No. The issue became the panellists. Power & Politics gave us a list of 43 or 45 people, saying not to go near these people. Some of these folks were reporters, like Robert Benzie. If there's a story breaking at Queen's Park and we're on at seven o'clock, we should be able to call somebody who covers Queen's Park and talk to them. There were continued hurdles and roadblocks set up to have a certain group of folks in Ottawa in control of who was allowed on programs. Mine was a particular concern.
There were repeated episodes of Conservatives being blocked. I have the Gchats right here. I said, in terms of getting folks on, that we needed to have balance. It was not about just having a show with Conservatives or just with Liberals. If Power & Politics is going to have Liberal talking points on all the time, we should have balance as a network.
I told Brodie Fenlon and Andree Lau repeatedly that we are in contravention of section 11 the Broadcasting Act if we are not providing equitable time for all perspectives. I didn't want to flood the show with Conservatives, but I did want to have balance.
I can talk to my legal team, because some of this is before the Human Rights Commission in terms of how it happened, but there were repeated attempts, over and over again.... At one point, I heard that maybe I could have NDP folks on, but Conservatives were a no. It should blow the Canadian public's mind that this was the stuff that was going on.