One of the true nice guys in television has just received the nation’s top civilian honours: the Order of Canada. Jay Switzer, co-founder and Executive Chair, Hollywood Suite, and former President and CEO of CHUM Limited, received the distinction from the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, in a private ceremony Monday in Toronto. Switzer built
BANFF, Alta. — Outgoing Canadian Radio television and Telecommunications Commission chair Jean-Pierre Blais ripped into his industry audience Tuesday at the Banff World Media Festival. The speech –which at times sounded more like a scolding despite an even delivery — was vintage Blais. The long-serving civil servant, involved in many capacities in the culture sector, ends his five-year
BANFF, Alta. — You know you’re in Banff when an honest-to-God Mountie helps you find the hotel’s business centre. That happened to me the other day here at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, an incredible Scottish castle-like structure that looks as if Hogwarts was dropped between mountain ranges in a scenic wonderland. The hotel is
For me, one of the highlights of last week’s Banff World Media Festival was getting to chat with Brampton’s own Russell Peters. The comedian was awarded the Sir Peter Ustinov Award for comedy at the Rockie Awards and quickly admitted he’d never seen a Ustinov film. “He did make films, didn’t he?” Peters asked the
BANFF, Alta.–There should be a law against blogging at Banff. It is just too damn beautiful outside. Everywhere you look is a picture postcard. So let’s run through Monday’s Banff World Media Festival experience as quickly as possible. I moderated two sessions. The first was called, “The Future of Canadian Content” and the Alberta room
BANFF, Alta.– “We can work together to create risks,” says Heritage Minister Melanie Joly. “Yes–a politician talking to you about risks.” Joly was speaking to a room full of nervous television industry stakeholders as the keynote speaker Sunday at the Banff World Media Festival. The Minister got a lot of her talking points from the Canadian