The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) is fighting for you.

Yes, you!

Even if you do not work in the screen industry, you have a stake in this fight.

ACTRA members are the “Canadian canaries in the coal mine” in the fight against artificial intelligence. The screen industry is experiencing the earliest labour disruptions, ahead of other job sectors, due to artificial intelligence. This means that the progress made by ACTRA in their labour negotiations could set a precedent for future labour negotiations regarding AI in other fields.

In 2023, the SAG-AFTRA strike generated waves in the screen industry. However, ACTRA’s actions have been less known, overshadowed by Hollywood’s global cultural dominance.

So, what is ACTRA doing to protect Canadian performers and Canadian content from the threat of AI?

ACTRA is a union representing Canadian artists in various creative industries. The union operates through the organization of executive staff, national committees, and regional branches.

Currently, part of their goal is seeking regulation for the use of GenAI in creative industries to protect creative workers by unifying worker power, negotiating agreements, and lobbying for protective government legislation.

Canada has a smaller influence on the global film industry compared to Hollywood, made clear by the disruptions that the SAG-AFTRA strikes had in Canada. This exposed the need to not only protect art from GenAI but specifically ‘Canadian’ art and sovereignty.

While some industries view the advancements in AI as technological innovation, ACTRA largely views it as a threat to performers. Dr. Rafael Grohmann, Assistant Professor of Media Studies (Critical Platform Studies) at the University of Toronto, cites a quotation from the WGA explaining that “AI is not a creative process, but a financially driven entity set out to limit our progress and devalue humanity.”

ACTRA lists issues with AI, including pay, rights, transparency, awareness, NDAs, reputation, artistic expression, harmful content, equality, collective bargaining, and Canadian law.

One major concern is the use of deepfakes in pornographic content, typically depicting women. In ACTRA’s submission to Canadian Heritage and Innovation, Science and Industry, they repeatedly mention the need for “Protection of both moral and economic audiovisual rights of performers.”

In their assessment on Bill C-27, Marie Kelly and Ian Chai point out that unauthorized use of performances to train data is a violation of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) rights, causing “Reputational harm, job displacement,” devaluing human creativity, and degrading the quality of cultural output.

The 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike caused major disruptions for film production. The negotiations centered around streaming residuals and AI protections.

Despite the strike taking place in the US, Canadians here at home felt the effects too. Eleanor Noble says that during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes,”We unnecessarily suffered the consequences. We are pushing for greater support in Canadian storytelling created and performed by Canadians.”

While SAG-AFTRA was striking in 2023, ACTRA stood in solidarity but did not strike since their IPA (Independent Production Agreement) had not expired yet. Interestingly, when it came time for ACTRA to re-negotiate its agreement in 2025, compared to SAG-AFTRA, negotiations were smoother with no strike action.

Currently, ACTRA’s main power lies in negotiating collective agreements, which have a term of 3 years. The SAG-AFTRA strikes provided a good foundation for ACTRA as they sought equal protection. ACTRA’s negotiations were based on the “3 Cs“: Consent, Compensation, Control.

In 2025, ACTRA ratified its new IPA. Eleanor Noble, ACTRA National President, says that ACTRA members narrowly avoided a strike after the ACTRA bargaining team reached a tentative deal after 3 weeks of negotiations.

Other unions such as SAG-AFTRA, union des artistes, Equity UK, The Directors Guild of Canada, The Writers Guild of Canada, IATSE (crews), TAMAC (agents), Canadian Labour Congress, and the Federation of International Actors (FIA) physically attended these negotiations, standing by to support ACTRA.

This impressive display of union solidarity likely played a significant role in reaching a deal, symbolizing the institutional power of unions. According to Dr. Rafael Grohmann, this institutional power lies in the history of guilds and their establishment in the screen industry.

The new IPA lists many protections regarding digital replication and alteration of performers. These include:

1. Without informed consent from the performer, use of their digital replica is not allowed.
2.  Performers must be compensated for the creation and use of their replica.
3.  48 hours’ notice must be given, and the performer needs to know how their replica will be used, with signed consent obtained.
4. These replicas can only be used on the production that the performer was part of.
5. Voice replicas, digital alteration of a performance, background performers, and animation also follow the same provisions.
6. Producers must inform ACTRA if using GenAI synthetic performers. These are not considered “performers” since they don’t exist as people. ACTRA’s definition of a performer is an actual person, but SAG-AFTRA’s agreement does not include this specification.

The ACTRA “A.I. Best Practices Guide” assists in navigating the IPA and outlines considerations to protect performer rights. They state, “Productions must ensure AI compliance with union agreements, copyright law, and ethical best practices.”  Performers who feel their rights under the IPA were violated can report this to ACTRA.

Now ACTRA is more focused on lobbying for government legislation under Canada’s Copyright Act to solidify the protections gained from the IPA.

ACTRA has made submissions to Canadian Heritage and Innovation, Science and Industry, demanding legislation that helps performers combat the misapplication of their image by deepfakes.

By limiting copyright to “AI-assisted material with a clear human component,” they hope to discourage generative AI use for producers who want to qualify for copyright protection of their work, reinforcing the idea that AI should support human labour.

ACTRA’s 2023 submission regarding Bill C-27, Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA) introduced on June 16, 2022, informs the government about the risks of AI towards Canadian performers and Canadian culture. The government is still working on this Bill, but progress has unfortunately stalled, with the second reading completed back in April 2023.

ACTRA thinks that the current version of the AIDA gives too much power to regulators and does not make performers feel secure.

They suggest removing “Part 3 of Bill C-27 regarding AIDA and for it to be reintroduced as a standalone bill,” since it will take time to evaluate the complexity of AI risks.

ACTRA Toronto “is asking the federal government to step-in and ensure AI system developers and users are held liable for complying with existing legal frameworks, including intellectual property, data protection and privacy laws.”

Despite ACTRA’s advancements in worker protections against AI, there remain some further issues and concerns.

In an interview with John Cleland, ACTRA Toronto Executive Councilor and AI Subcommittee Co-Chair, he brings up multiple areas that still need attention.

Unfortunately, consent can be a condition of employment. Productions may ask for consent to create a digital replica before a performer takes the job, and if they don’t consent, then they may lose the job. Many smaller actors don’t have the same leverage as famous actors to negotiate this.

When a performer consents to creating an AI replica, it is not guaranteed that it will be deleted after the work. “The agreement does not address how the data or the replica is disposed of after it is used. So that has to be negotiated by the individual performer.”

The third party hired by the film production to do the scan is not addressed in the agreement. So there are no regulations on how they might use biometric data that they scanned from the performer.

There is also no provision to stop using a performer’s likeness after they die. “Consent may not be revoked after it has been given. If a Performer wishes to revoke consent after death, that must be done at the time of contracting,” states ACTRA Toronto.

Another issue is that the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act has been stuck in committee since 2022. Contract law can only go so far in regulating generative AI, so legislation from the government is needed to protect creators. This lifts the burden for performers to hire lawyers, since the onus will be on the government to enforce these laws.

Divya Shahani, Entertainment Lawyer, Wildeboer Dellelce LLP, says legislation is slow, and Julia Knope writes unions are worried that their agreements might not keep up with the fast pace of AI advancements.

In general, AI adoption by the screen industry leads to more competition as production studios begin to take advantage of non-union actors’ lack of protection and reuse digital replicas instead of hiring fresh talent.

The bottom line is money, and “if it’s cheaper for them [production studios] to use replicas than humans, I don’t know how we stop them from doing that,” says John Cleland.

John Cleland tells people to protect themselves by staying informed and urges people to write to their MPs and MPPs to put pressure on the creation of new government legislation.

He also mentions the importance of consumers. We choose what to consume, which sends a message to the industry about what we want to watch. Without consumer demand, AI content is not profitable and does not exist.

Whether you are a performer or not, AI affects us all. AI is not inevitable, and we all have a say in how it can progress alongside humanity.

“ACTRA A.I. Best Practices Guide.” ACTRA Toronto, 2026, actratoronto.com/uncategorized/2025/05/a-i-best-practices-guide/#theguide

“ACTRA IPA Ratification Information and Overview.” YouTube, uploaded by ACTRA National, 15 Jan. 2025, youtu.be/k7ch1Nil6eE?si=WoReNriwSyXEU76I

“ACTRA Toronto Reel Talk with John Cleland: ‘Perspectives on AI’.” YouTube, uploaded by ACTRA Toronto, 19 Dec. 2024, youtu.be/THWgfUBgURo?si=bKBtAJ05pJosB6zF

“Artificial Intelligence Resources.” ACTRA Toronto, 2026, actratoronto.com/artificial-intelligence-resources/

“C-27.” LEGISinfo – Parliament of Canada, 6 Jan. 2025, www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/44-1/c-27

“Double Trouble: The Implications of On-Screen A.I.” YouTube, uploaded by CION North, 3 Oct. 2024, youtu.be/2ffsksZqgWs?si=nod5xP8LnjkkSl6o

Grohmann et al. “Worker-led AI governance: Hollywood writers’ strikes and the worker power.” Information, communication & society, 22 Jun. 2025, pp.1-19, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2521375#abstract

Guly, Christopher. “ACTRA warns CRTC of AI threat to on-screen performers.” Playback, 23 May 2025, playbackonline.ca/2025/05/23/actra-warns-crtc-of-ai-threat-to-on-screen-performers/

“IPA 2025 – 2027 is Ratified.” ACTRA Toronto, 2025, actratoronto.com/ipa-tentative-agreement-notice/

Karadeglija, Anja. “Don’t count AI-generated content as CanCon, CRTC hears.” The Canadian Press, 22 May 2025, www.thecanadianpressnews.ca/politics/don-t-count-ai-generated-content-as-cancon-crtc-hears/article_e3d55ea3-13ae-540a-ab02-71a9d5b7bd76.html

Kelly, Marie. “ACTRA Submission to Canadian Heritage and Innovation, Science and Industry: Consultation on a Modern Copyright Framework for Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things.” ACTRA, 17 Sep. 2021, www.actra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/ACTRA-Submission_Consultation-on-Modern-Copyright-Framework-for-AI-and-IoT.pdf

Kelly, Marie. “Futureproofing AI.” ACTRA Magazine, 2024, actramagazine.ca/futureproofing-ai/

Kelly, Marie and Ian Chai “Assessing the Impact of Canada’s Proposed Bill C-27, Artificial Intelligence and Data Act.” ACTRA, 8 Sep. 2023, www.actra.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/PA-AI-Submission.pdf

Knope, Julia. “U.S. actors secured AI protections. When will Canadians get the same?” CBC, 27 Dec. 2023, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/u-s-actors-secured-ai-protections-when-will-canadians-get-the-same-1.7057213

LaCasse, Alex. “Bill C-27 awaits fate after Canada’s prime minister resigns.” IAPP, 10 Jan. 2025, iapp.org/news/a/bill-c-27-awaits-fate-after-canadas-prime-minister-resigns

Li, Li. “AI’s systemic glitch.” ACTRA Magazine, 2024, actramagazine.ca/ai-systemic-glitch/

“Mercedes Morris on SkyMed, AI Contracts in the Film Industry & Why you should join ACTRA.” YouTube, uploaded by The Gifted Gab, 22 Jan. 2025, youtu.be/r7P2FwgW_fo?si=SUwEI9Pv8JsLSSut&t=2180

Noble, Eleanor. “Solidarity without borders.” ACTRA Magazine, 2024, actramagazine.ca/solidarity-without-borders/

Stump, Scott. “Val Kilmer’s Daughter Responds to Criticism of AI Performance, Says Late Dad Wanted to ‘Set Precedent’.” TODAY, 29 Apr. 2026, www.today.com/popculture/movies/val-kilmer-daughter-mercedes-defends-ai-performance-rcna342650