I've been trying to get a sense from Shaw and Vidéotron of the exact nature of the cause of this public spectacle. The first comments I heard from Shaw was that they didn't like Trailer Park Boys. I thought it was kind of rich that a cable giant is getting hoity-toity about low-brow entertainment, but that might just be me personally.
Then there was the issue of accountability and their lack of voice, and yet they have a place on the board and we understand the board has been reconstituted.
Then it became an attack on CBC, a very clear and in-your-face attack on our public broadcaster saying they did not want to be part of anything that had to do with CBC. Yet when I'm looking at how the money is distributed, CBC doesn't get any money directly. It goes to independent production.
Then there's $100 million from the federal government. The argument that certainly could be made is why would any federal money be going to support private broadcast? Does the $100 million that's put in by the federal government offset what ends up in independent production that ends up on SRC or CBC?