In the days ahead the Senate will vote to pass Bill C-11 and send it back to the Commons for a final vote and passage into law. Too many Canadian creators are then going to get a very alarming wake-up call as they realize that Bill C-11 is not designed around the historical pillars of cultural support and that their employment in critical creative roles may no longer be guaranteed in the making of Canadian content.

The drafting of C-11 has had economic forces steering it that will benefit Canadian crews and provide a positive economic impact to production centres. However, due to amendment 3(1)(f.1), there will be a two-tier system of Canadian content wherein Canadian entities will still be required to make a “maximum” and “predominant use” of “Canadian creative and other human resources in the creation, production and presentation of programming,” but the U.S. streamers, who will inevitably dominate the Canadian media landscape, will only be required to make a “practicable” use of Canadians.

What does “practicable” mean? That will be the CRTC’s job to figure out once the bill is passed into law, but we already have insights from the studios’ well-established practices in the Canadian service production industry. While domestic producers have championed many talented Canadians, the studios’ “practicable” standard for hiring Canadians in key creative positions has been to rarely hire them locally.  The overwhelming majority of the thousands of director, writer, actor, key creative and producer posts have gone to permitted foreigners who are brought north of the border to do work Canadians are more than skilled and talented enough to do.

It is one thing when the studios do this for service shows, but this practice cannot be enshrined into law as meeting future Canadian content hiring obligations. One can only assume the Liberal government is either willing to allow the annexation of Canadian cultural leadership to foreigners, or that they are too heavily influenced by the foreign media companies to act for the benefit of culture over economics.

Of course the studios don’t want to be told what they have to make nor who they have to hire, but we aren’t talking about their entire global budget, just the portion they are required to contribute to Canadian culture in return for access to our homes. They will argue “Why wouldn’t we hire Canadians?” but decades of the Canadian broadcasters trying to get out of hiring Canadians (despite that it allowed them to grow into massive corporations) tells us that without laws in place, the streamers will continue to lobby to hire the minimum amount required to satisfy the CRTC.

What is most frustrating is the failure of our government to realize and acknowledge that our media industry is in a Golden Age and worth making bold and strong choices for. The last few decades have not been easy, but we have worked year after year to build a world-class cultural industry and succeeded.

Our domestic television industry is at an all-time high with multiple series in decades-long runs, global audiences tuning in, and internationally recognized awards of excellence including Prime Time Emmy wins for Canadian content productions in comedy and drama. This has allowed us to build a world-class talent pool domestically with enough work to allow Canadian creators to build lives in Canada despite the magnetic draw of Los Angeles.

Yet, now, in our greatest hour, at the moment our collective voice is heard around the world louder than it has ever been, Minister for Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez has seemingly abandoned us.

So where is our unified industry voice now? Where are our leaders and what is their plan to challenge this? Are we as individual stakeholders even paying attention? This needs to be more than hashtags, “thumbs up” emojis and pledges to “send support.” This needs to be outrage, campaigns, and noise. Lots and lots of noise.

In the weeks that followed the Senate passing amendment 3(1)(f.1), a quick search reveals no headlines written about the new two-tier system. The union, guild and association leaders, who I do know are working hard on this behind closed doors, have been largely silent publicly before this week (editor’s note: the Writers Guild of Canada issued a release on Tuesday, Jan. 31, decrying the Senate Committee’s decision in November surrounding the amendment) and they certainly have not rallied their memberships – not even a town hall on the most important cultural legislation in 30 years. Just silence.

Perhaps the silence is especially noticeable as Quebec is so quiet. Historically the battle for federal content financing in the cultural landscape has been dominated by the very loud and proud French-Canadian community, and they succeeded in building and sustaining an industry with incredible cultural roots, profitable production companies, and an enviable talent pool.

However, this time it is different as Quebec likely understands the foreign streamers cannot build loyal subscription bases without producing content in the local language. Hiring Koreans to make Korean content or Spaniards to make Spanish content, or even Aussies to make Australian content is an enlightened gesture to make authentic local culture but also a requirement to sign up local subscribers in that market. In this dynamic, Quebec knows that a “practicable” hiring of Quebec talent will still be at a 10 out of 10 level. The jobs are safe and French-Canadian culture will continue to thrive.

In that light it is English Canada that needs to take a page from the Quebecois playbook. Our language, communities, accents, stories, and history that have allowed us to proudly declare “I AM CANADIAN” are not perceived as unique and different enough to foreign executives to warrant the necessity of Canadians being hired to make our content. It is a shame that in a time where we as an industry have never been more united about authentic voices and underrepresented communities, that we are not all standing up united to ensure that our relatively small nation of 35 million people will have our authentic voice represented on the global stage.

The Liberal government apparently doesn’t understand how deeply rooted our passion to tell Canadian stories is. That for those of us who make media, culture is the mission and priority. They don’t know because we have not been loud enough. The time has come for all of us to let them know how important this is and for our united community to deliver one message to the government – Canadians, and only Canadians, can make Canadian content.

Glenn Cockburn is the founder and president of Meridian Artists and the founder of the Toronto Screenwriting Conference.