Mr. Chair and committee members, thank you for inviting me today to take part in this consultation, which I consider very important. I am a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Ottawa. My work focuses on the official language communities, the minority media in Canada, and minorities and the way they use the media to mobilize their members.
As you all know, the media today are going through a period of major change. Both the anglophone and francophone media are encountering challenges, a difficult situation that is exacerbated in the minority communities. Minority media organizations face special challenges in addition to those dogging all other media. The readership and audiences of minority newspapers and radio stations are smaller and scattered over larger areas. The minority media generally have fewer means and less resources than other media. The communities they attempt to support need assistance to ensure their vitality and development. Lastly, in some regions, these outlets are some of the few remaining independent media organizations in a context in which media concentration is increasingly common and widespread.
Like David against Goliath, they are fighting to maintain their position in the media landscape. These media outlets play very important and specific roles in their communities. I will mention three of those roles, and I consider the third particularly important in the context of our discussion.
First, they represent those communities, enabling them to see themselves and to remember that they exist and live in French and that the French fact is real.
Second—and this is related to the first role—they bring those communities together. They unite individuals who, in many cases, live in remote geographic areas but who, thanks to their media, are aware they are part of a community. When they get up in the morning, thousands or tens of thousands of individuals scan the front page of their newspaper at the same time, with their coffee in hand, or else turn on the radio and know that thousands or tens of thousands of other people are doing the same thing at the same time. In other words, for people who live in a region where their culture is in the minority, a newspaper or radio station is one way to maintain a strong connection with their community, with "their world" and their culture.
Third, we tend to forget that community media organizations, like the major media, play the role of democratic watchdogs. As you know, democracy is based on three formal powers: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. We should also remember that the media form the fourth power. In the minority community, that fourth power focuses on the French fact. These media organizations are the watchdogs of francophones' rights.
The francophone media are thus an instrument of combat for these groups. To borrow an image or a metaphor, they are the community's ears and voice. Their ears because minorities learn that their rights have been abused by reading the newspaper or listening to the radio. Their voice because, when minorities decide to organize and mobilize, they do so through the media. They circulate information in the community through radio and newspapers. They also speak to government through their media organizations, drawing the attention of politicians and dialoguing with government representatives. If these organizations are not strong, the community's ability to mobilize is limited.
I have no specific solutions to suggest, since others are in a better position to do so, including the media organizations themselves. However, I would like to offer some guidelines for framing the solutions that are ultimately selected, some concepts or ideas that should guide that process.
The first is compliance with Canada's Official Languages Act. We know that it is important in a democracy to have strong and independent media organizations. In a bilingual country in which one of the two linguistic communities is in the minority, the role of the francophone media is doubly important. Those organizations help ensure that the country's bilingual identity is respected and the Official Languages Act complied with.
The solutions ultimately selected must comply specifically with Part VII of the Official Languages Act. If the government wants to enhance the vitality and support the development of the francophone minority communities, it must ensure those communities do not lose their ability to mobilize and take action. It must remember that these media organizations are the instruments of those communities. They are their ears and voice.
The Official Languages Act also entails a duty of consultation. The government must clearly ensure that the solutions it adopts genuinely reflect the communities' needs by consulting the media, as you are doing.
The second guideline is adherence to the concept of genuine equality. The concept of genuine equality was highlighted in the CALDECH affair. Formal equality means that two groups must be given exactly the same thing, whereas genuine equality entails giving each of those two groups something different in order to achieve genuine equality between them.