BACK IN THE JUNO SPOTLIGHT
Russell Peters returning as host
There were no Juno Awards back in Canada’s Centennial year.
Indeed, Canadian music and its artists were a fragile species halfa-century ago, with the country’s airwaves swamped by the product of other nations.
The landscape is dramatically different today, which is why the upcoming Junos will be one of the most important events on the Canada 150 calendar.
Yet, how many Canadians watching the awards on TV this weekend will know how they came to be? Can they even identify the visionary Quebecois bureaucrat who was instrumental in ensuring this country a vibrant new musical identity?
Pierre Juneau, a friend and ally of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, became the first chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in 1968. Within three years, he had radically reshaped the face of broadcasting in this country with the introduction of Canadian-content regulations requiring that a specified percentage of radio and television time be devoted to programming of Canadian origin.
Despite the fact numerous other countries already had implemented similar content regulations, Juneau’s move triggered an angry response both from the Conservative opposition in the Commons and from the private broadcasting industry. But, the newly created CRTC held firm, finding support for its position in the historic 1951 Massey Commission’s conclusion that Canada faced “influences from across the border as pervasive as they are friendly” and in the commission’s warning of “the very present danger of permanent dependence on American culture.”
Juneau’s cultural nationalism was measured. He didn’t want to close down borders or erect walls. But, when it came to Canadian music, he wanted to ensure it would have its own small place in the sun. And, from this secure position, maybe — just maybe — a robust domestic market for Canadian music might take root and flourish.
The impact of those content rules was immediate, so much so that a newly buoyant Canadian music industry got serious about instituting an awards system. Gone were the old-fashioned readers polls conducted by the industry’s RPM magazine in the 1960s, with the results being published in its pages at the end of each year. By 1970, it was handing out its “Gold Leaf” Awards in a Toronto ceremony.
A year later they became the Junos, in gratitude to the man who had so dramatically widened the industry’s horizons.
Much has happened since then. Globalization has had its own impact on the music marketplace. That and the digital revolution have enabled major artists and groups to flourish outside the Cancon cocoon. So, in an increasing number of circles, it seems less easy to justify content regulations of any kind. On the other hand, it could be argued that in such a volatile era, there still exists a case for keeping the playing field level and continuing to safeguard that small important place in the sun.
Meanwhile the legacy of Pierre Juneau remains unassailable.
“Culture is one of this country’s major economic engines,” rock journalist Michael Barclay wrote at the time of Juneau’s death in 2012, at the age of 89. “It all began with Vincent Massey’s artistic state-of-the-nation report in 1951. It was Pierre Juneau who kicked it into high gear.”