The Master-Scene: Instant World and the Right to Communicate

This chapter will offer an analysis and a re-examination of the final report of the Telecommission Studies—Instant World—that represents the core manifesto of the Telecommunication Study Mission’s venture. The report was mainly centred on its discussion and recommendations, for the first time in Canada and around the world, on the importance of adopting a “right to communicate” as a new concept in the communications public policies. Instant World, in fact, had proposed “no recommendations” as stated in the archival diaries of its director, rather it carried a strong “plea” for federal/provincial cooperation. Among the main themes discussed in this chapter are the right to be heard; the right to privacy and not to communication, the questions of public participation; and the notion of imperialism and the haves and the have-nots.