Concluding Remarks
We live in an increasingly digital world. As technologies to digitize source content mature and become more efficient and widely accessible, the relevant question becomes, how to identify and develop coherent strategies and practical measures with a view to fostering shared citizenship among Canadians. In an attempt to answer this question, let us go back in time to 1991, when the Broadcasting Act came into effect, which states:
"…that the Canadian broadcasting system should through its programming and the employment opportunities arising out of its operations, serve the needs and interests, and reflect the circumstances and aspirations, of Canadian men, women and children, including equal rights, the linguistic duality and multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society, and the special place of Aboriginal peoples within that society." (section 3.1.d.iii)
Technology is the perfect medium to virtually reach out to diverse communities from sea to shining sea, making it the holy grail of creating a more socially inclusive, tolerant and just society. Consequently, Canada needs a similar piece of legislation for digital media, where diverse cultural communities, large and small, can tell their histories and stories on the web, and learn from each other. Like the Broadcasting Act, digital media "should be one in which producers, writers, technicians and artists from different cultural and social perspectives have the opportunity to create a variety of programming and to develop their skills." (Public Notice CRTC 1999-97). Only by doing so, can we as a country aspire to create a new international spirit of pluralism, where all Canadians, from Aboriginal Peoples to recent émigrés, feel that they are an integral part of Canadian society.
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