Madam Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36, I am pleased to present two petitions to the House today.
Four hundred and seventy-five petitioners ask that Parliament review the mandate of the CRTC and direct the CRTC to administer a new policy encouraging the licensing of religious broadcasters.
The petitioners hold that the CRTC presently licenses programs of a sexually explicit or violent nature and yet it has refused to license one Roman Catholic and three multi-denominational programmers.
Given that Canadians have a constitutional right to freedom of religion, conscience and expression, these petitioners ask that the CRTC be required to exhibit an openness toward religious programming and to support its existence on Canadian stations.