You know, I think this is.... It's the post office. It's television. It's even a phone. It's a game. I mean, it's everything. And there's no way to disentangle that. Not only that; I don't believe any telecommunications company or broadcasting company really wants you to.
There's an old Arab saying: the dogs bark, but the caravan moves on. Well, you know, this caravan is moving on. I don't think there'll be any way we can disentangle that. Maureen and others have already spoken to what this means for culture.
What we have here now, as you know, is Canada's largest media empire, Canwest, in bankruptcy protection in both its television operations and its newspapers. On the television side, the leverage held by an American investment company, Goldman Sachs, inevitably is going to decide who is going to own that Canadian company. It's going to be an American investment company making that decision--sadly, because of a CRTC decision.
We're there, and it's frightening, because it's quite possible that we're going to see even further concentration of ownership.
That's enough from me.