Sonja Smits is being presented with ACTRA Toronto’s Award of Excellence at a Feb. 20 ceremony. And while the actor’s impressive volume of work has made her one of Canada’s most recognizable talents, the award also acknowledges her lesser-known role as a passionate activist for indigenous film and television production, which has seen her involved with several ACTRA initiatives.

‘ACTRA has a galvanized membership who are reasserting the importance of having a Canadian homegrown industry, and Sonja is one of the foremost people in that,’ says ACTRA Toronto president Richard Hardacre.

Smits, born 45 years ago in the Ottawa Valley, has had lead roles in dramatic series including Street Legal, Traders and, most recently, as correspondent Megan Redner on The Eleventh Hour, from Alliance Atlantis and CTV. Smits is married to Seaton McLean, the exec producer on The Eleventh Hour, whose job as head of production for AAC was terminated in December, in a high-profile example of the state of Canadian production.

‘The award was a very pleasant surprise,’ says Smits. ‘Gordon Pinsent was given the same award last year, and to be in the company of Mr. Pinsent feels great.’

Smits’ advocacy efforts began in the 1980s, when she was one of the founding members of the ACTRA women’s caucus, established to develop guidelines that would address issues unique to women actors. Smits says that at the time, many female roles were exploitative, and ACTRA acted as a forum for developing distinct protections for women – the first of several such efforts.

‘We’re all members of ACTRA, but within the union there are specific concerns for specific groups – whether it’s child performers, women performers, visible minorities or handicapped performers – and ACTRA as a union has grown to take in those specific areas of concern,’ explains Smits.

In 1992, ACTRA was instrumental in having the Charter of Rights for Women Performers adopted at the International Federation of Actors congress in Montreal, and helped launch the Women in the Director’s Chair Workshop in 1997.

After the women’s caucus, Smits was involved in lobbying for copyright protection for performers. Then in 1999, the CRTC’s Television Policy eliminated expenditure requirements for Canadian broadcasters and broadened the definitions of what counted as Canadian content. Smits reacted by getting involved politically in the fight for drama.

Like many Canadian performers, she regarded the CRTC decision as a serious threat to Canadian talent, considering that many actors, Smits included, depend largely on drama for their living. Over the next four years, according to some calculations, the number of Canadian one-hour dramatic productions has dropped from 12 to five.

‘I think the broadcasters have had the ear of the government for a long time and have not delivered very well on it,’ she says. ‘They’ve used that ear to lessen the number of Canadian stories on our airwaves rather than finding ways to increase it.’

Last year, when the federal government cut $50 million over two years from the Canadian Television Fund, Smits got right on it. After meeting in Toronto with former finance minister John Manley, Smits, along with other Canuck actors including Pinsent and Paul Gross, went to Ottawa to plead the case for Canadian drama. Five months later, she joined Wendy Crewson and Rick Mercer, with Gross in the lead, and headed back to Ottawa to lobby the finance committee to reinstate and actually increase CTF funds.

‘The irony is that the [$25 million] is such chicken feed if you look at what Canada spends on its cultural industries compared to other countries,’ says Smits.

For Smits, the most important changes that need to be made include establishing a minimum number of hours of Canadian drama in private broadcasters’ primetime schedules, creating a minimum spend for broadcasters on producing domestic drama, and bringing licence fees to a level comparable to France, Britain or Australia.

‘Are the CRTC and the government actually committed to having Canadian programming on our airwaves?’ asks Smits, ‘If so, then let’s actually have some muscle behind it, rather than just paying lip service by saying we’re regulating our airwaves.’

Looking forward, Smits says ACTRA has become much more effective in lobbying over the last few years, and remains hopeful that the union and its industry partners will convince the Martin government to make serious changes to broadcasting regulations, so ACTRA can continue to honor the country’s best talents.

-www.actra.ca