Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. If you're asking me questions at some point later on, I have to warn you that my allergies are bothering me, so my sinuses are a bit plugged, but anyway.... I'm vice-president of media for the Communications, Energy and Paperwork

Canadian Heritage committee  The issues where the private sector has fallen down on the job--and I think the public broadcaster has as well--are areas that need to be reinvigorated: primarily local reflection, regional reflection. Canadians need to see themselves more. Not only do they need to see themselves

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me just go back to a couple of the earlier points. I think the mandate is general and broad enough that a well-funded CBC could meet that mandate and Canadians would be well served. Of course, as I say, it does compete with the private sector, because it's competing for eyeb

Canadian Heritage committee  Let me just say a couple of things off the top, just in terms of my view as a consumer. I'm not phoning up CBC every day and asking journalists there, but if I had my funding cut regularly and was assailed.... I think we're starting to get a polarized media, much like they have

Canadian Heritage committee  A few nights ago I was listening to Fox radio. I listen to radio at night. This was Fox shock talk, which referred to CNN as the communist news network. It's this kind of polarizing, which is there in the United States, that I worry about here. It serves to polarize the country,

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm not surprised that politicians want to get their names in the paper, or that you want get your face on air, and I'm not surprised if the Prime Minister wants to do it as well. The problem I have, particularly with the Prime Minister doing it, is that it sends a chill across t

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, everybody gets a 50% wage increase. No, it's really hard for me to say. If you want to, you can go to the Cadillac level and think, boy, we would like to be the BBC of the Americas. As I said, it's going to cost a significant amount. How much? You'll have to ask them. I

Canadian Heritage committee  What was the impact of the cuts?

Canadian Heritage committee  Well, some stations were actually closed. I think the disastrous decision that was being proposed by Mr. Rabinovitch to end the supper-hour news shows, which was turned back and ended up being half an hour but still cost the CBC an enormous amount in terms of audience and trust

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't think it is, but it's a personal decision. I've looked at some of the decisions they've made. The one I was talking about on the news-hour show I thought was just abysmal. Given the damage it did, I think heads would have rolled in the private sector. We've had an abysm

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes, I do. I think the sense now--and it's more a sense of reality--is that it is too tied to patronage. I'd like to see that the best and the brightest get appointed to the board in a process that is transparent, and then, once that board is appointed, see that we give it the au

Canadian Heritage committee  I don't know. If I were you, I would certainly ask ACTRA. I think they are up next. They probably are closer to the independent production community. I would say that they need guidance, in some ways, from the CRTC. The CRTC has almost washed its hands of the Internet, and that

Canadian Heritage committee  I'd like to thank the committee.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you for the invitation to appear. My name is Peter Murdoch. I'm vice-president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. CEP is Canada's largest media union. We represent more than 20,000 workers in Canada's media, including private sector broadcaste

Canadian Heritage committee  I think the crisis is at the CRTC. Look, these local stations were given licences. They have been described by broadcasters, the unions, citizens, and public interest groups as the very foundation of Canadian broadcasting. If Parliament or the CRTC can't find a way to ensure that