Canadian Heritage committee  I'd like to respond to that. In fact the CBC's sponsored study found that the CBC was a toady to the Liberal government. I'll read to you, if I may, a quote from the study: “According to the quantitative opinion data, CBC News not being perceived by as many English Canadians to be 'politically biased' or always reflecting current government opinion of events”—and at the time of the study it was a Liberal government—“ would further enhance these core values.”

Canadian Heritage committee  May I add to that? I'd like to address the point you made, to which I think we're all sympathetic, that it's the job of a journalist to critique the party in power, and indeed all parties. But in the case of CBC, they conducted an extensive study in 2003, and I'll read a quote—

Canadian Heritage committee  With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I'll kick it off. First of all, thank you very much to you and members of the committee for the opportunity of appearing before you. I'd like to introduce my colleagues. With me today are John Spence, who is editor of cbc.watch.ca, a website devoted to documenting and discussing issues of bias and balance in CBC programming, and Frank Gue, a retired professional engineer from the fields of manufacturing, management, and education.