[Bcma-l] (Fwd) [aacadvocacy] Advocacy Alert URGENT: Possible dismissal

[bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
From:           	"pboychuk" <pboychuk@yahoo.ca>
Date sent:      	Thu, 27 Mar 2008 21:34:04 -0000
Subject:        	[aacadvocacy] Advocacy Alert URGENT: Possible dismissal of CBC Radio Orchestra today
Send reply to:  	aacadvocacy@yahoogroups.ca

Greetings All,

We're forwarding this message from Colin Miles of the Canadian Music
Centre. The meeting to which he refers is considered a private meeting
by the CBC, and people who are not members of the orchestra will not
be admitted. However, the CMC and the orchestra would like to have 
as many supporters as possible in the lobby or outside the meeting 
room at the Georgian Court (773 Beatty St.) at 4:30PM today (March 
27, 2008) to either applaud a favourable announcement (unlikely) or
register disapproval of the end of an important Canadian cultural
asset, if that's what's going down.

--
Subject: ACTION ALERT CBC Meeting TODAY

Dear Friends,

This may be bad news.

I received a phone call at 11 pm last night from a former member of
the CBC Vancouver Radio orchestra.  The members of the orchestra
received less than 24 hour's notice that they are to attend a meeting
today with Mark Steinmetz, Alain Trudel the conductor and another 
CBC official.   (The third person is either from CBC headquarters or 
from
Vancouver. )

It is unlikely this is good news.
On several occasions the CBC Radio Orchestra has escaped the axe, 
but
those who currently hold the orchestra's fate in their hands have
shown, shall we say, more interest in clear-cutting the arts than
understanding and sustaining the valuable and fragile ecology of the
arts.

The CBC Vancouver Radio Orchestra has recorded on commercial 
CDs more
music of Canadian composers than any orchestra in the country and 
has
recorded hundreds of Canadian works for broadcast.  It is a champion
of Canadian composers and an essential part of our national
consciousness.   It is the last surviving radio orchestra in North
America.

We can hope that this meeting is to announce some very good news. 
(It
is unlikely to be anything related to the Olympics.  Because the
Olympic Committee chose CTV over CBC, nothing with the CBC logo 
can
take part in the cultural olympics.)

Let us keep our minds open to the possibility of good news.

Whatever is said should be witnessed by as a large a group of people
as possible.  If it is a new initiative to encourage this national
cultural treasure let us give them our applause.

If they are going to kill the orchestra they should hear screams of
protest.

The meeting takes place today at 4:30 pm at the Georgian Court Hotel
(one block east of the CBC.)

Please and encourage anyone who values our CBC Radio Orchestra 
to
attend.

FYI - Here is the Mandate of the CBC from its own website.
Please bring this with you to the meeting

MANDATE

The 1991 Broadcasting Act states that...

"...the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as the national public
broadcaster, should provide radio and television services
incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens 
and
entertains;

...the programming provided by the Corporation should:

  1. be predominantly and distinctively Canadian,
  2. reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional 
audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions,
  3. actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural 
expression,
  4. be in English and in French, reflecting the different needs and
circumstances of each official language community, including the
particular needs and circumstances of English and French linguistic
minorities,
  5. strive to be of equivalent quality in English and French,
  6. contribute to shared national consciousness and identity,
  7. be made available throughout Canada by the most appropriate and
efficient means and as resources become available for the purpose, 
and
  8. reflect the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada."

Colin Miles



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_______________________________
Jim Harding, ED
BC Museums Association
(250) 356-5694