Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I don't intend to go long on this. We've been experiencing a Conservative filibuster for the past month. You'll recall that Conservatives were saying we needed three hours with the CBC president on Israel-Hamas, and after half an hour they stopped asking questions about Israel-Hamas. Very clearly, that was wasted time.
I believe we need to come back to the important committee report, which is on safe sport. Witnesses believe that we need to move forward on that. It's been delayed for a month because of these incessant filibusters from the Conservatives.
I'm not going to take a lot of time on this. The Conservatives gave up asking about Israel-Hamas after half an hour. The reality is that, I think, it's because of the strength of the facts that are on CBC's side. The facts are that they are risking their lives every day in the Middle East, covering the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The facts are that CBC/Radio-Canada has received or been nominated for over 200 prestigious national journalism awards in the last five years. These are the top journalist prizes. They have received prizes because the journalism has been factual and it has been updated. The CBC News organization does everything that a news organization should do and upholds the international standards that we also see reflected in CNN, BBC and Agence France-Presse.
It's not at all the approach of the Fox Entertainment network, which makes things up. They've admitted in numerous court cases that they just make up stuff, yet that seems to be the model that some members of this committee want to see.
Most importantly, Mr. Chair, the final clause on the independence of CBC, and protecting that from political interference, is actually something that was adopted by Parliament. Subsection 46(5) of the Broadcasting Act states:
The Corporation shall, in the pursuit of its objects and in the exercise of its powers, enjoy freedom of expression and journalistic, creative and programming independence.
That is vitally important. The idea of the Fox Entertainment model, where you can make stuff up all the time, is not the approach that Canadians want to see. They want to see a profound journalistic endeavour.
The reality is that if anybody in Canada doesn't like something, like an article that is archived on the site—it has been updated by numerous other articles but they don't like the original article—they can appeal to the ombudsman. There is a process. That journalistic independence is protected, but the public can weigh in. Canadians can weigh in.
As we've heard, over a billion dollars in indirect subsidies go to Meta and Google. We've seen numerous subsidies going to big business. What CBC does in return for the public subsidies is ensure the top level of journalistic credibility. Over 200 prestigious national journalism awards attest to that.
Mr. Chair, given that CBC/Radio-Canada has indeed received more than 200 prestigious awards; given that everyone, including all parliamentarians, should protect it from political interference; and given that we know full well that these journalists are risking their lives every day right now to cover the conflict between Israel and Hamas, I hope that this motion will be passed unanimously.
Thank you.