Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to the motion by the member for Waterloo—Wellington, which reads as follows:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should consider the advisability of establishing a commission of inquiry to examine the concentration of print media in Canada.
The Bloc Quebecois is in total agreement with the members of this House who are wondering about the reduction in sources of information and the concentration of the ownership of newspapers in the hands of a few magnates. It also feels that this situation represents a threat to freedom of expression.
In Canada, two commissions of inquiry have already examined the issue: the Kent commission in the early 1980s and the Davey commission in the 1970s. None of the recommendations of these two commissions was ever implemented.
The commission, which published its report in 1981, was tasked with examining the decreasing competition between dailies, that is the disappearance of newspapers within a market, and the increased concentration of ownership in the industry within the hands of a few people.
It was also asked to examine the growing trend among newspapers to belong to chains, a trend which has increasingly taken hold. The commission was also asked to indicate the effect on services offered by the print media to the public, and to make recommendations if it saw fit.
This commission made recommendations on such matters as the acceptable level of ownership of newspapers in a particular market, the process of divestment of newspapers, measures to ensure editorial independence from a newspaper's owners, and the adoption of a national newspapers act.
A Library of Parliament study examined the Kent Commission's recommendations with a view to determining the areas of jurisdiction involved. The study concluded that, under the division of powers set out sections 92(13) and 92(16) of the Constitution Act, 1867, a large number of the Kent Commission's recommendations fell within provincial areas of jurisdiction. These sections recognize that property, trade and civil rights are provincial matters.
Thus it was that in Quebec, for instance, an order in council was passed by the government on July 13, 1988 after an agreement was reached with Hollinger and Groupe Unimédia to structure the future sale of Quebec City's Le Soleil and Chicoutimi's Le Quotidien , so that Quebec buyers would have a chance to become owners of Quebec newspapers, while maintaining the plurality of ownership of dailies.
The concentration of print media is a greater concern today, however, than it was when the Kent Commission was created. In 1970, in English Canada, the three major newspaper chains controlled 60% of the circulation of dailies. In 1980, this had increased to 75%. Today, through Hollinger and Southam, Conrad Black controls 61 of the 105 dailies in Canada, or approximately 60% of the circulation of newspapers in English Canada.
The Bloc Quebecois is opposed to the creation of a commission of inquiry because it is not at all convinced that this is the right way to go about correcting the problem. The Davey and Kent commissions did their work at a time when the situation was much less alarming than it is today, and their recommendations were not followed up, primarily because of the issue of jurisdiction and legal precedents.
It is also important to note that Canada's three most recent commissions of inquiry cost taxpayers a fortune, and their findings were not worth the money spent, with the possible exception of the Erasmus-Dussault commission on aboriginal peoples, although the final bill was $50 million.
The Létourneau inquiry into the events in Somalia cost approximately $12 million, not to mention the expenses of the Department of National Defence and the legal expenses of other parties.
The Krever commission, which left hundreds of thousands of people dissatisfied and not even entitled to a small amount of compensation, ran up a bill of some $15 million.
It looks to the Bloc Quebecois as though the government is soothing its conscience by creating commissions, by giving the public the impression that it is looking after real problems, while spending millions on commissions whose reports are shelved and never followed up.
Furthermore, the Bloc Quebecois is concerned that ownership of almost 60% of Canada's newspapers is concentrated in the hands of Conrad Black, a man famous for interfering in his newspapers, a man who does not hesitate to hire staff who share his views and to quickly get rid of anyone who disagrees with him.
The Bloc Quebecois is concerned that the majority of Canadian newspapers are owned by a man who says that Trudeau is mistaken when he compares today's Quebec with the Quebec of Duplessis' time. He put it this way:
It is unwise for Trudeau to muddy the waters, diluting his attack on the bigotry and the undemocratic impulses of the separatists.
This appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on Friday, October 9. Dear Mr. Black also said:
Radio-Canada is a separatist propaganda agency and it has been for 30 years and operating courtesy of and to considerable expense of the taxpayers of Canada.
That man who has no respect for Quebec's language legislation, which was passed democratically and which recognizes the rights of the minority, as the Council of Europe so eloquently pointed out. That man who favours partition and used his Montreal newspaper to spread his own views.
Various voices have been raised against the concentration of print media, including our own. But we have a great deal of difficulty accepting the idea of creating a commission. We are concerned by the apparent unanimity in English Canada regarding how the sovereignist cause should be treated by the media.
Thus, all the independent studies, those done by independent researchers—be it the Fraser Institute or Denis Monière or even the CBC ombudsman—indicate that the anglophone media, both electronic and print, are not objective in their treatment of the Quebec issue and present it negatively.
We believe a lot needs to be done in Canadian newspapers to ensure the public is well informed. We also think it is important not to exaggerate the concentration of print media. We would like a longer debate to find a way to prevent this sort of thing. A commission of inquiry, however, does not seem to be the solution.