TikTok’s global CEO is requesting an urgent meeting with government officials in advance of the company’s ordered shutdown in Canada.
Following an order citing national security risks last November, the social media app is preparing to wind down its Canadian operations. While TikTok has vowed to fight the order, the clock is ticking. Last week, TikTok Canada halted its arts sponsorships throughout the country.
“We are still looking to get to the table,” said Steve de Eyre, director of TikTok’s government affairs for Canada, in an interview with Bloomberg. “Time is running out,” he continued, though the company hasn’t shared a timeline.
On July 2, TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, wrote a letter to minister of innovation, science and industry Mélanie Joly requesting an urgent in-person meeting within the next two weeks.
In the letter, obtained by Billboard Canada, Chew writes: “The windup process is rapidly approaching a critical juncture where, unless you intervene, TikTok will be forced to fire all of its Canadian employees.”
The app would also have to halt investment and support for creators, the letter says. TikTok will still be available on app stores for Canadians to download after the proposed shutdown.
Chew’s letter warns that without government intervention, the ByteDance-owned platform will be forced to terminate its entire Canadian workforce. The platform says it has paid $340 million in Canadian taxes from 2019 to 2024, employing about 350 people across its Toronto and Vancouver offices, citing 14 million Canadian users. De Eyre tells Bloomberg that some employees have left for other opportunities since the shutdown order, and they aren’t legally allowed to rehire for those roles.
In his letter, Chew criticizes the lack of response to TikTok’s requests, especially since the shutdown order came before Mark Carney was elected and while Justin Trudeau was still Prime Minister of Canada.
“There is no upside to this outdated and counterproductive government order, which was issued under a different government and in a different era, and which doesn’t reflect today’s reality,” he writes.
“This order will only punish Canadian workers and content creators, without addressing supposed security concerns. No evidence has been presented to show that TikTok is itself a security threat to Canada; rather, this order is based on sensationalized reporting and tenuous claims of national security — none of which are addressed by shutting down our local offices.”
Chew writes that the company has made repeated requests to discuss solutions through the national security review process, but has not had any substantive discussions with the Canadian government. He proposes solutions through enhanced data security protocols and platform transparency and oversight measures to “provide greater accountability on issues such as online safety, elections and foreign interference.”
Though Wednesday (July 16) marked his two-week timeframe, Chew has not yet received a meeting with Minister Joly.
Read more here.
The Prism Prize Goes on Pause
The Prism Prize is hitting pause.
As one of Canada’s biggest boosters for music videos, the annual award recognizes the best Canadian music video of the year, with the winner getting a $20,000 cash prize. The MVP Project is also going on hiatus this year.
Known as the richest cash prize for music videos in North America, the award has recognized videos for songs by a variety of artists, including Charlotte Day Wilson, Kaytranada, Snotty Nose Rez Kids and Mustafa, who took home the award for a second time at last year’s ceremony.
For founder Louis Calabro, vp of programming & awards at the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, the purpose of the break is to inspire new ideas and adapt to the current music video landscape.
“The decision to pause is a proactive move,” he says. “The Prism Prize was a success, but I have the mentality that you shouldn’t wait for something to crumble. You start to re-evaluate so you can fire it up even better.”
When Calabro launched the award independently in 2012 alongside Neil Haverty, it was a pivotal moment for music videos. MuchMusic was on the wane, and YouTube was taking over as the primary platform for the medium. Funding was dwindling too, with Bell Media later axing the MuchFACT music video grant in 2017 after the CRTC removed the condition in its MuchMusic TV license. That fund contributed $2 million annually for music videos.
The Prism Prize evolved to meet the moment. While initially independent, it became part of the Academy (which also administers the Canadian Screen Awards) soon after — recognizing music videos and their creators not only as part of the music industry, but the film and TV industry as well. Artists like Director X, Karena Evans and Chandler Levack and more all kept a foot in the medium while also moving into TV and film.
Six years later, the Academy and Prism Prize launched the Music Video Production (MVP) Project in collaboration with RBC, which acted as a juried incubator and funder for Canadian videos. That grant brought in just shy of $2 million of funding and created 137 videos with grants valued between $5,000 and $15,000.
“There wasn’t a single funding change that triggered the pause,” Calabro says. But in order for the Prism Prize to continue delivering the production quality and visuals it’s known for, finding new partners is key. “That’s part of why we’re speaking with various funding agencies, to ensure we can continue to evolve and meet the high standard we’ve set,” he explains.
While Calabro says the two hiatuses are not directly connected, there is a shared desire to emphasize a top-tier quality of the work or the events slipping due to resource pressures. “We felt it was the right time to pause, reevaluate and take the space to explore what the next version of each initiative could look like,” Calabro says.
Read more here.
Pride at Warner Music Canada Hosts Its First Songcamp for Trans and Non-Binary Artists
A new songcamp is creating space for trans and non-binary artists in the Canadian music industry.
On July 7, in collaboration with Canadian singer-songwriter T. Thomason, Pride at Warner Music Canada hosted Track4Track, a songwriting camp and mentorship program designed for trans and non-binary musicians. The initiative aims to bridge the gap between emerging and established creatives, providing a space where everyone can create freely in community and safety.
For its inaugural edition, the initiative (also known as T4T) hosted 12 trans and non-binary artists. The songcamp was an idea that blossomed between Erin Carroll, a Warner Music Canada publicist and the Pride at Warner Music Canada co-chair, alongside co-organizer and participant T. Thomason.
Now a well-established artist on Six Shooter Records, Thomason’s idea goes back to shortly after he was a contestant on CTV’s singing competition show The Launch. Every time he was writing songs with outside songwriters or producers, he felt like he was being made to share variations of his “journey” as a trans person, whether or not it was relevant to the songs they were making.
“I started thinking about an all trans writing camp back in 2019, when I found myself in more and more pop writing sessions where I was consistently the only trans person,” he tells Billboard Canada. “It is so rare for a room to be made up entirely of trans people in a mainstream music setting, but this camp showed that it is possible, and it is powerful.”
When the Pride at WMC team brought the idea forward, Carroll knew Thomason was the right fit to co-organize the songcamp.
“Building a space and atmosphere for these artists in which they could be themselves brought forward the beginnings of some incredible music,” shares Carroll. “There are so many amazing trans and non-binary Canadian musicians, and I’m glad we were able to foster an environment for this community to continue to thrive.”
This year’s participants include artists like Nefe, R.Flex, Melody McKiver, club-pop artist Ceréna, rapper Kimmortal, DIANA’s Carmen Elle and multi-hyphenate creative Wild Black, along with producer Truss and Juno-winning engineer Beau Cassidy.
In the music industry, Thomason says it’s rare for a recording session to include more than one trans person, let alone 12. That’s what made it such a “healing and transformative” experience, he says, and represents what the music industry could look like in the future: “I want as many people to experience that feeling as possible.”
Among the mentors was Atlantic-signed artist corook, known for viral hits like “THEY!” and “If I Were a Fish,”
“Writing rooms are always a vulnerable place, so there was something really powerful about having all the artists, writers and producers in those rooms be gender queer,” they say. “This writing camp showed me how powerful it would be to get to experience that kind of comfort, and it’s now something I want to seek out for myself.”
While there are no concrete plans to host a second songcamp, this type of programming is a step forward for supporting trans, non-binary and two-spirit artists. “We’re happy there was intentional space created for the community, and hope the future brings bigger and longer song camps,” says Carroll.
For Thomason, the impact of the T4T songcamp is just the beginning of boundary-pushing in the music industry.
“The artists who attended brought their absolute A-game and the songs that came out of it are reflections of what happens when creatives are given a space to focus on expression, connection [and] joy,” he says.
Find a full list of participating artists here.
