These are the people, after all, who named their annual awards, the Junos, not for a famous musician or a national hero, but for a bureaucrat: Pierre Juneau, former chairman of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission. It was Juneau, you'll recall, who oversaw the introduction of the 30 per cent Canadian content rule in Canadian radio.

The industry thought it appropriate that it should honour its special friend, the regulator.

Now the music business, with Copps's backing, is pushing for the quota to be increased to 40 or 50 per cent. Hearings on the issue begin next week in Hull, and already various industry groups are priming their lips for the task of sucking up to the CRTC: the Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), the Canadian Assocation of Broadcasters (CAB), the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and countless other associations, societies and acronyms.

But that is not the only arena for conspicuous cultural toadyism. Across the river in Ottawa, a bevy of Canada's most famous actors were seen this week rubbing themselves against any Member of Parliament they could get their hands on, the better to make their case for renewed funding for the Canadian Television and Cable Production Fund (CTCPF). Behind them were yet more acronyms: the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA), the Canadian Film and Television Producers Association (CFTPA), the Specialty and Television Premium Association (STPA) -- well, you get the idea.

To bolster their campaign, the television folks have been careful to stroke not only the inevitable Copps, but various other cabinet ministers, in the most sensitive parts of their anatomies: their egos. Industry Minister John Manley is to appear in a forthcoming episode of Traders, the popular Global TV series which, as you know, simply could not have been made without the CTCPF. Transport Minister David Collenette, on the other hand, could do no better than a spot on the unwatchable CBC soap opera, Riverdale. Maybe he needs another agent. Or perhaps he has less clout. At any rate, we have our first category for the Sheilas: best performance by a cabinet minister in a shameless lunge for the taxpayer's wallet.

Which brings me to Howard Stern. As if all this tickling of government bodies were not already nauseating enough, the broadcasting industry has long distinguished itself by its eagerness to do the CRTC's dirty work for it, in this case by attempting to ban the New York shock-jock from Canadian airwaves. The organ of self-censorship is known as the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), which ruled earlier this month that Stern's morning radio show, broadcast live on two stations in Montreal and Toronto, was in violation of the CAB's Code of Ethics.

But Stern pulls big audiences, and the stations in question are in real trouble without him, which makes this case of more than usual import. In theory, they could just ignore the ruling: the CBSC is officially a voluntary industry body.

But no one believes this fairy tale: failure to comply would mean certain trouble at the next license renewal hearing before -- guess who? -- the CRTC. So the stations' owners are in a quandary: turf Stern, and die by the invisible hand of the marketplace, or keep him, and have the visible foot of the CRTC come stomping down upon them.

I hesitate to use the words "historic" and "Howard Stern" in the same sentence. But it seems to me this case is potentially a watershed in the cultural life of the country -- the beginning, perhaps, of the separation of art and state. Ordinarily, the industry's first instinct would be to knuckle under.

But with the stakes so high, they may have no choice but to challenge the CRTC's jurisdiction before the courts. It is by no means a sure thing: the commission will undoubtedly protest that it is the industry, through the CBSC, and not the state, that is so flagrantly violating the stations' free- speech rights. Nor have Canada's courts shown much consistency in protecting free expression in the past.

All the same, there is reason for some optimism. If they can summon the courage to openly defy the CRTC, the rebel stations may set in motion a process that will break up the whole incestuous game that broadcasting has become: of actors fawning over ministers, industry playing footsy with its regulator, and Sheila Copps playing patron of the arts with other people's money.