As the documentary “That Never Happened” is released across Canada, I am reflecting on my own rights battle. The past seems to be repeating in many ways. I would never say that my plight is in anyway close to what my grandparents and great-grandparents endured, but there is a disturbing similarity.
If immigrant rights were taken away, and the people were used to create Canadian Parks, highways and other infrastructure, what is the difference if artist rights, are now being threatened. The creative economy is the new global system and copyright is the core of AI and the digital frontier. Creatives who create from ancient whisperings, and hand talents that speak through ancestral teachings, must speak up now. The intangible cultural system, which is the economic wheel, is here. The cultural movement is a people up system. Rights must be in place or the digital economy will rob the artists and creators blind, and the lost content will feed the system before the people.
ARTIST MICHELLE LOUGHERY 