Whitehorse school among 300 required to turn in teaching plans as part of copyright lawsuit

Teachers at a secondary school in Whitehorsehave some homework to do,and it entails a lot of paperwork.

Most education departments across the country are involved in a legal dispute withAccess Copyright,an organization that represents and collects royalties for tens of thousands of Canadian writers, artists and publishers.

The lawsuit has been ongoing since February 2018. The disagreement isover how much fees schools need to payto copy published material.

As part of acourt order related to the lawsuit, teachers at 300 selected schools across the country are required to provide their lesson plans from the past seven years.

F.H. Collins Secondary School in Whitehorse was among thoserandomly selected. It is the only Yukon school included inthe order.

That can be, you know, an immense amount of work.- Sue Ross, Yukon Teachers' Association president

Sue Ross,president of the Yukon Teachers' Association, saidteachers were notified about the order around mid-December.

She saidfor some teachers, it could meandigging up 800 days worthof teaching plans.

"That can be, you know, an immense amount of work," said Ross.

She said the association would like teachers to be able to fulfil the court order during work hours.

"So we're asking that TOC [teachers on call, or substitute teachers] relief be provided."

Ross is unclear when teachers have to submit the documents. She alsowasn't sure how many teachers are affected by the order. The F.H. Collins website lists more than 50 teaching staff.

CBC requested an interview with a spokesperson from Yukon's Department of Education regarding this story, but it has not been granted as of Thursday afternoon.

But in an email, a departmental spokesperson stated that the department would comply with the court order, and that schools have been requested by theCouncil of Ministers of Education of Canada Copyright Consortium to provide the documents by "the middle of January."

Education departments started the lawsuit

The lawsuit started when education departments across Canadaclaimed the kindergarten to Grade 12 school system was paying too much in fees to copy published material. They suedAccess Copyright for $25 million.

Access Copyright then counter-sued for $50 million, arguing that Canadian schools make more than 150 million photocopies of copyrighted material each year that require payment.

B.C. and Quebec are the only jurisdictions not part of the lawsuit.

In 2012, Canada changed the rules surrounding theeducational use of copyrighted materials.

The law established "fair dealing" for school use. A furtherSupreme Court decision ruled that teachers in Canada can make copies of certain materials for classes without paying royalties.