A Petition to the Government of Canada
Hi, this is Dr. Emily McEwan, owner and president of Bradan Press. I have just launched a personal petition to the Government of Canada about the publisher funding programs from the Department of Canadian Heritage (DCH). My petition is requesting DCH to change the eligibility rules for these publisher funding programs so that Canadian Gaelic publishers – Bradan Press in particular of course – can qualify for the funding needed to survive.
The petition is open to Canadian citizens & residents to sign until 11am EST on December 5, 2025.
The text of the petition is as follows:
WHEREAS:
- Gaelic is a heritage language of 6 million Scottish Canadians today, the third-largest ethnic group in Canada;
- Scottish settlers and immigrants have contributed significantly to Canada’s history, politics, and culture, but their Gaelic language was erased from history books and shamefully suppressed, with children beaten and punished for speaking Gaelic in school; and
- Gaelic publishing has taken place in Canada for nearly 200 years, but Gaelic publishers can’t access the federal publisher funding they need to survive as Canadian minority-language publishers;
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to change the eligibility criteria for publisher support grants from the Department of Canadian Heritage so that Gaelic book publishers in Canada will no longer fall through the cracks of federal publisher funding.
Here’s how the petition signatures are breaking down by province and territory as of Wednesday, December 3rd:
Gaelic publishing petition signatures as of Dec. 3, 2025
How to Sign the Petition
If you’re a citizen or resident of Canada, you can sign the petition here:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-6931
If you’re not Canadian or living in Canada, please don’t try to sign it as there’s a validation process and your signature will be discarded. Instead, please share the link with any Canadians you might know and ask them to sign!
No matter where you live, you can also share the post from our Facebook page to help us!
Dr. Emily McEwan with the paper version of the petition (names redacted)
More about Canadian Publisher Funding
There are two main Canadian federal government funding programs for Canadian book publishers: the Canada Book Fund‘s “Support for Publishers” program and the Canada Council for the Arts‘s “Supporting Artistic Practice” program for Literary Publishers. Many if not most small Canadian publishers of Bradan Press’s size and age receive grants from one or both of these programs. Below is a comparison chart I compiled with publicly-available grant information for 5 of the Atlantic Canadian publishers that Bradan Press is closest to in size and age:
Atlantic Canadian federal publisher funding comparison 2018–2024. Source: https://search.open.canada.ca/grants/
Bradan Press has not been able to qualify for Canada Council for the Arts funding, as seen in the second (green) section above. This is because they will not allow our Canadian-authored Gaelic poetry, children’s books, and graphic novels to count towards the eligibility requirements. They only allow English and French titles to count. Ironically, the situation with the Canada Council for the Arts also means that we can’t apply for Canadian French literary translation grants, which are only disbursed through this program. There is no provincial source for French translation grants; we’ve checked. We would like to be able to produce French-language editions of more of our English-language books about the Gaels for the schools, but we can’t access the grants that are meant to support this work.
Bradan Press’s situation with the Canada Book Fund, as seen in the third (blue) section above, is different. The Canada Book Fund doesn’t care what language(s) our books are published in, which is great because we’ve published books in Gaelic, English, French, and Irish! We have qualified for the Canada Book Fund grant, but only once. Since then, we’ve met all the same eligibilty rules as the English-language publishers, EXCEPT one: the annual net sales revenue of Canadian-authored books is just a little too high for us to meet while keeping our commitment to publishing Gaelic books.
In the Canada Book Fund, there is a separate set of eligibility rules for minority-language publishers, This set of rules includes a net sales revenue cutoff that’s half of what the mainstream, non-minority-owned, English-language publishers have to meet. But Bradan Press is not allowed to apply – this program is only for official minority language publishers (French publishers outside Quebec, and English-language publishers in Quebec). Gaelic doesn’t count as a minority language in Canada because it has no official status.
Bidh Teadaidh ann Deiseil and other Canadian Gaelic children’s books from Bradan Press
Canadian Indie Publishers Need Your Help
In this article from Publishers Weekly last year, “Canadian Publishing 2024: Indie Presses Are Feeling the Squeeze,” our trade association, the Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) says “indies are under pressure due to rising costs and stagnant book prices.” They’re right. An ACP member survey in 2024 found that:
This is a critical time for the Canadian-owned publishing sector, as well as the thousands of authors whose livelihood depends on a sustainable industry. Fifty percent of ACP members rate the viability of their organizations as either “worrying” or “dire”; one in ten is contemplating closure in the near future.
Now it’s more important than ever to support independent Canadian book publishers. 65% of Canadian publishers are small firms with revenue under CAD $1 million (under USD $725,000). We’re under strain from the trade situation created by Canada’s largest neighbour. We’re suddenly under threat from various forms of generative AI. Our Canadian independent book and gift retailers are under strain.
How can you help Bradan Press as an indie Canadian Gaelic publisher?
If you are a Canadian citizen or resident, you can help us by signing our petition, and also by emailing your MP by Friday, December 12, 2025 to tell them you want them to support our effort and inform their fellow caucus members about it when Darren Fisher, MP speaks in Parliament on this issue. Find your Member of Parliament’s contact info here.
Whether you’re Canadian or not, of course you can still help Bradan Press by buying our books and liking & sharing our social media posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky!
