Canada. Royal Commission on Publications : The Royal Commission on Publications was established under Order in Council P.C. 1270, 16 September 1960, under Part I of the Inquiries Act (R.S.C., 1952, c.154), and on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Commission was mandated to inquire into and report on: (a) the recent and present position of and prospects for Canadian magazines and other periodicals with special but not exclusive consideration being given to problems arising from competition with similar publications which are largely or entirely edited outside of Canada or are largely or entirely foreign in content; and (b) to make recommendations to the government on possible measures which, while consistent with the maintenance of the freedom of the press, would contribute to the further development of a Canadian identity through a genuinely Canadian periodical press. The Commissioners were Michael Grattan O'Leary, Chairman; John George Johnston and Claude P. Beaubien. The Secretary was P. Michael Pitfield.
In the late 1950s the publishers of Canadian national periodicals made repeated representations to the Government of Canada claiming that the growing competition of foreign periodicals, especially American, threatened their very existence. This competition included mainly the following types of periodicals: "overflow publications" (surplus copies of American magazines dumped on the Canadian market at non-competitive prices after the domestic market had paid basic costs), "split runs" (American magazines in which Canadian advertising had been substituted for American advertising), and "Canadian editions" (American magazines containing Canadian advertising and a small insert of Canadian editorial matter). Although Canadian magazines had to bear editorial costs, they could not attract much advertising revenue. On the other hand, American magazines did not have very heavy editorial costs relating to Canada, but they did have large circulations in Canada and drew substantial advertising revenue away from the Canadian magazines. In view of the rapidly diminishing number of periodicals published in Canada, Canadian publishers were aware that Canadian periodicals of popular interest might soon number no more than two or three. In 1958 the Government of Canada recommended the repeal of the magazine tax, which was 20 per cent on the advertising revenue of special Canadian editions of foreign magazines. Further, in September 1960, the Government of Canada established the Royal Commission on Publications. According to the Globe and Mail, "the decision to launch the commission inquiry follows an unsuccessful year-long effort by a Cabinet committee under Postmaster General William Hamilton to devise some effective way of protecting Canadian magazines from U.S. competition that did not interfere with freedom of the press nor create a Canadian monopoly." (See R. Bothwell, I. Drummond and J. English, Canada Since 1945: Power, Politics and Provincialism, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1981, pp. 210-211; One Canada: Memoirs of the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker, 1957-1962, Toronto, MacMillan, 1976, pp. 305-307; the Canadian Annual Review, 1961, pp. 341-343; and the Globe and Mail, Toronto, 19 September 1960).
Hearings of the Commission were held in Halifax, Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Regina and Vancouver from 14 November 1960 to 20 January 1961. There were 188 submissions and more than 300 exhibits filed with the commission. RG33-47 General Inventory
