Celebrating 60 years: THE ACTRA STORY This special issue of ...

“Canada is a country in the making. Canada
is a song that must be sung by its talented
artists. A nation that lacks the capacity to
hear its own heartbeat or take its own pulse
cannot know how sick it might be.”
– Harry Rasky, ACTRAscope, September 1985
small groups in private homes and in raucous gatherings
in the stuffy boardrooms of ACTRA. Across the
country, debate centred on the need to return control
of the organization to the members. The mantra
‘member-run organization’ was adopted along with
the image of the ‘upside-down pyramid’ to describe
how decisions should emanate from the membership,
not be imposed from the top. As a result, more and
more performers rolled up their sleeves and dug in,
injecting their energy and artistry into ACTRA’s
activities.
A hard-fought referendum squeaked through, leading
to a new constitution that diffused power to the
branches, enabling them to respond to regional
needs. Meanwhile, writers pursued their autonomy
and set up the Writers Guild of Canada as a separate
1 Sarah Polley and Jackie
Burroughs in Road to
Avonlea (1989/90).
2 First a CBC award-winning
movie (1986), 9B was
made into a series with
Robert Wisden (centre),
(l-r) Vincent Murray, Mishu
Vellani, Chris Owens and
Rachael Crawford.
3 The Kids In The Hall:
(front): Scott Thompson,
Dave Foley, Bruce McCulloch,
(rear): Kevin MacDonald
and Mark McKinney.
takes CBC to Canada
Labour Relations Board.
1988 Push to amend
Canada’s 65-year-old
Copyright Act led by
ACTRA, UDA and AFM.
1989 Performers’ Rights
Day marked.
1989 Saskatchewan’s
public educational and
cultural broadcaster,
Saskatchewan
Communications
Network (SCN)
Corporation created
by government of
Saskatachewan.
1989 Costly Price-
Waterhouse Report
suggests ACTRA’s
structure is “convoluted
and unwieldy.”
1990 ACTRA’s ‘diversity’
talent catalogue, Into the
Mainstream, launched.
1943-2003 • actra • celebrating 60 years 19
organization in 1991, though it would take until 1995
to work out an arrangement for the ACTRA Writers
Guild to leave the Alliance.
Throughout these changes, ACTRA’s members
used their passion, imaginations, and flair for communicating
to fight feverishly on a range of political
issues that threatened to silence their creative voices:
the looming menace of free trade, obscenity laws that
endangered artistic freedom, outdated copyright laws,
and devastating cuts to the CBC. ACTRA’s campaign
against free trade became a personal fight in 1988
when the CBC forced journalist Dale Goldhawk to
choose between his ACTRA Presidency and his dayjob
as host of Cross Country Checkup. The presidency
became ‘vacant in protest’ as ACTRA took the matter
to court in yet another political challenge, this
time for freedom of speech. ACTRA emerged victorious
seven years later with a Supreme Court ruling in
our favour.
ACTRA’s vigilance played a role in two important
cultural victories: The Federal Status of the Artist Act
was finally passed in 1992 and our artists’ fight had
achieved a cultural exemption in the Free Trade
Agreement. These wins ensured that there would still
be a thriving Canadian cultural community with
artists at its vibrant heart.
1 2
3
Photo courtesy Sullivan Entertainment Photo byMichaeline McDermott
Photo courtesy CBC Still Photo Collection, Toronto
ACTRAscope, Summer 1989.
The Commercial
Agreement, 1990-92.
Photo courtesy Broadway Video Enterprises. Photo by Patrick Harbron
1983 -
1993
the
ACTRA
story
1990 A group of B.C.
performers vote to
establish the Union of
B.C. Performers, a union
separate from ACTRA
in B.C.
1991 Garry Neil resigns as
General Secretary, to take
effect January 1, 1992.
1991 ACTRA agrees to
formation of Writers’ Guild
of Canada within Alliance
umbrella.