John Schoales

I am currently an Adjunct Professor at the School of Creative Industries at Toronto Metropolitan University.

I worked for 25 years in public policy with the Ontario and Canadian governments focusing on industry development policy, with a focus over the last 15 years on creative industry development policy.

I also have a research focus on moral philosophy and ethics. I am authoring a book on ethical decision making that develops a cross-disciplinary approach that draws moral philosophy, evolution, and physiology. The approach is applied to several issues and case studies including racial injustice, government corruption, nationalism and exclusion, authoritarianism, income and wealth inequality, animal welfare, Palestine and Israel, and climate change. I will be presenting this work at the conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics (CSSPE) at the 2025 Canadian Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

I have made a submission to the ongoing CRTC hearing ‘The Path Forward – Defining “Canadian program” and supporting the creation and distribution of Canadian programming in the audio-visual sector’ in response to Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2024-288. This submission draws on my work in creative industry development, ethics, and anti-racism.

Refereed contributions

Schoales, J. Competing in the Creative Industries: Two-Sided Networks and the Case of Hollywood. (2022). City, Culture and Society, 28:100439

Schoales, J. An Examination of Geographic Industry Concentration. (2022). MethodsX, 9: 101723

Schoales, J. Alpha Clusters: Creative Innovation in Local Economies. (2006). Economic Development Quarterly, 20 (2): 162-177

Policies for Creative Industry Development (forthcoming)

Other academic and professional contributions

I co-led, with Charles Davis at Toronto Metropolitan University, a study of the creator economy commissioned by the Department of Canadian Heritage. This project is exploring policy issues associated with the emergence of independent content creators, influencers, bloggers, videographers, and other individuals who create digital content, distribute it directly to audiences, and monetize it across platforms. This significant shift in the economy has contributed to a decline of traditional media and impacted a variety of other industries including advertising and the services and technologies that support the development of on-line content.

I am on the Program Advisory Council for Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Creative Industries. This includes contributing to the developing relevant and rewarding student programming. The School of Creative Industries prepares students for leading roles in communication, design, media, entertainment, arts, and culture.

I have led creative industry and statistical research for the Government of Ontario including collaborating with federal-provincial-territorial partners, government agencies including Statistics Canada, and external organizations on statistical analysis of the creative industries and collaborative research projects on the culture sector.

I served for two years as Co-Chair of the Joint Anti-Racism Advisory Group, responsible for driving change and addressing systemic and cultural bias in multiple Ontario ministries including the ministry responsible for culture policy and programs.