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Feds urged to crack down on fake Indigenous art, copyright breaches

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OTTAWA — First Nations art, from hand-carved masks to totem poles, draws on generations of tradition and skill and can take months to craft.

But a flood of fakes and commercial knock-offs produced in Asia and eastern Europe are exploiting Indigenous culture, the artists say, and robbing them of revenue.

One of the well-known Indigenous artists to have images of their work reproduced without permission is British Columbia carver Richard Hunt.

“I’ve stopped people making postcards of my work I’ve found out about. In Bali, Indonesia, they are making northwest coast masks. They are selling them as Indigenous,” he said.

“These things have got to be stopped. We need the government’s help. It’s like the dreamcatcher coming from Taiwan or China. Buyer beware.”

The federal government is facing calls to take action, including from a senator who wants a reform to copyright law, a unit to help Indigenous artists track down fakes and stronger border checks for art in Indigenous styles.

Hunt said raising tariffs on imports of copies could slow them down but he said the fakes were being mass produced, undercutting genuine Indigenous artists and making it harder for young First Nations carvers to make a living in what he said is a $1-billion industry.

Sen. Patricia Bovey, the first art historian to sit in the Senate, said the industry of fake Indigenous art may be worth millions of dollars and breaches artists’ intellectual property rights.

She is lobbying the government to reform copyright law to give more protection to Indigenous artists against unscrupulous businesses reproducing their images without their knowledge.

The unauthorized and fake Indigenous works range from reproductions of First Nations art on T-shirts, bedspreads, plastic bowls and bags, to carved masks and totem poles made from wood grown in Southeast Asia.

Many of these are near-exact copies of original works in galleries in Canada and the problem is acute with West Coast art.

Bovey wants ministers to set up a unit to help Indigenous artists whose work is being reproduced without their knowledge track down and chase those who infringed their copyright, at least so they get paid.

Not only are Indigenous artists having their creations purloined, she says, but people buying Indigenous work in Canada and abroad may have little idea it may be fake or has been produced without the artist’s permission.

Bovey was shocked to find that some images on orange T-shirts made following the discovery of unmarked graves last year were reproduced without the artists’ knowledge by companies making a profit, not raising funds for Indigenous causes.

She warns buyers of Indigenous work to ask before they purchase where the work came from, whether it was made with the permission of the artist and whether the artist is being paid.

“This is a really serious issue,” she said. “It’s plagiarizing the work, it’s appropriating the work and both are wrong and the artists don’t have the resources to fight all this in the court.”

Helping Indigenous artists reclaim their copyright would be an example of “reconcili-action,” the senator added.

She wants an upcoming review of the Copyright Act by Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez and Minister of Innovation and Science Francois-Phillippe Champagne to include protections for Indigenous works, which she says are integral to Canada’s culture and history.

Not only should there be specific safeguards for artists but a mechanism to track down companies fabricating Indigenous works, or failing to pay artists’ royalties, including in China and eastern Europe, she said.

“We all have a responsibility for this. We need to find ways to support artists who are maligned that way to have legal funds,” she said.

Alex Wellstead, spokesman for Champagne, said the review of the Copyright Act would “further protect artists and creators and copyright holders.”

He said “Indigenous Peoples and artists will be consulted in the process.”

Current copyright law offers protection for Indigenous craftsmen and women, including Inuit sculptors and jewellers, but Bovey said the process is so complex and time-consuming to chase, few artists have the time to pursue it.

She also wants closer checks at borders and investigations of the provenance and destination of art in Canadian Indigenous styles, particularly made from wood that is not native to Canada.

Fake masks and Indigenous carvings have been openly sold to tourists in Vancouver as genuine, according to Lucinda Turner, an apprentice to Nisg’aa sculptor and totem pole carver Norman Tait.

Turner, who died this week, spent years listing, tracking and challenging fraudulent Indigenous works claiming to be authentic, and lectured on the subject.

Hunt said she had done much to draw attention to the illicit trade, and had helped many Indigenous artists claim their copyright.

In an open letter to the government last November Turner said over 1,000 appropriated images were removed after she and others wrote takedown letters supporting artists whose copyright had been breached.

In a lecture to the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, she said a few copied carvings in mahogany were so authentic-looking that they have been hung in Canadian galleries.

Among the fakes she identified are reproductions of 19th-century carvings in major museums, such as a beaver rattle from the British Museum, and copies of works by contemporary northwest coast artists including acclaimed carver Bill Reid.

She lobbied the federal government for greater protection for Indigenous artists, calling for a law, as in the United States, with huge fines for selling Indigenous work that is not genuine.

The U.S. Indian Arts and Crafts Act criminalizes misrepresentation and copying of Indigenous art. There is also a fake art hotline south of the border to make reporting of unauthorized copies easy.

In the open letter to the federal government, she called for action to tackle misrepresentations on the online market.

Well-intentioned buyers trying to support the Orange Shirt movement had been duped into buying clothing that Indigenous people would gain nothing from — including the artists whose images had been used, she said.

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement was also exploited by money-making businesses making handbags, T-shirts with Indigenous images without the artists’ permission, she warned.

The internet has led to mass marketing of fraudulent, copied or stolen images of art and ceremonial artifacts by companies with no links to the Indigenous artists, she said.

Bovey, who says she plans to raise the issue again with ministers when the Senate returns from its summer break, said few people realize that Indigenous art on sale in Canadian stores could be made in China, eastern Europe and Taiwan.

“The buyers don’t know, the artists don’t have the means to monitor it and the predators are having a great time,” she said. “It’s theft of their iconography. It’s stealing people’s cultural heritage and it is both morally and legally wrong.”

The Canada Border Services Agency said there were currently “no import restrictions related to items that imitate Indigenous art.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 7, 2022.

 

Marie Woolf, The Canadian Press

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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