alex Roslin in the "Investigative Reporting" category for his article "The Pill Pushers" in Georgia Straight. Read Alex's article here.
PWAC Quebec member and Regional Director Craig Silverman in the "Humor" category for his article "My Life in Dépanneurs" in Maisonneuve. Read Craig's article here.
PWAC congratulates and thanks all members for their contributions to Canadian magazine writing over the past year.
April 15, 2009: Quebec Superior Court Judge Gives Green Light to Class Action over Electronic Reproduction Rights
PWAC is very pleased to see that the Electronic Rights Defense Committee (ERDC), to which we have added our enthusiastic support in their efforts to protect creators' rights, has made significant progress in their class action suit. Please refer to the following press release from ERDC for the details.
David Johnston
Executive Director
-------------------------
Quebec Superior Court Judge Gives Green Light to Class Action over Electronic Reproduction Rights After more than a decade, the Electronic Rights Defence Committee has received authorization from Quebec Superior Court to proceed with a class action suit against some of the biggest names in Canadian media. At issue is the electronic use without permission or compensation for work by freelance writers in The Gazette. The defendants are Montreal Gazette Group, CanWest Global Communications, Hollinger Canadian Publishing Holdings, CanWest Interactive, Southam and Southam Business Communications, Infomart Dialog and Cedrom-SNI. In February 2008, the Honourable Eva Petras, J.S.C., heard three days of arguments from Mireille Goulet, ERDC lawyer, and a team of lawyers representing the defendants. The Justice's decision was rendered March 31, 2009. It authorizes the ERDC to institute class action proceedings with writer and translator David Homel as its official designated member. The class action group includes all freelance writers whose articles, originally published in The Gazette, have been allegedly illegally reproduced on the Infomart data base since 1984. The next steps will lead toward a trial on the merits of the case, a process which may take several years to reach a conclusion. The ERDC case is one of several in North America seeking compensation for unauthorized electronic use of freelance writers' work. In October 2007, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled five to four in the Heather Robertson vs. Thomson case that freelancers do indeed hold copyright on their work reproduced in electronic data bases. The US$ 18-million class action settlement in the United States which followed from the Tasini vs. New York Times case is currently before the US Supreme Court which has agreed to decide whether a lower court has jurisdiction to approve settlement agreements. The Association des journalists indépendants du Québec is also currently in the process of undertaking a class action against several Quebec medias. For more information: Mary Soderstrom
ERDC President
(514) 276 - 9257 David Homel
ERDC Class Representative
(514) 288 - 6690
April 02, 2009: Save the CBC
The
following letter was sent to James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage
(with copies to the Prime Minister and Minister of Finance) asking them
to reconsider their disastrous treatment of the CBC. PWAC encourages you to contact your Premier, the relevant Ministers and MPs and
make your voice heard.
There is also an online "Save the CBC"
petition circulating that you might want to sign. In the last 3 days,
55,358 Canadians have signed it. To learn more, visit the petition here.
David Johnston
Executive Director
-------------------------
The Honourable James Moore
Minister of Canadian Heritage
Jules Leger Building
15 Eddy Street, 12th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec K1A 0M5
Dear Minister Moore,
We
are writing of behalf of the Professional Writers Association of Canada
to express our dismay over the recent cuts to Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation's funding and the government's unwillingness to provide a
bridging loan to cover the shortfall in CBC's finances. This lack of
support has resulted in the CBC's cutting 8% of its staff, the
cancellation or reduction of television and radio programming, and the
loss of local content that the private broadcasters do not supply.
The
CBC and its programming are a vital part of Canada's culture and
national identity. In a recent Nanos poll close to two-thirds of
Canadians felt that public investment in the CBC is a good use of their
money. Clearly, your government's lack of support for our national
public broadcaster is not in keeping with its constituents' desires.
At
a time when the government is considering bailouts for the auto
industry and possible assistance to private media companies like
CanWest Global and CTV Globemedia, it is unconscionable that the CBC is
being forced to suffer. Over 800 jobs will be lost at the CBC (not to
mention a substantial number of writing and production jobs in the
private filmmaking industry). This is not the kind of stimulus our
economy and cultural workers need.
PWAC urges you, Minister
Moore, and your government to revisit its recent decisions regarding
the CBC, restore its funding and provide the financial assistance that
the CBC and its viewers desperately need.
PWAC, established in 1976, is the national organization representing over 600 freelance writers and journalists across Canada.
We thank you for your consideration and continued support of Canadian culture.
Sincerely,
Tanya Gulliver
President
David Johnston
Executive Director
cc: The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada and The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance
| |
