EQUIFLASH [HELP KEEP KIDS SAFE AT WORK: ACTRA TORONTO AND EQUITY WELCOME RE-INTRODUCTION OF CHILD PERFORMERS' BILL]

[CAEA e-drive]

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HELP KEEP KIDS SAFE AT WORK: ACTRA TORONTO AND EQUITY WELCOME
RE-INTRODUCTION OF CHILD PERFORMERS' BILL
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Before the Ontario Legislative Assembly adjourned for summer recess,
ACTRA Toronto and the Canadian Actors' Equity Association (Equity)
welcomed the introduction of Bill 17 - Protecting Child Performers Act
by NDP M.P.P. Paul Miller (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek).

"Bill 17 provides protections for specific vulnerabilities facing child
performers in the film, television and live performance industries,"
said David Sparrow, President of ACTRA Toronto. "The Ministry of Labour
has taken steps to educate and protect new Ontario workers in other
industries but, without legislation, child performers remain
unprotected." An earlier version of this bill had been ordered for Third
Reading before dying on the Order Paper when the provincial election was
called.

ACTRA and Equity have strong measures to ensure child performers are
protected. Children who aren't working under an ACTRA or Equity
contract, however, have little protection under the law.

"Unlike other industries where children are prohibited from working
until they're at least 14 years old, the entertainment industry
regularly engages children on stage and on screen from an early age. But
no legislation specifically protects them," said Equity Executive
Director Arden R. Ryshpan. "For the benefit of children without
collective agreement protections, we ask Ontario legislators to pass
Bill 17 as soon as possible when the legislature returns on October
20th."

"We're counting on all three political parties to support M.P.P.
Miller's bill and continue the work begun last year," said Sparrow. "To
quote the Minister of Labour Kevin Flynn, 'Let's not wait for
adversity.' Let's protect all young workers in Ontario."

ACTRA Toronto is the largest organization within ACTRA, representing
more than 15,000 of Canada's 22,000 professional performers working in
the English-language recorded media in Canada. As an advocate for
Canadian culture since 1943, ACTRA is a member-driven union that
continues to secure rights and respect for the work of professional
performers.

Canadian Actors' Equity Association (Equity) is the voice of
professional artists working in live performance in English Canada. It
is a national artists' association representing almost 6,000 performers,
directors, choreographers, fight directors and stage managers working in
theatre, opera and dance from coast to coast.

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Link to media release:
http://www.caea.com/EquityWeb/NewsAndEvents/News/2014/Bill17-NR-Reintrod
uction.pdf

For more information contact:

Karen Woolridge, Public Relations Officer
ACTRA Toronto
email: kwoolridge at actratoronto.com
Mobile: 416-937-1437

Lynn McQueen, Communications Director
Canadian Actors' Equity Association
email: lynn at caea.com
Mobile: 416-476-7037

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