Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to speak to this bill.
Indeed, we would like to compliment Senator Sheila Finestone, who has done an excellent job on this matter, as well as the member for Charleswood St. James--Assiniboia.
I also want to mention another colleague, Senator Jean-Robert Gauthier, who has also done a lot of work on the bill.
Bill S-7, which would provide compensation for witnesses to plead their cases in front of the CRTC, is a good bill and we certainly support it given the current situation in the country. I emphasize that phrase, given the current situation, for a particular reason. I think we ought to ask ourselves why we even have a CRTC in its current form.
In this era of the Internet, of greater freedom of speech and of greater freedom in movement of information, why do we have a CRTC that is, in my view, overblown? It is an organization that has influenced and put forth numerous rules and regulations that restrict the ability of the broadcast media to be the best that they can be.
I remember a group of people in my riding that tried to set up an ethnic broadcasting station and the incredible hoops those people had to jump through in order to do that. Why did they have to go through all those hoops and regulations in order to broadcast messages to ethnic communities in western Canada?
If ours is a country that is supposedly a democracy, that promotes freedom of speech and that believes in the ability to communicate between peoples, a right that enables us to live in a secure, peaceful country, then why do we have a CRTC that is putting out more and more rules and regulations every year? Does this not impede the right of Canadians to access information? Does it not impede the freedoms of writers, broadcasters, reporters and editorial boards across the country, their freedom to pursue and write stories and have them heard? Does it not impede artisans, actors and actresses in their ability to use their craft and broadcast their voices across the country? I think it does.
I think the CRTC has become overblown. Limited rules and regulations are required, to be sure, but what is happening now is beyond the pale. If we take a closer look at what the CRTC has become we see a small group of individuals controlling the rules and regulations through which we receive information. They decide what we can hear. They decide what we can listen to. They decide what information we get and what programs we watch.
What right do these individuals have to tell Canadians what we should be watching? They do not. Certainly the original purpose of the CRTC was and remains a good one, but over the years the CRTC has become overblown, like many pseudo-government organizations. It has widened its grip and influence and in so doing is actually violating one of the basic tenets and principles upon which the country was built, the right of freedom of speech.
In this examination of the CRTC that is taking place today, I think we, the CRTC and the public need to take a very close look at how much of a CRTC we need. Of the many rules and regulations the CRTC currently supports or requires, how many should we keep and how many should we remove? That is the larger question.
While Bill S-7 is a good bill given our current context, and we will support it, we certainly believe that on the larger issue we need to take a very close, cold, hard look at the CRTC and what powers it currently has. I would submit that on close examination we would see that the CRTC's powers, rules and regulations that it has manufactured for itself need to be removed. Canadians, broadcasters, artisans and the public do not need a small group of individuals telling us what we should be hearing.
Clearly that violates the basic principles of democracy in the country. Efforts have been made by good people to have broadcasting rights in Canada that would educate and inform Canadians and make Canada a better and safer place. It is bizarre that they have to go through all these rules and regulations and jump through hoops, at great length and expense, to accomplish this goal.
Let us also not forget that this organization uses the taxpayer money. In effect, the CRTC uses this money toward having a small group of individuals restrict the right that Canadians have to information. Does that not seem passing strange? Does it not seem odd that we even established this organization and allowed it to balloon to what it is today, with these expansive powers?
We have been asleep at the wheel. I do not think we have taken a very close look at this organization, which acts not as a facilitator, but as a barrier to the dissemination of information which could benefit Canadians.
Let us look at the CBC. It has a number of very superb programs, be it Ideas on CBC radio or some of the documentaries which it has produced. It also has some programs that are terrible. However, what it clearly needs to have is the right and the power to sell and export those great programs so it can make money and by doing so, it would rejuvenate its editorial boards, its writers and broadcasters. It would also create jobs and perhaps expand and put itself on a firm fiscal footing.
When I travel abroad, I find it heartwarming to see Canadian programs being shown half a world away because of bilateral arrangements.
I think everyone in this House has listened to Ideas on CBC Radio and have been riveted by the extraordinary programming on CBC Radio. Imagine if those programs could be sold to other parts of the world, such as south of the border, Europe and other far away places. Imagine how that could educate people about Canada.
When I travel to other parts of the world, I find the quality of some of the programming quite sad. If some of our Canadian programs were exported and sold, what a benefit it would be to these countries. That would be extraordinary.
The CRTC acts as a bulwark to prevent that from happening. That organization prevents the CBC from exporting this information. It prevents broadcasters and people of extraordinary broadcasting abilities to get their programs out there for us to see. The CRTC prevents that because broadcasters have to go through it.
As I said in my earlier remarks, in this era of the Internet, of open borders and of supposedly greater freedoms, which in fact we have, we have an organization that does the opposite. It retards and compromises our freedoms as Canadians.
I can only stress to the minister responsible, the minister of heritage, that this could be an extraordinary legacy for her if she informed the CRTC that her department would be doing an indepth examination of the rules, regulations which govern the role of the CRTC. If she does that and limits the powers of the CRTC, then Canadian broadcasters, editors, reporters, writers and all Canadians would be better off and we would have a freer country.