Canadian Booksellers Association asks Canadian Heritage to Reject Amazon
Canadian Booksellers Association Urges Canadian Heritage to Reject Amazon.com’s Application to Establish a New Business in Canada
8 March 2010 – Toronto – Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) has written to the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, asking his government to reject Amazon.com’s application to establish a new cultural business in Canada. Copies of CBA’s letter have also been sent to the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada and the Honourable Tony Clement, Minister of Industry.
CBA contends that allowing Amazon to operate a business within Canada would contravene the Investment Canada Act which requires that foreign investments in the book publishing and distribution sector be compatible with national cultural policies and be of net benefit to Canada and the Canadian-controlled sector.
CBA President Stephen Cribar argues that Amazon’s entry into Canada would detrimentally affect the country’s independent businesses and cultural industries: “Individual Canadian booksellers have traditionally played a key role in ensuring the promotion of Canadian authors and Canadian culture. These are values that no American dot.com retailer could ever purport to understand or promote.”
CBA urges the Canadian government and the Department of Canadian Heritage to continue its support of our unique cultural perspective by placing reasonable limits on American domination of our book market and rejecting Amazon.com’s current application.
CBA Contacts
Stephen Cribar
CBA President
scribar@uwo.ca
Susan Dayus
CBA Executive Director
sdayus@cbabook.org
About Canadian Booksellers Association
Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) is the national trade association representing booksellers from coast to coast to coast. Members include trade, campus, specialty and chain booksellers of all sizes, located in small communities and large metropolitan centres.Since 1952 CBA has been the voice of Canadian booksellers.
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