Canadian Heritage Committee on April 16th, 2026

[Peter Menzies]

Well, most newsrooms.... You've worked in them. I've worked in them. They tend to lean to the left. They're arts grads, but as long as there's a balance of ideological views in the newsrooms, then you're going to get some self-correction inside there. You know, if it's too biased this way, you're going to go by an editor who puts a stop to it or somebody else who objects to it in terms of that.

The answer to your question is that I do think that there is bias displayed over a period of time at the CBC in that fashion, and I think a lot of it has to do with the cultural composition of its newsrooms. I think it misinterprets diversity and doesn't allow for enough intellectual diversity. I think we've seen some very public incidents of that lately.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

Could you describe a couple of incidents that bothered you about how the CBC covers things?

[Peter Menzies]

I can't, because I don't watch it very much anymore, in part because I get frustrated and it's not good for my blood pressure. However, I would say that Tara Henley and Travis Dhanraj are probably better sources to get a good answer to that sort of question.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

What is the solution? Specifically with CBC, what would you do if you could wave a magic wand?

[Peter Menzies]

I think you certainly have to get it out of being a commercial competitor. I think that if the government's going to.... If you want a public broadcaster—and there are some good cases, like up north, CBC North.... I think that's not a region that has a market. You can't let market forces serve the far north, so I think there's good reason for a public broadcaster there, but you have to get it out of the commercial business, because the commercial business, both out of Toronto and Montreal, distorts its coverage.

In English, it's trying to serve primarily the GTA, which is a key advertising market. It's similar for Montreal in French. You have to get it out of that and make it a pure-play public broadcaster, for starters, and then you need to overhaul it with a proper, fully pan-Canadian approach that focuses on what its core mandate is, which is just telling Canadians all about other Canadians, and to stop being a commercial competitor and trying to pretend that it has to battle with CNN and be a sort of mini-CNN in Toronto.

[Kerry Diotte, Conservative, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

You said in a column that government-funded subsidies have turned media into a distrusted ward of the state. Can you briefly elaborate on that?

[Peter Menzies]

Well, I believe it is. It's dependent on the state, and it is increasingly distrusted. It's merely a statement of fact.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you.

Mr. Al Soud, you now have the floor for five minutes.

[Fares Al Soud, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Robertson, thank you for joining us today, and thank you for your patience.

Earlier, you said that you could now make broadcast-quality content with the contents of your purse. I thought that was funny, but it's also entirely true, and it highlights how quickly things have changed in this space.

We've heard quite a bit on radio over the past few meetings, but I'll be candid in saying that it's not really my generation. I would listen to it occasionally on the way to school with my father in the morning, and on the way back while a hockey game played in the background, but what these new spaces have done is create new entry points into journalism, specifically for younger voices, I find.

From your perspective, do you find these formats represent a meaningful expansion of opportunity for journalists, or are they simply shifting the space into a new age?

[Jane Robertson]

I think that when it comes to this discussion about media, we have to take in the consumers' appetite, and they are expanding into spaces like Twitch streamers or YouTube channels, where my children watch hours and hours of Minecraft content. This is now media.

With a cellphone, you can be anywhere broadcasting live, so this is disrupting the space. Traditional media spends a lot of money to have broadcast-quality equipment and studios and journalists and investigations, but someone with an iPhone can have a million subscribers, and that's where younger folks are turning to get information.

The media sector is being completely disrupted by this, and we have to take that into account, especially with respect to AI. People are using it to generate what they should say to broadcast to millions of followers, and using it to distort the information. We have to recognize that for what it is, and all the media players have to adapt to that.

[Fares Al Soud, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

That's fantastic. Very quickly, I'll leave with this last question.

For many young journalists today, the point of entry to the profession is through independent journalism. Have you seen any trends affecting those going into journalism today?

[Samuel Lamoureux]

What sorts of trends are you referring to?

[Fares Al Soud, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

I am talking about any particular trends in character, or things about them that are unique.

[Samuel Lamoureux]

If you want to be a journalist today, you have to have the calling, meaning that you are passionate about the craft. I was once a lecturer in a school of journalism. I taught it. People do not want to do it for the money. They want to produce new stories, to find the truth, to protect democracy, to challenge power. The craft is about passion and a vocation. It's much like teaching: You have to want to teach. People feel a strong calling.

They answer the call first. Then, when they get into the craft, they are disillusioned: is it actually possible to practise the calling?

[Léa Villalba]

I would say that they may be characterized by the desire to be neutral. It's true for every journalist, I feel, even the younger generations. However, they want to do things differently. Some want to try other formats, like videos or podcasts. That's what's new, I feel. It has been that way for perhaps 10 years. But the desire to be neutral remains, to tell the truth, to show both sides and to add value to the true journalism we have been talking about from the beginning. I would say that the evolution has been in the formats.

[Fares Al Soud, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Great.

Madam Chair, I am sharing my time with Mr. Ntumba.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Mr. Ntumba, you have a minute and a half left.

[Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, Liberal, Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Champagne, if you had to identify one or two targeted reforms that could use the sector's present strengths to address current gaps such as rural media deserts or financial volatility, what could you recommend to the committee?

[Éric-Pierre Champagne]

I quite understand that the government's capacity to help the media is limited. However, the government must provide conditions that help the industry. Earlier, we were talking about asymmetry and the problems that the two tech giants are causing, problems that we seem to want to ignore. That is a real problem. The government does not need to take money from its own pocket in order to put programs in place that are fair for all Canadian media. In my eyes, that is hugely important.

There is one more thing. I keep coming back to it. I fail to understand why we do not change the legislation so that advertising costs on foreign platforms can no longer be a tax deduction. It makes no sense. Given that we want to protect our digital and cultural sovereignty, I do not understand why we do not correct that.

[Samuel Lamoureux]

Could I add something?

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

That brings us to the end of our question period for today.

I have a question for members at the table. Does anybody have input on the schedule that was circulated by the clerk earlier this week? You can come back to me later if you haven't had a chance to look at it. I just thought I'd put it on the table in case anybody has a response.

Go ahead, Monsieur Champoux.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Madam Chair, I was thinking that we should have a little more time, given the technical problems we had. We have some notices of motion that we tabled by the prescribed time. We would like to debate them this morning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

We have to finish the meeting before 10:30 because there will be another committee meeting in this room at 11:00. We can continue for a few minutes.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

So we have a few minutes. With everyone's good will, things should move quickly. I think it can happen. We can try.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Do I have unanimous consent from the committee?