Canadian Heritage Committee on April 23rd, 2026

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I just want to mention that some witnesses are having connection problems. There were some before. I had the same situation yesterday at the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration. It's not a disaster, but the problems seem to be more frequent these days.

I don't know whether the problems are on our end or on the witnesses' end. But something should really be done about it because, as you know, it can become very difficult, dangerous even, for the interpreters.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

That's true. It's not the first time it has happened.

Mr. Griffiths, you have flicked in and out a couple of times. I don't think we missed any of the content of your speech, but we're making a note of a bit of a connection issue.

Thank you.

Mr. Ntumba, the floor is yours for five minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Frame, Parliament has adopted various measures to support the media industry, especially with regard to the competition from international digital platforms. However, any government action must guarantee a fair balance between financial support and media independence.

In your view, what role can the federal government play in supporting a vibrant media industry while still fully safeguarding the editorial independence of public media?

[Angus Frame]

Thank you for the question.

This will be consistent with my opening remarks and some of my comments earlier. The government needs to support a functioning marketplace for media. Absent a functioning marketplace, which we don't have due to the monopolistic practices of the foreign tech players, it needs to find ways to support independent voices across the country.

The current programs that are in place—the journalism tax credit, the funding through Bill C-18 and the LJI—are functioning measures absent a fully functioning marketplace.

I think Mr. Griffiths and I share almost the same vision but see different obstacles being the major problems in getting there. A diverse plurality of new and traditional voices across the news ecosystem in this country is needed and healthy for democracy. It's healthy for the future of journalism, and it's something we would all like, but it's not something that can be accomplished when the market has been perverted the way it has been. Until that reality is corrected, we will need to work together—government and private media—to make sure our industry continues.

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

Thank you very much.

Ms. Bouchard, CBC/Radio-Canada has a unique place in Canada's media ecosystem, in terms of information, culture, official languages and regional representation. Its role is often presented as a pillar of universal access to trustworthy information.

What role does the public broadcaster play today in maintaining a strong, accessible media system in Canada?

How do you see that role having to evolve to respond to the technological changes and to the expectations of the public?

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

As I was saying just now, we have to continue to develop accessible services that react to the changes in the way people consume information and entertainment. That specifically implies following them on the platforms they choose—they are legal and accessible, after all. Then we offer diversity and a safe environment that allows them always to come onto our platforms in order to consume information and to be entertained.

We have to do that with a good understanding of the industry, which is faced with many challenges. Everything we can do contributes to that effort. We have actually offered packages with Bell's platforms, for example, so that we can provide subscriptions to ICI TOU.TV and Crave. We have also worked with our colleagues from Les Coops de l'information in designing training programs that their journalists and ours have access to. We have also developed ways of improving the performance of Canadian media in securing advertising revenue.

Specifically with regard to smart TVs and the digital environment, we have a lot of work to do to establish a kind of sovereignty and ensure that Canadian companies have access to those media. We want them to replace Google and Facebook and we want them to be the vehicles of choice for Canadian companies wishing to reach the Canadian public.

There are a lot of things we can do and we are in a new era.

Honestly, I have been working in this area for 35 or 40 years. I am old school, but we have to be constantly learning. We have to be always asking questions. That is what we are doing with our journalism colleagues. We have to ask ourselves what we can do to move forward together and to preserve our industry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Now we are going to move things along more quickly.

Mr. Champoux, you have the floor for two and a half minutes.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Bouchard, we have very little time to talk about an important subject that I find extremely tricky: journalists being harassed at work.

A few weeks ago, we received a group that I do not wish to name so that they do not get publicity they do not deserve. They use despicable practices by targeting journalists whose reporting does not suit them or who do not use the angle they would prefer.

Are you sensitive to this problem?

Does this harassment—let's call it what it is—have any effect on the journalists?

It seems to be mainly directed at female journalists, which is even more troubling. There might be a fear that women may lose interest in the profession.

How are you dealing with the issue?

In your view, how should we, as elected lawmakers, go about defining and protecting the work of journalists on the ground?

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

There are laws that address criminal harassment and other forms of unacceptable behaviour.

As a Canadian employer, a Canadian company, we work to document such situations, with the safety of our employees at the top of our mind. We also formed a coalition with other media and other publishers who also find themselves to be witnesses and victims of this kind of activity. Our aim is to make the public sensitive to these practices and to reject them. I feel that we all have to stand together and bring a little civility back into everything.

However, it is true that we have much more stringent security measures around our work as journalists today.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Is it not a little concerning that you have to have security measures so that people can do their jobs without being harassed?

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

It is terribly concerning.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

We do not just need security measures, we also need psychological support to be available, because harassment is not always criminal. When someone gets 1,500 emails because of reporting that someone else does not like, it's a concern.

It's not illegal either because we have this notion of freedom of expression. People have the right to express their disagreement. But it seems to me that a line is being crossed and that is a concern.

What do you think?

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

I think we have a responsibility to call it out, to account for it and to have specific ways of protecting journalists who have to suffer the consequences of these activities, these reprisals. It is true that the digital world allows for all kinds of intrusions into people's lives and that can be extremely invasive.

However, we still have to make sure that our on-air people are accessible. We must feel that we are able to take the pulse of the public.

So we must find the right balance. I feel that the best solution is to share good information with other media going through the same situation in order to come up with better solutions together. We have to say loud and clear that it is not acceptable and we want no more of it.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Thank you very much, Ms. Bouchard.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

Thank you, Mr. Champoux.

We'll have a quick three minutes for the Conservatives and three minutes for the Liberals before we wrap up.

The floor is yours, Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Côte-du-Sud—Rivière-du-Loup—Kataskomiq—Témiscouata, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Ms. Bouchard, why is ICI RDI still not available on ICI TOU.TV when the CBC News Network is available at no cost on CBC Gem?

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

The CBC News Network is not available at no cost on CBC Gem. It is accessed by a paid subscription. It comes from a model that our 24‑hour specialty news channels developed 30 years ago using royalties paid by the cable companies. To be fair to the cable companies, which are still paying to distribute our 24-hour news channels, we provide them by subscription on the digital platforms.

ICI RDI is not available on ICI TOU.TV because certain agreements with the cable companies prevent us from doing so at the moment. In other words, in commercial negotiations, the cable companies in question have indicated a desire to restrict Radio-Canada's ability to use its RDI signal on its own platforms. Those commercial discussions are ongoing and we hope to lift those conditions.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Côte-du-Sud—Rivière-du-Loup—Kataskomiq—Témiscouata, QC]

That means that, at the moment, in terms of public funding, francophones are less well served than anglophones, everywhere in Canada.

It seems to me that the reason you went to Amazon Prime is the same reason why the Prime Minister went on YouTube to make his speech.

It is clear that we are experiencing the americanization of information in Canada. From what I am hearing at the moment, that is exactly what is happening, at the very least. What does that mean? To me, it feels that we are literally heading straight into a wall.

I am thinking about all the independent media, not Radio-Canada, because it receives funding. Soon it will take $2 billion, $3 billion or $4 billion to fund Radio-Canada because all the others will have disappeared.

You are demonstrating that the Prime Minister was right. Indirectly, you have also approved his appearance on YouTube to speak to Canadians, instead of using your service that Canadians pay for.

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

With all respect, Mr. Généreux, I disagree with your statement completely.

Radio-Canada's information is readily available to all Canadians, and in French, on our digital platform, both streaming and on-demand.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Côte-du-Sud—Rivière-du-Loup—Kataskomiq—Témiscouata, QC]

Ms. Bouchard—

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

However, our online information service, RDI, is only available by subscription for cable subscribers and, indirectly, for some subscribers to other services, like RiverTV.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Côte-du-Sud—Rivière-du-Loup—Kataskomiq—Témiscouata, QC]

Ms. Bouchard, you decided to go to Amazon, an American platform, instead of using TOU.TV to broadcast RDI to francophones across the country.

The message that sends is that you are telling everyone to go to American platforms instead of Canadian platforms to publicize what we have to publicize. The Prime Minister himself did it. He's the prime example.

Why is the Government of Canada so keen on buying all that advertising on American platforms and not on Canadian ones?

[Marie-Philippe Bouchard]

I am not the one you should be asking, Mr. Généreux.

[The Chair, Liberal, Lisa Hepfner]

We don't have time for an answer anyway.

Mr. Al Soud, you have the floor for three minutes.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Millar and Mr. Schween, we're increasingly seeing mid-sized private broadcasters operating in a squeezed environment, caught among global digital platforms, shifting advertising markets and rising content costs. Companies like Channel Zero and Pattison Media are often forced to make difficult decisions about scale and programming in a rapidly changing media landscape.

To what extent has the environment affected your willingness or your ability to invest in higher-risk, public interest journalism, including investigative or local accountability reporting?