Due to Ontario’s chief medical officer issuing instructions to “avoid all non-essential travel outside of Canada” and the “immediate suspension” of all gatherings of more than 250 people because of the COVID-19 pandemic, SOCAN has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 SOCAN Awards, which had been scheduled to be held on March 30th in Toronto.

“We made this decision with great sadness, following guidelines recently set out and thinking first and foremost about what is best for our staff, our members, the Canadian music community and the public at large,” said SOCAN CEO Eric Baptiste. “We look forward to celebrating the incredible achievements of Canada’s most successful songwriters, composers and music publishers in an alternative way.”

The SOCAN Awards are a private celebration, but travel to and from the event and holding a gathering of several hundred people are clearly not advisable.