Earlier today, Hubert Lacroix, the head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced that for the first time ever, the Award Ceremony for Canadian Entertainment will not be broadcast on their channel. "As much as this goes against typical protocol, the board and I have agreed that this is the best decision to take", Mr. Lacroix said at the press conference. When asked if this was a financial decision, Lacroix responded, "even if you rule out the poor return, the ratings are practically non-existent. It's taking up space for more impacting Canadian programs, such as reruns of The Red Green Show and Corner Gas."
Many Canadians have voiced their complaints towards this decision, saying that it further stifles the impact the nation has in the artistic world. A group of fine art schools across the country are planning to protest next week and have set up a Facebook group called Artists For ACCE. Comments on the page range from listing "pure" Canadian entertainers without giving detail about their work and heavy anti-American sentiments like "Up with Juno, down with the Grammies" and "Oscars < Genie". "We always have to rely on America for everything, and this goes double for entertainment," the acting commissioner of the NFBC Claude Joli-Cœur stated as he showed his support for the AFA. "In the international box-office, we're considered part of America's. When our actors want to be successful, they defect to Hollywood. It's unnatural that we have to force our own content on ourselves rather than it just be part of our culture. Our only saving grace is when we get an iconic music star but eventually they become hated by all and we land back on square one."
Very few Canadian entertainers have made a comment about this decision, with the only exceptions being Colin Mochrie making a joke about how Adam Sandler movies get more of a turnout than art-festival award-winning Canadian productions followed by his support for the AFA and William Shatner, who remarked that "Canadians couldn't count 10 fully-Canadian works on their hands, so why should the CBC bother showing the ACCE?". Shatner was then hard-pressed to name 10 and provide details on each one, which resulted in Shatner only naming 5, all of which were obscure works that he was in.
Lacroix later on issued a statement that he was considering to broadcast it after late night comedy shows. "It would be at a similar time as informercials, but I figure that if anyone is watching anything on TV at that time, they're not paying the slightest attention to what they're watching, which may just be as good as it gets."
Many Canadians have voiced their complaints towards this decision, saying that it further stifles the impact the nation has in the artistic world. A group of fine art schools across the country are planning to protest next week and have set up a Facebook group called Artists For ACCE. Comments on the page range from listing "pure" Canadian entertainers without giving detail about their work and heavy anti-American sentiments like "Up with Juno, down with the Grammies" and "Oscars < Genie". "We always have to rely on America for everything, and this goes double for entertainment," the acting commissioner of the NFBC Claude Joli-Cœur stated as he showed his support for the AFA. "In the international box-office, we're considered part of America's. When our actors want to be successful, they defect to Hollywood. It's unnatural that we have to force our own content on ourselves rather than it just be part of our culture. Our only saving grace is when we get an iconic music star but eventually they become hated by all and we land back on square one."
Very few Canadian entertainers have made a comment about this decision, with the only exceptions being Colin Mochrie making a joke about how Adam Sandler movies get more of a turnout than art-festival award-winning Canadian productions followed by his support for the AFA and William Shatner, who remarked that "Canadians couldn't count 10 fully-Canadian works on their hands, so why should the CBC bother showing the ACCE?". Shatner was then hard-pressed to name 10 and provide details on each one, which resulted in Shatner only naming 5, all of which were obscure works that he was in.
Lacroix later on issued a statement that he was considering to broadcast it after late night comedy shows. "It would be at a similar time as informercials, but I figure that if anyone is watching anything on TV at that time, they're not paying the slightest attention to what they're watching, which may just be as good as it gets."