Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
I was informed that this would be a drop-in thing, so I didn't actually prepare a formal presentation; my apologies. I have also been informed, by the young lady who invited me, that I'm to keep this brief.
I was reading today that Intel is about to release a new chip. It should come out in about two years. It will be more powerful than ten thousand 486s of about 1994.
I started my career in media shooting 35 mm colour film for Budge Crawley, on his old Mitchell camera. That's how quickly media has changed, and that's why your discussion that I hear is largely obsolete already.
By way of example, I've been asked to teach a photography class in one of the communities. I'm going to go there physically, but they can't afford to have me in every weekend, much as I'd love to go there. Because of cost and distance, it's all going to be done over the Internet.
I don't read a newspaper any more. And contrary to previous opinion, most people now gather their news from the Internet rather than the newspaper.
The CBC didn't actually come to Yellowknife until, I believe, 1964. Prior to that, it was done by the Royal Canadian signals regiment. There's a picture on the web someplace of a signalman broadcasting to Yellowknife, with a Vargas pin-up girl on the wall and a beer in one hand. It wouldn't be permitted in modern media--not during on-duty hours, anyway.
So that's how much it has changed. I'm not an enemy of the CBC, but it has become irrelevant to me. I heard the concerns of the francophones here earlier today. They spoke for the best part of two hours. I have no complaint about that, but the francophone population is 5% of the Northwest Territories. The aboriginal population is about 60%. Have you heard from any of the aboriginal people? I didn't see any.
For that reason alone, it's almost irrelevant. You can't plan a northern service without the input of the aboriginal population on what they want.
In terms of what new technology is going to mean, it's not a coincidence that Bill Gates, late in 1996, was saying that the Internet was just a fad. Bill Gates is now investing more heavily in communications companies and communications transmission companies than he is in computer software and computer companies, because that's where the future lies.
I listen to a Toronto radio station because an acquaintance of mine broadcasts on it. My wife listens to another Toronto radio station because a friend of hers broadcasts on it. I follow everything, from Al Jazeera to BBC to the New York Times, and it's a changing world.
I won't say I hate the CBC, but you have betrayed your mandate. At one time, in conjunction with the National Film Board, we led the world, particularly in documentary productions. I don't think it's an outrageous statement to make that if we pulled out of Hollywood everyone who was either Canadian-trained or trained by a Canadian, Hollywood would collapse tomorrow. It's that simple.
You know, I don't see my life on CBC. I don't see it on Global TV, and I don't see it on CTV. I don't see the life of my friends, I don't see the life of my acquaintances, I don't see the life of my professional acquaintances. So why am I going to watch it?
I don't read the Toronto Star on the net any more, although I did at one time. All it's telling me about are the murders in Toronto. It happened; why do I want to know about it?
Blogging: is this going to be the future? Some of you may know Donald Crowdis. I believe he was the first presenter on The Nature of Things. He now has a blog on the Internet that probably generates him a greater audience share than he had when he was a professional broadcaster.
One thing you might look into, Mr. Bevington, if you like, is why the quality of broadband in the north is so poor. Every time I phone my provider here--I wish the gentleman from Northwestel was still here--they tell me it's downstream, so blame Telus. And maybe that's what it is, that nobody cares about us up in the north. On the other hand, Bell Communications launched an Internet satellite capable of broadband satellite for the entire country and for the north. That's the future. The computing power is coming.
I don't need a reporter. I got a bit cranked when this young gentleman earlier was talking about reporters. On the Internet, I read the pathology report from the Bernardo-Homolka...but we won't go into that. That's just to show you how much power is coming onto the Internet.
Where media had a chance to challenge our justice system, it declined to, and our justice system is poorer for it today. There is a murderer walking around who shouldn't be, in my opinion. I lay that sort of thing.... To me, the media has now become ideology; I don't care who it is. I groan every time my wife brings the National Post into the house, but at least it starts a good fire.
If the CBC wants to be relevant, do what you did 50 years ago with a different technology: get your bright young people, who are too stupid to know they don't know enough, and give them a free hand. Get them establishing websites. One of the best websites I ever saw, and this was early on the Internet, was an Ojibway website, brilliantly designed.
There's no reason the CBC can't offer the tools and fulfill its original mandate to train people in the north and across the country. In our lifetime, we've already seen the dramatic shift. CBC can either get with it or become irrelevant.
In the north now, Global television has just pulled out its local representative. We came up here to follow my wife's position, and I decided to go back to my original training, which is in photography. I was told by CP, by the Sun newspaper chain, by a number of different newspaper chains that they were screaming for news people in the north. They didn't have any. But anything I've sent down south, nobody has picked up on. Anything anybody I know has sent down south hasn't been picked up on.
There's a reason that people are ignorant of the north. I must admit that when my wife and I came up here, it certainly was not what we expected. I don't think the media in the north....
You may recall seeing a CBC show several years ago about the Folk on the Rocks festival. Our friends were all writing us from down south by e-mail, saying, “Is this what goes on in Yellowknife? It must be a great place to live.”
It's technology, and CBC has pioneered and championed technology for a long time. If it is going to remain relevant to the new generation, then it has to pioneer now.
Thank you.