Friday, May 2, 2014

Council statement regarding "Helen Lawrence"

At its April meeting, Council reviewed the recent events surrounding the cancellation of Canadian Stage's presentation of Helen Lawrence at the Festival TransAmériques (FTA).

One of Equity’s chief responsibilities is to act on behalf of its members when the going gets tough. In almost all cases, that means taking the personal concerns and decisions of individual members and putting them forward as the concerns and decisions of Equity. This approach provides important anonymity and protection for member deliberation on the topic at hand.

Council supports our Executive Director’s careful handling of the review process on this production, and her decision not to go into greater public detail on the matter.

Members should also be aware that Council, not staff, sets the rules governing review of all concession requests.* Perhaps the most important among them is this: where members have already been contracted, a request cannot be approved without their majority approval.

Whether on this production, or any other, our members need to have confidence that their decisions are respected by their association and their colleagues. Council wishes to express its unequivocal support of the artists involved in Helen Lawrence, and calls upon all members to do likewise.

*For a more complete explanation of the concession process, and how requests are decided, see here.

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