Adidas Canada set to release limited edition of Terry Fox's iconic runners to mark 45th anniversary of Marathon of Hope
But no shoe is more iconic in Canadian culture than the Orion, popularized by Terry Fox during his 1980 marathon across the country, a heroic trek that raised tens of millions of dollars and inspired several generations of Canadians.
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The Province
an hour ago
- The Province
Point Roberts festival organizers sing worried tune amid Canadian border boycotts
Canadian musicians who put on Point Roberts festival say their home is a 'ghost town.' The Whiskeydicks have performed at the strings and things festival in Point Roberts. Mike Bell Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The organizers behind a small music festival in Washington state are worried by Canadians boycotting travel to the U.S. The Point Roberts Strings and Things International Music Festival, which is set to take place on July 12, sold out its inaugural 600-person capacity event in 2024. Organized by Point Roberts-based accounts manager Breeda Desmond and musician Mike Bell, the first year of the self-funded festival featured a dozen musicians. Eleven of those artists, including Bell, were Canadian. 'We managed to get four acts out of 11 musicians and it went great,' said Bell. 'We began working on Year 2 right after and were contacted by the local chamber of commerce who were really interested in getting something going. Given its unique location locked behind the Canadian border, we really feel that this close-knit community may be the most welcoming to Canadians in the U.S.' Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Following the success of last year's event, Bell and Desmond secured US$30,000 funding from Whatcom Country Tourism, as well as four other sponsors, to expand the event to accommodate 2,000-plus attendees. Twenty-five musicians performing in six different acts, including Juno Award-winners the Paperboys, are secured for this year's roster. The festival also increased its staffing and infrastructure in anticipation for a larger event. 'We had a good idea of how to get those numbers and where to get them, but the shift in rhetoric from the Trump administration really led to palpable shifts in the area,' Desmond says. Although they sold the same amount of tickets via an early bird presale as the total ticket sales for last year's event, organizers say they registered a 'noticeable dip' in interest when the 51st state rhetoric began. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'We had targeted advertising in places like Tsawwassen getting results, but recently we have heard from people concerned about the border crossing, fearing being detained and so on,' Desmond says. 'We haven't heard of that happening at our border crossing, but we also can't make any assurances either.' A 'uniquely vulnerable' destination that's only accessible by land through Canada, Point Roberts has been the subject of much conversation amid the tariff turmoil. The New York Times published a feature on the town on June 15 headlined How a Tiny Community Got Caught Up in Trump's Attacks on Canada. Noting that the previously busy area has seen an almost 30 per cent drop in entry from the previous year, with businesses such as the local supermarket reporting a 20 per cent drop in sales, the NYT article featured some regular visitors who stated they will not return until there is a regime change in the White House. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. These aren't the kinds of words local retailers, or the Strings and Things festival organizers, want to hear. Desmond, who is originally from Ireland, and Bell, who was born in Prince Rupert, were previously working and living in Los Angeles. Bell is a member of the well-established touring Vancouver folk act the Whiskeydicks, as well as fronting prog rockers the Living Orchestra. The Living Orchestra includes Mike Bell, left. Judy Chee 'Moving to Point Bob was a kind of hack for us to get closer to one set of family, as well as for Mike to stay connected to the Vancouver music scene he has been so entrenched in,' said Desmond. 'Putting together the festival followed a market test during COVID where Mike met the other members of the Whiskeydicks who came to the Tsawwassen side of the border and they did a gig outside. Locals were totally stoked, so we did that for three years in a row.' Having built up this tradition, the idea of creating a festival with the Whiskeydicks and the Living Orchestra came up. A reported 70 per cent Canadian ownership of homes in Point Roberts and many nearby communities lacking a music festival reinforced the idea. Neither Desmond nor Bell think that this year's event won't happen as ticket sales are steady enough to insure a break-even. But the future remains uncertain. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'This year isn't at stake, but our long-term plans to extend it over two days and make it more of a Canadian-American event is at stake,' said Desmond. 'Even with the funding, the investment in a bigger infrastructure is something we have to take into account for future events.' U.S. government support for arts events is another lingering question, they note. 'There is concern about the cutting in funding across the board for blue states and how that could impact us,' said Bell. 'The local chamber of commerce has also raised concerns about this moving forward. It all comes down to whether the Canadians who come down here for the summer arrive as usual.' This year's lineup includes the Paperboys, the Whiskeydicks, the Living Orchestra, Gabriel (The Red Fiddler)' Wheaton, Canadian/American bluegrass crew Bordergrass Alliance, and banjo ace Quattlebaum. The festival runs July 12 from 2 to 10 p.m. at Point Roberts Marina and tickets start at $37.25. For more information, visit stringsandthingsmusicfestival. sderdeyn@ Read More Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances. Vancouver Canucks Vancouver Canucks Opinion Local News News
Canada Standard
7 hours ago
- Canada Standard
Deepika Padukone becomes first Indian to be honoured with Hollywood Walk of Fame star
Los Angeles [US], July 3 (ANI): It's a proud moment for India as Deepika Padukone has been chosen as a recipient of prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame star in the coming year. On Wednesday, Deepika's name along with other renowned personalities from the worlds of recordings, motion pictures, television, live theater/live performance and sports entertainment, were announced at a live press conference from Ovation Hollywood, Billboard reported. Miley Cyrus, Timothee Chalamet, Hollywood actress Emily Blunt, French actress Cotillard, Canadian actress Rachel McAdams, Italian actor Franco Nero, and celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay will also be honoured with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Deepika's fans have been going gaga ever since the news broke out. Notably, in 2017, Deepika made her Hollywood debut 'xXx: Return Of Xander Cage'. She has also been featured in TIME's 100 most influential people list and Variety's International Women's Impact Report. She has also made remarkable appearances at the Cannes Film Festival and Met Gala in previous years. The honorees were selected by the Walk of Fame selection panel of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce from 'hundreds' of nominations at a meeting on June 20. The selections were ratified by the Chamber's board of directors on June 25. 'We are excited to announce the newest selections of 35 esteemed individuals who will be enshrined on the Walk of Fame as part of the prestigious Class of 2026,' Peter Roth, former CEO of Warner Bros. Television and chairman of the Walk of Fame selection committee, said in a statement. 'These talented individuals have made significant contributions to the world of entertainment, and we are thrilled to honour them with this well-deserved recognition.' (ANI)
Canada Standard
7 hours ago
- Canada Standard
How do we define Canadian content? Debates will shape how creatives make a living
What should count as Canadian content (CanCon) in the era of streaming and generative AI (GenAI)? That's the biggest unknown at the heart of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's recent (CRTC) public hearing, held in Gatineau, Que., from May 14 to 27. The debate is about how Canada's current points-based CanCon system remains effective in the context of global streaming giants and generative AI. Shows qualify as CanCon by assigning value to roles like director, screenwriter and lead actors being Canadian. The outcome will shape who gets to tell Canadian stories and what those stories are, and also which ones count as Canadian under the law. This, in turn, will determine who in the film and television industries can access funding, tax credits and visibility on streaming services. It will also determine which Canadian productions big streamers like Netflix will invest in under their Online Streaming Act obligations. The federal government's recent announcement that it's rescinding the Digital Services Tax reveals the limits of Canada's leverage over Big Tech, underscoring the significance of CanCon rules as parameters around how streaming giants contribute meaningfully to the country's creative industries. The CRTC's existing approach to defining CanCon relies on the citizenship of key creative personnel. The National Film Board argued that this misses the "cultural elements" of Canadian storytelling. These include cultural expression, narrative themes and connection to Canadian audiences. That is, a production might technically count as CanCon by hiring Canadians, without feeling particularly "Canadian." It's worth noting there are varied global regulatory frameworks for defining film nationality. The Writers Guild of Canada supports the CRTC's view that cultural elements shouldn't be part of CanCon certification, and argues that attempting to further codify cultural criteria risks reducing Canadian identity to superficial symbols like maple leaves or hockey sticks, and could exclude entire genres like sci-fi or fantasy. The Writers Guild of Canada argues that while Canadians should expect to see cultural elements in programming, the concept of "Canadianness" is too broad and subjective to be effectively regulated. Cultural elements are regulated by the 1991 Broadcasting Act as amended by the 2023 Online Streaming Act. Broadcasters and streamers must reflect Canadian stories, identities and cultural expressions. Read more: How the Online Streaming Act will support Canadian content The acts empower broadcasters and streamers to decide which Canadian stories and content will be developed, produced and distributed through commissioning and licensing powers. This implicitly limits the CRTC's role to setting rules about which creatives are at the table. The Writer's Guild advocates broadening the pool of Canadian key creatives to modernize the CanCon system. It trusts the combined perspectives of a broader pool to make creative decisions about Canadian identity in meaningful ways. Accordingly, it supports the CRTC's intent to add the showrunner role to the point system since showrunners are the "the chief custodian of the creative vision of a series." Streaming introduces more players with financial stakes, complicating who controls content and who profits from it. A seismic shift is happening in how intellectual property (IP) is handled. CRTC has proposed that the updated CanCon definition include Canadian IP ownership as a mandatory element to enable Canadian companies and workers to retain some control over their own IP, and thereby earn sustainable income. For example, in a streaming drama, Canadian screenwriters who retain ownership of the IP could earn ongoing revenue through licensing deals, international sales and royalties each time the series is distributed. However, the Motion Picture Association-Canada (MPA-Canada), representing industry titans like Netflix, Amazon and Disney, is pushing back against requirements that mandate the sharing of territory or IP. Without IP rights, Canadian talent and the industry as a whole may be reduced to becoming service providers for global companies. Our own research highlights how this type of contractual arrangement increases the power asymmetries between producers, distributors and streaming services. We emphasize the critical importance of fair remuneration and IP rights for creators. Intervenors shared a range of preferences from 100 per cent Canadian IP ownership to none at all. One hundred per cent Canadian IP ownership means Canadian creators like a producer of a streaming series would control the rights to the content. They would receive the majority of profits from licensing, distribution and future adaptations. Even 51 per cent ownership could give them a controlling stake, but would likely require sharing revenue and decision-making with the streaming service. And then, of course, there's the question of how generative AI should be considered within the updated CanCon definition. The Writers Guild of Canada has drawn a firm line in the sand: AI-generated material should not qualify as Canadian content. The guild argues that since current AI tools don't possess identity, nationality or cultural context, their output cannot advance the goals of the Broadcasting Act, centred on promoting Canadian voices and stories. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) raised a different concern around AI. AI, ACTRA argued, "should not take over the jobs of the creators in the ecosystem that we're in and we should not treat AI-generated performers as if they are a Canadian actor." Depending on how the CRTC addresses AI, this could mean that streaming content featuring AI-generated scripts, characters, or performances - even if developed by a Canadian creator or set in Canada - would not qualify as CanCon. The WGC notes that it has already negotiated restrictions on AI use in screenwriting through its agreement with the Canadian Media Producers Association. These guardrails are being held up as the "emerging industry standard." Another contested point is how streamers should pay into CanCon: through direct investment or through more traditional modes of financing. Under the Online Streaming Act, streamers are required to pay five per cent of their annual revenues to certain Canadian funds. This model echoes previous requirements used to manage decision-making at media broadcasters, some at the much more substantial level of 30 per cent. But no payments have been made yet, and streamers are appealing this requirement. Streamers prefer investing directly into Canadian content, taking a risk on its commercial potential to benefit from resulting successes. Research in the European Union and Canada highlight how different stakeholders benefit from different forms of financial obligations, suggesting the industry may be best served by a policy mix. As Canada rewrites its broadcasting rules, defining Canadian content is a courtroom drama unfolding in real time - and the verdict will have serious ramifications.
