Former CRTC chair Charles Dalfen died May 26 at age 66. Dalfen, who handed the reins to current chair Konrad von Finckenstein, served from 2002 through 2006 and had returned to his law firm Torys LLP in an advisory capacity.

• E1 Entertainment has hired veteran Los Angeles development executive Larry Gilbert to drive its North American drama slate deeper into U.S. primetime. Gilbert, who in March departed Mel Gibson’s production shingle Icon Productions after three years as VP of television development, has joined E1 Entertainment’s Los Angeles office as VP of current programming.

– The death of David Carradine has dealt a blow to the indie feature Portland, from Vancouver/L.A.-based Random Bench Productions, which was set to star the veteran actor and begin shooting in July. ‘David’s character is pivotal to our film,’ says Adrian Salpeter executive producer and co-principal at Random Bench, which is producing the film with L.A.-based Iconoclastic Features. ‘We are just weeks from production, so it is a big loss for us. David brought real star power to this movie.’

Labor activists launched a public campaign to reopen the mothballed Toronto Film Studios facility, to ease a chronic shortage of downtown production space. Bob Hall, president of IATSE Local 873, told reporters gathered outside the locked TFS gates that property owner Rose Corp. and partner SmartCentres should ‘do the right thing’ and reopen the 16 soundstages. TFS closed after Rose opened its Filmport studio in 2008. The partner companies were recently denied an application to build a retail mall on the downtown site.

HBO’s John Adams won the grand jury prize as the best of the best at the Banff World Television Awards. The Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning U.S. miniseries about the American president also won the best drama award.

Montreal producer recalls perilous doc shoot as Ottawa rebukes Iran over arrest of Canadian reporter/filmmaker

Further study needed to see if move would help local programming, says parliamentary committee. Tory members cry foul

Efforts to reopen the former studios in Toronto have been set back by a controversial plan to turn the site into a rail yard

Competition among eastern states boosts break to 25%. New York measure stalls

British Columbia producers and the American studios have inked a new three-year deal…

Al Gore’s broadcast and online news network, Current TV, was granted an operation licence…

It’s all upside for Sophie Paquin when it comes to this year’s…