The Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, otherwise known as the Massey Commission, chaired by
Vincent Massey
Charles Vincent Massey (February 20, 1887December 30, 1967) was a Canadian lawyer and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 18th since Confederation. Massey was the first governor general of Canada who was born in Canada after ...
, was founded in 1949. The Massey Commission examined Canada's cultural needs. Massey had long believed that Canadians' rich cultural history was deeply embedded in European culture but was too little known to the world. An avid art collector himself, he sponsored exhibits in Europe and saw the need for a national commitment to promoting the arts.
The report
Other than Massey, the commissioners included social scientist
Georges-Henri Lévesque
Georges-Henri Lévesque (February 16, 1903 – January 15, 2000) was a Canadian Dominican priest and sociologist and a liberal figure during the conservative Duplessis era in Quebec.
Biography
Born in Roberval, Quebec, the son of Georg ...
, historian
Hilda Neatby
Hilda Marion Ada Neatby (February 19, 1904May 14, 1975) was a Canadian historian and educator.
Early life and education
Hilda Marion Ada Neatby was born on February 19, 1904, in Sutton (then in Surrey), to Andrew Neatby and Ada Fisher. Th ...
, university president
Norman MacKenzie, and engineer Arthur Surveyor, co-founder of
SNC-Lavalin
SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. is a Canadian company based in Montreal that provides engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) services to various industries, including mining and metallurgy, oil and gas, environment and water, infrastructure, a ...
. They held public hearings across Canada. The final report appeared in June 1951. It advised that Canada's international identity needed building up, and must be based on more than political and economic factors. It argued that the arts provide a strong sense of national community, and that the government should establish a national board to administer public funds intended to encourage work in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. It especially wanted funding for nonprofit agencies, rather than for-profit corporations. It called for more money for universities and strengthening existing public radio system, and its expansion into television. Without aggressive federal funding, the report suggested, there was a risk of that authentic Canadian culture would be crowded out of its own nation by Cheaper American popular culture.
The government accepted the recommendations on university funding and strengthening the CBC; otherwise it largely ignored the report. However, the Report did lead to the establishment of the
National Library of Canada
Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...
in 1953 and the
Canada Council for the Encouragement of the Arts, Letters, Humanities, and Social Sciences in 1957. Contrary to the recommendation not to support a private film industry, in 1967 the government created the
Canadian Film Development Corporation
Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...
(CFDC) to subsidize films, that could reach the American mass-market.
Francophone
French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
critics accused the report of privileging elite, Anglophone conservative culture at the expense of Quebec's historic cultural.
[Ziraldo, 1998]
... the literature of the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, which in the last thirty years has acquired an increasing international reputation, exercises an impact which is beneficial in many respects no doubt, but which, at the same time, may be almost overpowering. (Report, chapter 15)
Notes
Further reading
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External links
Text of the Massey Report*
See also
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Canadian cultural protectionism
Cultural protectionism in Canada has, since the mid-20th century, taken the form of conscious, interventionist attempts on the part of various governments of Canada to promote Canadian cultural production and limit the effect of foreign culture ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Commission On National Development In The Arts, Letters And Sciences
Royal commissions in Canada
1949 in Canada
Arts in Canada