When Canada amended the Broadcasting Act in 1991, the government committed itself to ensuring the broadcasting system reflects Canada’s racial and cultural diversity. In addition, the Act stressed that employment practices within the industry should reflect the diversity of Canada’s population.

According to the Act, the Canadian broadcasting system should, "serve the needs and interests, and reflect the circumstances and aspirations, of Canadian men, women and children, including equal rights, the linguistic duality and multicultural and multiracial nature of Canadian society and the special place of aboriginal peoples within that society."

The body responsible for administering the Broadcasting Act is the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which has set guidelines for the industry on the portrayal of diversity. These guidelines are only voluntary but they do have some teeth. Since the CRTC grants licences to networks and stations, it has the authority to take action against broadcasters that don’t comply. Actions include calling a broadcaster to appear at a special public hearing, imposing special conditions of licence or granting only a short-term renewal.

In 1999, the CRTC reviewed its policy on Canadian television, and recommended the formation of an industry task force to examine how television portrays cultural diversity. In August 2001, the CRTC requested that the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) coordinate the task force, representing private conventional, pay and specialty television services.

The CAB presented its Cultural Diversity Action Plan to the CRTC in February 2002. The plan included a strategy for future research, promising quantitative data on the degree of cultural diversity in programming, and qualitative analysis of how viewers perceive and experience the presence and portrayal of minorities, including Aboriginal people.

The report also committed the industry to the tasks of compiling a list of "best practices" for minority portrayals, communicating the findings to the industry and monitoring improvements by broadcasters across the country.