MMF Canada strives to support transformational leadership, and encourages industry professionals to feel fully empowered in their careers. Managers and artists have an opportunity to stand for positive change and create a safer music industry for all stakeholders. This in-depth training session will combine a special anti-harassment and safer spaces industry training, paired alongside a legal presentation of preventative safeguards for contracts and a Q+A about best practices for addressing issues that arise.
MMF Canada encourages artist managers, self-managed artists, promoters, tour managers, venue workers and music industry personnel to attend.
TICKETS
Registration for this session is free of charge ($125 value), although we encourage those that are able to enter a Pay-What-You-Can ticket amount. These funds will be donated to the Unison Benevolent Fund, to support their counselling services and crisis line. The suggested donation is $20, although any amount helps. You can also donate directly here: https://www.unisonfund.ca/support-us/donate
This Masterclass is taking place in two parts. Registrants are strongly encouraged to attend both sessions.
PART 1: 12:00PM - 3:00PM EDT
Safer Music Spaces, Presented by Good Night Out Vancouver
Total Length: 3 hours
Join Good Night Out for a deep dive into safer music spaces. As the industry starts to open up, it is important that all stakeholders, managers, venue workers, prompters and artists build their capacity to prevent and respond to sexual violence. This issue did not go away during the pandemic, in fact in many ways it has left corners of the music industry more vulnerable. The good news is that many of the practises put in place during COVID, translate well to this conversation.
This workshop will refresh your understanding of terminology, consent, and the prevalence of sexual misconduct in the industry before moving into the risks in music and arts spaces. We will then move into tools that people at all levels of the industry can make use of, including bystander intervention. Bring your questions to talk through with the group!
Agenda:
Intros
Safer Spaces triva – providing a recap of terms, basics of consent, statistics about sexual violence in music spaces
Risks for perpetuation of SV in these spaces (overview of rape culture in the industry)
Short Break
Tools for artists, venue owners and others in the industry.
Tools will include: code of conduct for crews, reporting systems, conduct check-ins on the road, training for teams, a check list for TMs to run through at the venue, and safety riders)
Bystander intervention
Open Q and A
PART 2: 3:30PM - 4:30PM EDT
Legal Safeguards, with Sarah Falzon, Associate, Taylor Oballa Murray Leyland LLP
Total length: approx. 60 minutes
Managers and artists have an opportunity to collectively mitigate against sexual violence and harassment throughout the industry, by including protective and preventative language in legal agreements.
What are some of the legal measures that artist managers and self-managed artists can take to protect themselves, their clients (and their content) against sexual violence and resulting fallout? This workshop will be a discussion of current pathways to legal recourse, and will examine various legal safeguards which can be negotiated into artist agreements, performance contracts and production deals, including:
Sunset clauses and protection of works and commissions in the instance of harassment
Morality clauses and implications for label, management and production deals
Termination clauses for artist management and production deals
NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) and best practices
Q+A
ABOUT GOOD NIGHT OUT VANCOUVER
Good Night Out Vancouver is a non-profit society focused on reducing sexual harassment and sexual assault in the live music and nightlife industries. Good Night Out was founded out of an awareness of the links between alcohol consumption and sexual misconduct and was initiated from community concerns that staff and patrons of music and nightlife spaces could benefit from education around how to recognize, interrupt, and prevent sexual harassment and assault.
Good Night Out offers workshops on sexual violence prevention to staff and volunteers working in arts, music and nightlife, as well as artists and promoters build their own capacity to prevent and respond to issues of misconduct. They also have an outreach team that works in the entertainment district of Vancouver as well as at other arts and live music events. Good Night Out works with organizations, venues and teams to write their own policy and prevention plans in order to be incompliance with worker’s compensation legislation and to better keep everyone safe.
Good Night Out’s work in this area has lead to partnerships with venues of all sizes, music festivals, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and many other stakeholders in the hospitality and entertainment sector. Read more about the work of Good Night Out in Flare, Vice and on the CBC.
This session will be facilitated by Stacey Forrester from Good Night Out Vancouver. Stacey is a former community health nurse and current community planner. Stacey received a 2019 Honorable Mention from the Canadian Institute of Planners for her for the publication: “A European Approach to Nightlife, ” as well as nominations for both a City of Vancouver Award of Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion and a Government of BC Community Safety and Crime Prevention Award for her work in the area of public realm safety.
Contact:
education@goodnightoutvancouver.com
goodnightoutvancouver.com
Facebook: Good Night Out Vancouver
Twitter: goodnightoutVAN
Instagram: goodnightout_vancouver
ABOUT SARAH FALZON
Sarah Falzon is an associate at Taylor Oballa Murray Leyland LLP. Sarah joined the firm in 2016, prior to which she was an associate at a Toronto-based music law firm and at a full service Toronto law firm where she was a strong advocate for clients, regularly representing them at different levels of court. She currently practices in the areas of music and entertainment law, primarily working with and representing artists and music services companies navigating through varying stages of their careers and business.
Sarah is a graduate of McMaster University (Hons. B.Sc. in Mathematics & Statistics) and Osgoode Hall Law School (J.D.). During her time at Osgoode, she was co-president of the Osgoode Entertainment and Sports Law Association, a member of the Mock Trial Band, and a case-worker with the Innocence Project and Innocence Canada (formerly AIDWYC).
Sarah is a contributing author to Canadian Musician magazine, a member of the Ryerson Music Den advisory committee, and has been a guest speaker for various organizations, including Canadian Music Week, Canada’s Music Incubator, Honey Jam, Law in Action Within Schools, and Ryerson University. Sarah is a musician herself, and has been playing the violin for over 20 years.
ABOUT UNISON BENEVOLENT FUND
Unison Fund, Canada’s music industry charity, provides counselling and emergency relief services to the Canadian music community in times of hardship or difficulties. For over a decade, Unison has been committed to helping producers, engineers, singers/songwriters, musicians, production crews, and thousands more through our financial assistance and counselling and health solutions programs.