Canadian Heritage committee  That's a very good question. Perhaps a happy medium would be to solicit people's opinions up to a point, consult them a little. For example, I'm going to tell you about a campaign we're going to launch ourselves about CBC/Radio-Canada. We're going to survey our members to ask them how they see the future of this corporation, and then we'll present the information gathered to the committee that's being struck, to give it the perspective of Canadians.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm going to offer a very personal opinion. What worries me about asking a wide range of Canadians their opinion of journalism is that people don't necessarily have a good idea of what the profession is. So I would take public opinion on journalism with a grain of salt. On the other hand, I think it's very important for the journalistic community to participate in the review of journalism criteria.

Canadian Heritage committee  That's a good question. It's safe to say that in the French-language market, there are really only two or three broadcasters: Quebecor Media and Groupe TVA, Bell Media's Noovo, and Radio-Canada. The latter has succeeded in establishing itself as a very present voice in the lives of francophones, particularly those outside Quebec, for whom it is really the only broadcaster that is present.

Canadian Heritage committee  I will give you the short answer first, which is yes. Then I'll expand a little bit on that. When you are part of an oligopoly, you expect oligopoly margins on all of your business lines. The margins on news content can't remotely compete with what companies like Rogers and Bell are seeing on their wireless and Internet revenues, particularly when it comes to local news.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think you touched on a point that hit a nerve with a lot of Canadians. Everyone was very frustrated by the job cuts we heard back this fall. We were particularly angry because we felt that these were avoidable. This is part of—and I mentioned this in our opening remarks—the fact that the CBC has been chronically underfunded.

Canadian Heritage committee  We don't have members as such. However, we reach over 300,000 Canadians by mail, email, phone or through petitions and the like.

Canadian Heritage committee  These are very good questions. Is the problem coming from the media, or rather from the presence of disinformation and misinformation on social networks, which people are seeing more and more of, especially on their Facebook or Instagram feeds? As I mentioned in my presentation, we want to tackle the programmatic advertising market, which finances disinformation and misinformation.

Canadian Heritage committee  Definitely. I think, first of all, there aren't just subsidies. When we talk about government and parliamentary intervention, we're also talking about actions that have already been taken, like Bill C-18, for example, which does not provide a subsidy from the government; it is in fact the government intervening and correcting an imbalance in the market.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, committee members. Friends of Canadian Media is a non-partisan citizens' movement that stands up for Canadian voices in Canadian media. From public broadcasting to news, culture and online civil discourse, we represent hundreds of thousands of everyday citizens from across the country who want to protect and defend Canada's rich cultural sovereignty and the healthy democracy it sustains.