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Globe and Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Toronto band Martha and the Muffins at odds with Conservatives over song use
Toronto new-wave band Martha and the Muffins is trying a relatively novel legal strategy to prevent Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre from using its song Echo Beach at rallies in his upcoming by-election campaign. After learning that he and at least one other Conservative candidate used the Juno Award-winning 1980 song at rallies during the spring election cycle, the band's manager took to social media to ask him to stop, but says Poilievre did not respond. Because Mr. Poilievre lost his Ottawa-area riding and plans to run again in an Alberta by-election, Martha and the Muffins is taking steps to prevent him from once again using Echo Beach at events. Crucially, the band is asserting its moral rights to not be associated with Mr. Poilievre's politics, which are at odds with the often left-leaning stances the band takes in song. 'They do not endorse you or the Conservative party in any way, and the false perception that they do causes prejudice to their reputation,' the band's intellectual-property lawyer, Dickinson Wright LLP partner Paul Bain, wrote in a letter to Poilievre this week. Musicians often send legal threats to politicians they don't agree with who use their songs in campaigns without consent, sometimes escalating them into lawsuits. Neil Young and Rihanna are among the many musicians who've tried to stop U.S. President Donald Trump from using their music. Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip also condemned the federal Conservatives' use of his band's song Fifty Mission Cap at an event in 2023. But the Conservatives' use of the Hip's music, like the party's more recent uses of Echo Beach that Martha and the Muffins's lawyer outlines in his legal letter, highlights a lesser-known tenet of Canadian copyright licensing. It's typical here for venues or event organizers to have licences from the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) – and so permission isn't explicitly required from songwriters to use individual licensed songs. As well as disagreeing with the Poilievre's policies more generally, in an interview, Martha and the Muffins members Martha Johnson and Mark Gane decried the Conservative Party's historic treatment of the arts, which saw cuts to supports under former prime minister Stephen Harper. 'Respect for the artist doesn't seem to be there,' Ms. Johnson said. When it came to the party's use of Echo Beach, Mr. Gane said, 'It's not just an affront to us – it's an affront to anybody who makes anything, and has somebody come and take it for their own use.' In the U.S., the performing-rights organization ASCAP allows musicians to opt out of having their songs featured in political campaigns. The blanket licences from SOCAN, a parallel organization in Canada, do not have that same flexibility. 'If Mark had opted out of a political-campaign blanket licence, then no politician would have been able to use that song,' Martha and the Muffins manager Graham Stairs said. In an e-mail, SOCAN's legal counsel Adam Jacobs said: 'We understand the concerns raised by our members about the use of their music in political campaigns. As always, we will explore and consider the most effective ways to protect our members' rights and their musical works.' This is why Martha and the Muffins is taking the relatively untested avenue of asserting their moral rights not to be associated with the Conservatives or its leader. In one oft-cited case in the visual-art world, Toronto's Eaton Centre was found to have violated sculptor Michael Snow's moral rights by tying Christmastime ribbons around the geese he had sculpted for display in the mall. 'While there have been some cases dealing with violations of moral rights of musicians and performers, there is no precedent in the context of use by politicians,' Mr. Bain said in an e-mail. Though this specific kind of music use by politicians has not been tested in court, 'that does not mean that the law is unclear, or that this is some 'out-there' theory, or that artists have no recourse.' The letter points to the Copyright Act's safeguards for 'the author's or performer's right to the integrity of a work or performer's performance,' which can be 'infringed only if the work or the performance is, to the prejudice of its author's or performer's honour or reputation . . . used in association with a product, service, cause or institution.' Moral rights fall outside SOCAN's mandate, Mr. Jacobs said, but he added that they 'may be relevant' in certain situations. 'It would be up to the individual songwriter or performer to assert those rights and meet the legal thresholds for proving an infringement of their moral rights.' A representative for the Conservative Party did not respond to comment requests – nor did Re:Sound, the not-for-profit that administers licences for recording copyrights, which are separate from songwriting copyrights.
Winnipeg Free Press
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Martha and the Muffins call for Poilievre to stop using ‘Echo Beach' at rallies
TORONTO – The Toronto band Martha and the Muffins is calling on Pierre Poilievre to stop using 'Echo Beach' at his campaign rallies without their authorization. Members of the group say they've been told the Conservative Party of Canada has been playing their 1980 new wave hit at some campaign events despite the musicians asking them to stop last month. Representatives for the Conservative party did not respond to a request for comment. Band member Mark Gane says he first learned Poilievre's campaign had used 'Echo Beach' after reading a story in a local Sudbury newspaper earlier this year. He says his manager then sent a cease and desist request to the Conservative party. Since then, he says fans in other parts of the country have told him they've heard the song played at campaign rallies. Gane says he finds it 'disrespectful' that the Conservative party didn't honour the band's request and worries some Canadians may assume they support their policies. 'We don't want to be associated by our work in any shape or form with them,' he told The Canadian Press on Monday, election day. Martha and the Muffins issued a statement saying they did not endorse or support the use of their music at political events. ''Echo Beach' remains a song about escapism, imagination, and personal expression — not a soundtrack for partisan political campaigns,' it said in part. 'Martha and the Muffins demand that Mr. Poilievre and the Conservative Party immediately cease the use of their music.' During Elections Get campaign news, insight, analysis and commentary delivered to your inbox during Canada's 2025 election. Gane said the unauthorized use of artists' songs at political events highlights a broader disregard for the rights of musicians that stretches beyond election day. 'It seems to be an ongoing problem,' he said, pointing to Neil Young, who filed and then dropped a lawsuit against now-U.S. President Donald Trump over music at rallies for Trump's failed 2020 presidential bid. 'This is one of many instances where a political party thinks they can just grab somebody's copyrighted material, in this case being a song, and just (use) it for their own political ends.' He said Canadian music organizations, in particular the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), should put greater efforts into policing the unauthorized use of music at campaign rallies. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2025.
