Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my colleague from Mégantic—L'Érable.
I am honoured to have the opportunity to speak to this opposition motion today, because, as my colleagues know, I was a journalist for more than two decades. I spent the bulk of my time working for community newspapers across southern Alberta, so I think I can speak with a lot of insight into how journalists across the country feel, not necessarily about the media bailout but certainly about certain groups that have been added to this panel to decide who is going to be getting funding, who is going to be left out, and what the criteria will be for how these funds are going to be rolled out to various media groups.
From the beginning of my career as a journalist to near the end, I could see a stark difference in how Canadians viewed journalists across the country. There is no question, for various reasons, be it the growth of social media, cable news or other avenues, that there has been a very clear erosion of trust in journalists across this country, and certainly across North America.
Our motion today is not questioning Canadian journalists and the importance of the media in strengthening our democracy and holding government and politicians to account. That is not stated anywhere in the motion we are putting forward. What we are questioning is the inclusion of a group like Unifor on this panel. Our motion clearly states that it is important that we have a free and independent press, which is an integral pillar of our democracy. That is the first comment in our motion. However, my argument today is that including a group like Unifor, which has been outwardly partisan, has called itself the resistance and is once again going to be actively campaigning against a specific political party in the upcoming election, erodes the integrity of this entire process. We have heard this from journalists across the country, not just members of the opposition.
Andrew Potter, a CBC contributor, said, “This is actually worse than anyone could have imagined. An 'independent body' staffed entirely by unions and industry lobbyists. What a disaster.”
Andrew Coyne, a columnist with the National Post, said, “It is quite clear now, if it was not already: this is the most serious threat to the independence of the press in this country in decades.”
These are trusted journalists who are speaking out against the decision made by the Liberal government to include a partisan group association as part of this panel. That is the essence of what our motion here speaks about today. In no way are we questioning the integrity and importance of journalists.
I was very proud last week, when the Alberta Weekly Newspapers Association held its annual awards ceremony, to see that I had numerous community newspapers in my riding win awards. I would like to take this opportunity to read out some of the award winners.
The Claresholm Local Press, published by Roxanne Thompson and editor Rob Vogt, won best overall in Class B. The High River Times won third-best overall in Class D. The Rocky Mountain Outlook, published by Jason Lyon, won best overall in Class E. It won the Excellence in Education Writing award, the Best Habitat Conservation Story award and the Arts and Culture Writing award.
The Okotoks Western Wheel, where I worked for 17 years, I was very proud to see, won best overall in Class F, beating our rival, the St. Albert Gazette. My colleague will owe me a beer for that one. It also won the Best Local News Story award, the Best Habitat Conservative Story award and the Sports Writing award. I congratulate Bruce Campbell, the editor, and Remy Greer, Krista Conrad and Tammy Rollie, who are some of the reporters there.
However there are two that really stand out to me, and I think this goes to the misinformation from our colleagues across the floor in saying that this funding is going to be available for any journalist across Canada. One of the newspapers, which is an historic newspaper in Alberta, is owned and operated by Frank and Emily McTighe, who are certainly one of my mentors in the newspaper and print industry in Alberta.
The Macleod Gazette is more than 100 years old. It won as the best overall newspaper in its class in Alberta. It won the Healthy Communities Journalism Award and the Best Feature Story by a Local Writer award, and editor and publisher Frank McTighe was honoured with the Gordon Scott Memorial Award for the best feature column. That is a very prestigious award in Alberta's newspaper industry. As well, Shootin' the Breeze, which is owned and operated by Shannon Robison, in Pincher Creek, won two writing awards, for environmental writing and best local editorial.
These two newspapers are among the most popular in my riding of Foothills in southwest Alberta, but neither of these newspapers will be eligible for any of the funding, because they are owner operated. These are not big conglomerates that have highly paid lobbyists who can lobby the Liberal government and this panel to ensure that they benefit from this program. These are small community newspapers, the lifeblood of these communities, that ensure that they are hyper-local and that their residents know everything that is going on in their communities.
Our Liberal colleagues across the floor are saying that the Conservatives are attacking journalism and that all media outlets across the country, which are so important to our democracy, are going to be eligible for these funds. Bloggers, online newspapers and some of these critical community newspapers are not going to be eligible for this funding. They are going to be struggling. I would argue that these newspapers are the most important ones we have. These are the ones that are tied tightly to their communities and do such important work, and I know that they do it with the most minimal of resources. I am sure that they would love to be eligible to access this media fund, but they are not going to be able to. This is going to be exclusively for the large corporations that have expensive lobbyists who will be lobbying the Liberal government to access these funds.
The Conservatives' argument on this motion today is not necessarily who is eligible and who is not. I want to take the opportunity to highlight the misinformation that is being rolled out by the Liberal government on who is going to be able to access these funds, because it is simply not the case.
I want to focus on the fact that making Unifor part of this panel is explicitly inappropriate. The Liberals' attack on us and this motion has been that we are fighting journalists and that we do not believe in a free press or the independence of journalists across Canada, and that is simply not the case. Conservatives understand as well as anyone, especially those of us who come from rural constituencies and represent rural ridings, how important community newspapers are to the success and health of communities. What we are questioning is how the Liberal government, by putting Unifor on the panel, which has campaigned, advertized and been very vocal, calling itself the resistance fighting against the Conservatives in the upcoming election, can possibly believe and claim that this is a non-partisan panel that will be making choices that are free from any influence from the Liberal government.
Jerry Dias might as well be a member of Parliament representing the Liberal Party and sitting in this House. He was a key part of the Liberals' negotiating team on NAFTA. He is now on the media bailout panel. There is no question that this goes way too far. We are asking that the panel stay as it is but that Unifor be removed from that panel to ensure the integrity of this process and not further erode trust in Canadian journalism.