Montreal: Cinar Corp. majority shareholders Micheline Charest and Ron Weinberg have asked the Quebec Superior Court to remove Robert Despres as chairman and trustee of the former directors’ 63.3% multiple-voting stake. The court action follows a Quebec Securities Commission ruling last month against the unilateral termination of an April ’02 agreement between Charest, Weinberg and the QSC, which named Despres as trustee. The QSC says the agreement remains in force until a qualified replacement is named.

Earlier, Charest and Weinberg confirmed they had approached Noubar Boyadjiam, a Montreal accountant and bankruptcy trustee and partner in Boyadjian Litwin, as a potential replacement for Despres.

In other news, Cinar reported it has reached an agreement with the Canadian Television Fund – Licence Fee Program reinstating the company’s funding eligibility. The company calls the agreement ‘a major milestone in reintegrating [Cinar] into the full range of public and private funding support programs in the Canadian television production industry.’

For the second quarter of 2003 ended May 31, Cinar reports a consolidated net loss of $4.7 million, compared to a net gain of $5.7 million in Q2 of ’02. Excluding foreign currency balance sheet translation effects, discontinued operations and unusual items, Q2 operating earnings are $2.8 million.

Total revenues for Q2 decreased by 20% to $33.2 million from $41.3 million in ’02.

Entertainment revenues declined from $9.4 million last year to $5.4 million this year, and consisted of $1.8 million in current production and $3.6 million from existing film library sales. Education revenues in Q2 stood at $27.7 million, a decline of $4.2 million.

For first the six months of ’03, the net loss amounted to $7.8 million. The company’s cash position as of May 31 was $11.6 million.

In production news, Cinar is an equity partner, holding video and educational distribution rights, in Postcards from Buster, 40 half-hours of animation/live-action spun off from the popular Arthur animation series. The new series, produced in partnership with WGBH Boston, Marc Brown Studios and PBS, is slated to preem on PBS Kids in fall ’04.

Cinar’s program lineup at MIPCOM next month includes 13 half hours of the new kids/teen live-action/animation series The Strip, coproduced with Toronto’s Shaftesbury Films; 10 new half-hours of Arthur, in addition to two one-hour specials; 10 new half-hours of Caillou (for a total of 46 completed episodes) and a 70-minute Caillou holiday movie special; and 13 new half-hours of Mona the Vampire, for a total of 52.

-www.cinar.com