Whatever It Takes by Stephen Stohn

Author:Stephen Stohn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2018-02-05T05:00:00+00:00

Daisy: I was with the organization right from the start in 1974, and I did everything. I sold tickets, I did the membership right from scratch, and all the dealings, including acquiring the rights from Walt and Stan. The first time we had a press conference to announce the nominees in 1976, nobody showed up, not even my directors. People were so uninterested. And to see it go from that to where it is now is amazing.

In preparation for the possibility of a strike, Daisy and I, along with some other senior members of the Academy administration, met with CBC and secured their agreement that the Academy itself would mount the production of the Junos in 1999. In effect, the Academy would produce the show and then license the broadcast rights to CBC. In this way, production of the Junos would be one-step removed from the CBC, and hopefully one-step removed from being shut down by a strike.

A new company, CARAS Productions Inc., was formed. With Daisy and me as signing officers, this new company proceeded to directly hire all the necessary technicians and production staff for the Junos, including Lynn Harvey as the show’s producer.

It was good that we had taken this precaution, even though at first it appeared that it was for naught. On Wednesday, February 17, 1999, CEP workers walked off the job, and amid the havoc this created with the CBC’s normal broadcast operations, CEP made it clear they were preparing to picket CBC’s broadcast of The Juno Awards, scheduled for less than three weeks later, on March 7.

Since we were now an independent production company, a picket would not directly affect us; although, it raised the spectre of confrontation, possibly escalating to violence. More to the point, though, was the likelihood that other union members (including our friends at IATSE) would refuse to cross the picket line, and this could seriously impact our production.

We remained hopeful that the strike would be short-lived, but as the broadcast date approached, our hopes were dimming. On the ­Tuesday five days before the broadcast, Daisy and I met to discuss enhanced security with Hamilton police, the RCMP, and management of Copps Coliseum. At first the meeting was exciting, sort of like Spy vs. Spy, as we discussed setting up secret methods of getting the broadcast signal out of Copps Coliseum to the CBC broadcast centre. (The main method would be the highly visible satellite dishes, but we would also have ­separate microwave and telephone-wire links.)

The meeting became more sobering when the discussion turned to the advisability of hiring additional security personnel, including bodyguards for Daisy and me. That brought home the reality of the ­situation we were in; it seemed very over the top, but as we looked around, we realized everyone in the room was serious.

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