ELAN’s Response to Enquête’s Live Nation Report

February 6, 2026
Montreal

Last night, Radio-Canada’s premier investigative journalism program Enquête aired an in-depth report examining the business model and practices of global live entertainment giant Live Nation and it’s Montreal-based subsidiary Evenko, in which Live Nation acquired a 49% ownership stake in 2019.

The investigation is the result of careful work by one of Quebec’s most respected investigative journalists and investigative journalism teams. It was meticulously fact-checked and reviewed by Radio-Canada’s legal department prior to broadcast.

The dynamics highlighted in the investigation have been well known to ELAN for years. We hope this report engages the culture sector and our elected officials in an open conversation about structural problems and long-term solutions capable of strengthening Quebec’s independent live music ecosystem.

One such solution would be the introduction of a ticket levy on large-scale concerts as proposed in an open letter by Les SMAQ in March of 2025, funding a dedicated support program for independent music venues across Québec. This private fund would offer autonomy and long-term stability to these space that present a majority of Quebec’s professional English-language concerts. Inspired by a similar mechanism in the United Kingdom this approach offers a viable way to bridge the growing gap between vertically integrated multinational promoters and small independent venues, while maintaining the sector’s ecosystemic balance.

ELAN urges the various levels of government to encourage the sector to implement these sorts of solutions, necessary to ensure the survival of Quebec’s cultural ecosystem. This is crucial to the Anglophone community’s artists and arts works as they are often the most at risk in Quebec when monopolies and profit motives are the primary powers that influence decisions.

We hope that future decisions will help support communities that make the diverse populations survive in the culture of Quebec.

Miranda Castravelli

Executive Director, ELAN

Land Acknowledgement

ELAN is an official minority language organization within a country that recognizes two languages as official. ELAN is located in Tiohtià:ke, the original name for Montreal in Kanien’kéha, the language of the Mohawk—also known as Mooniyang, which is the Anishinaabeg name given to the city by the Algonquin. While we are based in this city, our projects have also taken place in many regions across Quebec.

We acknowledge the colonial origin of English and French in Canada, and recognize that both languages benefit from official status throughout the land. The province that we know as Quebec is an amalgamation of the traditional territories of the Innu and Inuit nations, Algonquian nations, as well as the Mohawk nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Kanien’kéha and Anishinaabemowin are but two of the original languages of this province; Atikamekw, Cree, Inuktitut, and Innu-aimun are also among the many Indigenous languages spoken across Quebec as majority languages, all well before French and English.

ELAN acknowledges the important work being done by First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples to revive the traditional languages of these territories, and their advocacy for the official status of Indigenous languages.