Equiflash Archive

Equiflash The official news of Canadian Actors' Equity Association

We write to share some of Equity’s recent advocacy work on behalf of membership: Meeting with Minister Guilbeault Equity’s Executive Director Arden R. Ryshpan and Equity’s live performance coalition partners (IATSE, the Canadian Federation of Musicians (CFM) and the Associated Designers of Canada (ADC)) had a meeting with The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage, on Thursday, June 3. The Minister remains very supportive of our sector and made a point of saying that there is a lot of support for arts and culture amongst his colleagues around the cabinet table.       Some key topics discussed include: a continuing need for the CRB, which continues to be a vital support for our sector how sector stimulus money allocated in the fall economic update has not meaningfully made it through to our members as the vast majority of contracts for our working members are for workshop activities, which are of short duration and do not pay very well some of the challenges of the ‘pivot to digital’ including provincial regulations that have prevented filming of live performance and unpredictable audience demand the potential economic challenges of restrictions on audience size upon the resuming of live performance production efforts by the coalition to improve diversity, equity and inclusion including work by IATSE to train hair, makeup and lighting to be better able to respond to the needs of our IBPOC members and Equity’s achievements in Article 10 of the CTA/ITA industry wide efforts at being more environmentally responsible and including Equity’s motion on prioritizing a ‘green recovery’ accepted at the recent FIA congress. Faster Together Equity is part of an outreach campaign called Faster Together, bringing together almost 200 organizations from all across the country and from every sector of the economy. The Prime Minister joined Equity’s weekly coalition call on Thursday, June 3 to say thank you for our collective efforts to help encourage all Canadians who are able to be vaccinated, to get vaccinated. Equity has shared material of this campaign on social media. It would be great if you would share this campaign on social media, and more importantly, with friends and family who may be vaccine hesitant. We recognize that there are people who are unable to tolerate the vaccine for medical reasons and this is not meant in any way to target them, but there is still a large percentage of the population who are undecided. Those are the ones we really need to reach if we are to hit the numerical targets that will allow provinces to move into further stages of reopening. FIA - Intimacy Directors/Coordinators On Tuesday, June 15, the International Federation of Actors (FIA) is hosting a conversation about Intimacy Directors/Coordinators and other help and protections for performers in scenes involving nudity, intimacy, simulated sex and sexual violence. This webinar will gather international experts and share different perspectives and experiences from the United States, New Zealand, the UK, Israel and Canada – including Equity’s Executive Director, Arden R. Ryshpan, to talk about the development of Intimacy Directors/Coordinators in Canada, the inclusion of Intimacy Directors in Equity's membership and the requirement for use of Intimacy Directors in the CTA/ITA. Ontario - #FairnessForArtsON Equity is a participant in the #FairnessForArtsON campaign advocating for regulatory fairness, rehearsal and the return of livestreaming for the live performing arts in Ontario. CRB - extension Equity is aware that the current eligibility period for the CRB is due to come to an end after September 25, 2021. It is clear that our members will continue to need financial support beyond September as our industry may be one of the last to come back to meaningful production levels. In Equity’s recent meeting with Minister Guilbeault this was discussed, and we were encouraged to make our voices heard to the other parts of the government. Equity and our coalition partners will continue to advocate for this to various levels of government, however we may need to launch another letter writing campaign soon, so look out for further information. We will continue to keep members updated on Equity’s advocacy work. #EquityStrong

Canadian Actors' Equity Association | 44 Victoria Street, 12th Floor, Toronto, ON M5C 3C4 communications@caea.com | http://www.caea.com