Who should "own" Canadian airwaves [Our Cultural Sovereignty: the Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting]

The Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, in its report Our Cultural Sovereignty: The Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting (released June 2003), recommended "the existing foreign ownership limits for broadcasting and telecommunications be maintained at current levels." This recommendation is of fundamental importance to every Canadian -- perhaps even more so for Canadian creators -- for several reasons.

First, the Canadian Broadcasting Act states that our broadcasting system "should be effectively owned and controlled by Canadians." In other words, broadcasting frequencies belong to the citizens of Canada. Licences to occupy these frequencies are indeed licences only. They do not confer ownership. This means that it is up to Canadians to determine how...