Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I'm Frank Gue, and I see that I have a great deal in common with Mr. Wilks, because I'm a very old-time broadcaster, as in “Flash, Washington: State Department reports Japs attack Pearl Harbor”. I was a news editor that quiet Sunday morning.
In this file is 13 years of criticism of and also support for the CBC, mostly Radio One. Mr. Lewis has rightly suggested that the CBC give heavier emphasis to balance and to bring it forward into the mandate itself. The need for balance is exemplified by a 99-day sampling that I did of CBC Radio One. A listener, catching whatever he catches in his busy day, would have heard 31 items pejorative of Conservative people or parties to one pejorative to the Liberals and none to the NDP. A different auditor would get certainly different numbers, but the message would not have changed since I took this sample.
Concerning commentators, the CBC unfortunately at times hides behind commentators and says they can't be responsible for what the commentators say, but the CBC can be responsible for the commentators they choose. And of the commentators they choose, the CBC gives the left wing—I dislike the expression, but it seems to be understood—ample time, but gives competent, often brilliant, world-renowned right-wing voices very little time. Suzuki gets an hour; Hargrove, twenty minutes; the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, ten minutes; the Fraser Institute or the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, virtually nil.
The ombudsman and the producers to whom he refers complaints about balance write courteous letters, while seldom, if ever, acknowledging any problem. Their typical argument is that balance cannot be determined from a single program, and certainly one would have to agree with that, but then refer back to the 99-day sample.
CBC management's challenge is move balance into the mandate and reorient and control people accordingly.
A word about control: it is extremely clear that certain producers have local policies that conflict head-on with the CBC's policies, and I can give you examples. The CBC must use commentators of all shades and keep score using, as Mr. Lewis said, outside, non-broadcasting, and I might say also non-academic auditors. And please, do improve the status and the powers of the ombudsman.
Thank you very much.