Ottawa, November 17, 1999 -- The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) announces the appointment of Guylaine Bachand to its Quebec Regional Council.
After working for several years in the entertainment business, Guylaine Bachand studied civil law at the University of Ottawa and thereafter specialized in entertainment law. From 1990 to 1998, she was an associate with the litigation group of McCarthy Tétrault where she represented publishers, theatre companies, actors, singers, and record and movie producers, among others. In her area of specialization, Bachand was also involved in the negotiation of contracts both in Canada and abroad; pleaded labour grievances in the entertainment area; and prepared production, distribution and other entertainment-related contracts. She also lectured and presented papers on recent developments in culture and communications. On the litigation side of her entertainment practice, Guylaine Bachand pleaded before various courts in the areas of copyright, freedom of the press, privacy and the right to one's image, including the famous decision in Aubry v. Vice-Versa case heard by the Supreme Court of Canada. In 1998, Ms. Bachand joined TVA Group Inc. as Legal Counsel.
CBSC National Chair Ron Cohen stated: “This past year was an important one both for the CBSC, the broadcast industry’s self-regulatory body, in general and for the Quebec Regional Council in particular. This Council dealt with matters in which nearly 15,000 Quebecers registered complaints on various issues, including the human rights provision of the CAB Code of Ethics, fairness and balance in panel selection and the presentation of controversial subjects, the evaluation of shows containing elements of violence, the use of classification icons and so on. As the public have become more and more aware of this unique system established by Canada’s private broadcasters, we have become busier and yet, at the same time, quicker and more responsive to public complaints. None of the present challenges could be met without the dedication and thoughtfulness of our Regional Council volunteers. We are fortunate to have been able to attract individuals with such outstanding records of public service, commitment and leadership.”
The Quebec Regional Council's other members include advertising agency expert and university lecturer Pierre Audet, Regional Chair, former CRTC Commissioner Marc Gervais and McGill Professor Peta Tancred on the public side and Yvon Chouinard, Vice-Chair, Executive Vice-President of Power Broadcasting, and Suzanne Gouin, General Manager of CJNT-TV are the other broadcast members.
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.