There is nothing in the Canadian Copyright Act that imposes business practice on "les sociétés de gestion canadiennes" with respect to how they organize the distribution of monies owed to foreign authors. Some of the Canadian societies do, however, indicate the process in general terms. Generally, they make payments to foreign collectives which then distribute the revenues to the authors in that country.
For example, SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, indicates that "under the terms of the [Canadian] Copyright Act, [it] collects tariff fees from the users on behalf of its members and foreign copyright owners it represents in Canada. These fees are then systematically distributed as performance royalties to creators and publishers whose works have been performed and which SOCAN has identified and credited through its own procedures. When [the Canadian creator's] work is performed and identified overseas, SOCAN forwards the monies received from foreign societies directly to ... the [Canadian] copyright owner. And when a foreign work is performed here, SOCAN sends royalties to the copyright owner's own domestic society".
CANCOPY acts on behalf of artists, writers and publishers with respect to the reproduction right. A licensing fee or royalty is collected and given back to the artist, writer or publisher. CANCOPY represents published works from around the world through agreements with international reproduction rights organizations. (As recently as July 1996, CANCOPY signed a reciprocal agreement with a collective in another European country in which the two organizations agreed to represent each other in their own country as well as collect and exchange royalties). Generally, royalties collected in Canada are distributed directly to Canadian affiliates regardless of the country of publication. Royalties collected abroad are distributed to Canadian rightholders through CANCOPY.
For further information, SOCAN material can be accessed at its WEB page: httb://www.socan.ca/ and CANCOPY at http://cancopy.com/.
