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Providing Content in Canada's Official Languages
Please note that the Official Languages Act requires that government publications be available in both official languages.
In order to meet some of the requirements under this Act, the Commission's transcripts will therefore be bilingual as to their covers, the listing of CRTC members and staff attending the hearings, and the table of contents.
However, the aforementioned publication is the recorded verbatim transcript and, as such, is transcribed in either of the official languages, depending on the language spoken by the participant at the hearing.
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
FOR THE CANADIAN RADIO-TELEVISION AND
TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
TRANSCRIPTION DES AUDIENCES DU
CONSEIL DE LA RADIODIFFUSION
ET DES TÉLÉCOMMUNICATIONS CANADIENNES
SUBJECT / SUJET:
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON THE
CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (CBC)/
CONSULTATIONS PUBLIQUES SUR LA
SOCIÉTÉ RADIO-CANADA (SRC)
HELD AT: TENUE À:
Crown Plaza Crown Plaza
Albert Room Salle Albert
350 St. Mary Avenue 350, avenue St. Mary
Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg (Manitoba)
March 9, 1999 Le 9 mars 1999
tel: 613-521-0703 StenoTran fax: 613-521-7668
Transcripts
In order to meet the requirements of the Official Languages
Act, transcripts of proceedings before the Commission will be
bilingual as to their covers, the listing of the CRTC members
and staff attending the public hearings, and the Table of
Contents.
However, the aforementioned publication is the recorded
verbatim transcript and, as such, is taped and transcribed in
either of the official languages, depending on the language
spoken by the participant at the public hearing.
Transcription
Afin de rencontrer les exigences de la Loi sur les langues
officielles, les procès-verbaux pour le Conseil seront
bilingues en ce qui a trait à la page couverture, la liste des
membres et du personnel du CRTC participant à l'audience
publique ainsi que la table des matières.
Toutefois, la publication susmentionnée est un compte rendu
textuel des délibérations et, en tant que tel, est enregistrée
et transcrite dans l'une ou l'autre des deux langues
officielles, compte tenu de la langue utilisée par le
participant à l'audience publique.
StenoTran
Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission
Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des
télécommunications canadiennes
Transcript / Transcription
Public Hearing / Audience publique
PUBLIC CONSULTATION ON THE
CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (CBC)/
CONSULTATIONS PUBLIQUES SUR LA
SOCIÉTÉ RADIO-CANADA (SRC)
BEFORE / DEVANT:
Andrée Wylie Vice-Chairperson, Radio-
television / Vice-
présidente, Radiodiffusion
ALSO PRESENT / AUSSI PRÉSENTS:
Gary Krushen Director, Winnipeg Regional
Office / Directeur
régional, Winnipeg
HELD AT: TENUE À:
Crown Plaza Crown Plaza
Albert Room Salle Albert
350 St. Mary Avenue 350, avenue St. Mary
Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg (Manitoba)
March 9, 1999 Le 9 mars 1999
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TABLE OF CONTENTS / TABLE DES MATIÈRES
PAGE
Presentation by / Présentation par:
Ms Lesia Szwaluk 6
M. Christian Dandeneau et M. George Parastre 11
Mr. Jack Kowalchuk 18
Mr. Greg Lowe 24
Ms Gustine Wilton 27
M. Paul Ruest 34
M. Daniel Boucher 40
Mme Mona Audet 49
Ms Evelyn Downey 53
M. René Piché 60
Ms Anna Sudletsky 68
Mr. Alex Gardiner 69
Mr. Pat Carrabre 73
Mr. Frank Lawson 80
Mr. Richard Horne 87
Ms Bernice Baldwin 94
Ms Margaret Waterman 100
Ms Roberta Christianson 104
Ms Ann Loewen 110
Mr. Menno Klassen 114
Mr. Thomas Walker 116
Reverend Harry Lehotsky 121
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TABLE OF CONTENTS / TABLE DES MATIÈRES
PAGE
Presentation by / Présentation par:
Mr. Eric Pownall 126
Ms Melinda McCracken 132
Reply by / Réplique par:
M. René Fontaine 139
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1 Winnipeg, Manitoba
2 --- Upon commencing on Tuesday, March 9, 1999
3 at 1300 / L'audience commence le mardi
4 9 mars 1999 à 1300
5 1 THE CHAIRPERSON: Good day, ladies
6 and gentlemen, and welcome to this public consultation
7 on the CBC.
8 2 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Bonjour, mesdames et
9 messieurs. Bienvenue à cette consultation publique.
10 3 My name is Andrée Wylie and I am the
11 CRTC's Vice-Chair, Broadcasting.
12 4 Mon nom est Andrée Wylie et je suis
13 la Vice-présidente en radiodiffusion du CRTC.
14 5 We are here to gather your views and
15 comments on CBC radio and television. In your opinion,
16 how should the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation fulfil
17 its role in the coming years?
18 6 The CBC is a national public service,
19 broadcasting in English as well as in French. It plays
20 an important role in the Canadian broadcasting system.
21 Today many elements are constantly being added to the
22 broadcasting system as new technologies multiply,
23 converge, open up new horizons and increasingly offer
24 new services. In this context, we want to know what
25 are your needs and expectations as viewers and
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1 listeners of the CBC.
2 7 Given that, it is very important that
3 the Commission hears what you have to say. We must not
4 lose sight of the fact that the CRTC is a public
5 organization that serves Canadian citizens. In this
6 capacity, we are responsible to you. This is why my
7 fellow Commissioners and myself find it vital to come
8 and meet with you to discuss these issues and why we
9 are holding this series of regional consultations, from
10 one end of the country to the other, in eleven Canadian
11 cities, from March the 9th to March the 18th.
12 8 Ces consultations vous donnent
13 l'occasion de nous faire part de votre opinion sur le
14 rôle de Radio-Canada, le genre d'émissions qu'il vous
15 propose et l'orientation qu'il devrait se donner à la
16 veille du millénaire, aussi bien à l'échelle nationale
17 qu'aux échelles régionales et locales.
18 9 Ces consultations se font dans
19 l'esprit d'établir avec vous un dialogue ouvert et
20 d'être à l'écoute de vos préoccupations. Tous vos
21 commentaires feront partie du dossier public. Il sera
22 lui-même ajouté à celui de l'audience publique qui
23 s'ouvrira à Hull le 25 mai prochain.
24 10 At the upcoming hearing in Hull on
25 May 25th, the Commission will examine the CBC's
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1 application for the renewal of its licences, including
2 radio, television, specialty services, Newsworld and
3 the Réseau de l'information. You can also take part in
4 that public hearing by sending your written comments to
5 the CRTC. If you wish to do so, please remember to
6 refer to the specific licence renewals being examined
7 when you file your comments.
8 11 Now I would like to come back to
9 today's consultations. Please allow me to introduce
10 the CRTC staff person who will be assisting us today,
11 Gary Krushen, the Director of our Winnipeg Regional
12 Office, who will act as the Secretary of this
13 consultation.
14 12 Please feel free to call on him with
15 any questions you might have about the process today or
16 any other matter.
17 13 Permettez-moi de vous présenter le
18 personnel du CRTC qui nous secondera. Il s'agit de
19 M. Gary Krushen, le Directeur de notre bureau régional
20 à Winnipeg, qui agira comme secrétaire de cette
21 consultation publique. N'hésitez pas à vous adresser à
22 lui si vous avez des questions concernant la marche à
23 suivre ou toute autre question.
24 14 Pour que vous ayez tous l'occasion de
25 vous faire entendre, nous vous demandons de limiter
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1 votre présentation à 10 minutes. Ces consultations
2 sont votre tribune à vous et nous voulons être à
3 l'écoute du plus grand nombre possible d'intervenants.
4 Nous ne poserons pas de questions sauf si nous avons
5 besoin de clarification.
6 15 So that you will have the opportunity
7 to speak, we ask that you please limit your
8 presentation to 10 minutes. As these consultations are
9 a forum designed especially for you and we want to
10 listen to as many participants as possible, we will not
11 ask any questions unless there is a need for
12 clarification.
13 16 At the end of this session,
14 representatives from the local CBC stations will have a
15 chance to offer their views, as they are naturally very
16 interested by the issues we are discussing here today.
17 17 Before we start, I would ask
18 Mr. Krushen to go over some of the housekeeping matters
19 regarding the conduct of this consultation.
20 18 Avant de vous céder le micro, je
21 demanderais au secrétaire de l'audience, M. Krushen, de
22 vous indiquer la marche à suivre. Je vous remercie.
23 19 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you
24 Commissioner Wylie.
25 20 In a few moments I will be calling
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1 the first 10 names of the list that I believe each of
2 you received when you checked in and we will proceed in
3 the order in which the names are on this sheet.
4 21 I would ask that when you commence
5 your presentation to please remember to press the white
6 button on the microphone so that the court reporter and
7 translation people can easily pick up your voice.
8 22 If at the time when I call any
9 particular name that person is not in the room we will
10 call that name again at the end of the listed agenda.
11 23 For those of you who simply wish to
12 not make a presentation but may wish to make some
13 written comments, we have comment cards available at
14 the desk outside the room or you may have received it
15 when you came in here. Please feel free to comment in
16 that fashion if you choose to you.
17 24 One last housekeeping matter. For
18 those who wish to use them, we have translation
19 receivers available at the back of the room. You will
20 be asked for either your driver's licence or a major
21 credit card as a deposit.
22 25 That completes my announcements.
23 26 I would like to call the first 10
24 people. Please seat yourself as you choose around the
25 table: Lesia Szwaluk; Christian Dandeneau et George
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1 Parastre; Jack Kowalchuk; Scott MacNeil; Greg Lowe;
2 Gustine Wilton; Paul Ruest; Daniel Boucher; Mona Audet;
3 Evelyn Downey.
4 27 THE CHAIRPERSON: Good afternoon and
5 welcome to you all.
6 1305
7 28 MR. KRUSHEN: I would now like to ask
8 Ms Lesia Szwaluk to commence her presentation.
9 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
10 29 MS SZWALUK: Thank you.
11 30 The Ukrainian Canadian Congress was
12 founded in 1970 with the exclusive goal of unifying and
13 co-ordinating efforts of various Ukrainian
14 organizations operating across Canada.
15 31 The UCC represents the Ukrainian
16 community before the people, the Government of Canada;
17 promotes linkages with Ukraine; and identifies and
18 addresses the needs of the Ukrainian community in
19 Canada to ensure its continued existence and
20 development for the enhancement of Canada's
21 social-cultural fabric.
22 32 The Ukrainian Canadian Congress
23 welcomes the decision of the CRTC to review the role of
24 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC, the
25 programming CBC offers, and the direction CBC should
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1 take in the coming years, both at the national and
2 regional levels.
3 33 Since the last CBC review, Canada has
4 become a more culturally and linguistically diverse
5 country. Almost 80 per cent of the 1 million
6 immigrants who arrived here through 1991 and 1996
7 reported a mother tongue other than English or French.
8 34 A Canadian heritage and identity that
9 is common to all must be respected and promoted.
10 However, for the full and equitable participation of
11 Canada's ethnocultural communities in Canada's
12 mainstream, their cultural and social rights must be
13 preserved and enhanced.
14 35 The policies. Section 3(1)(d)(3) of
15 the Broadcasting Act states that:
16 "The Canadian Broadcasting
17 system should, through its
18 programming and the employment
19 opportunities arising out of its
20 operations, serve the needs and
21 interests and reflect the
22 circumstances and aspirations of
23 Canadian men, women and children
24 including equal rights, a
25 linguistic duality in a
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1 multicultural and multiracial
2 nature of Canada's society, and
3 a special place of aboriginal
4 peoples within the society."
5 (As read)
6 36 CBC should be mirroring the full
7 range of today's Canadian multicultural reality in its
8 programming. CBC must foster a society that
9 recognizes, respects and reflects a diversity of
10 culture so that peoples of all backgrounds feel a sense
11 of belonging to a truly inclusive nation that is
12 Canada. This is of greater fundamental concern today
13 than ever before in our history since 42 per cent of
14 Canada's population is neither of French or English
15 background.
16 37 The CBC, more than any other
17 broadcaster, should focus on reflecting the full range
18 of Canada's multicultural experience in dramatic
19 productions, entertainment, news coverage and
20 documentary programming.
21 38 News coverage should regularly focus
22 the community life and issues of importance to Canada's
23 diverse population and fairly report any important
24 community events and achievements.
25 39 Future documentaries must examine
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1 both the early and current attempts of our various
2 ethnic communities to establish themselves in Canada.
3 40 Programming directed specifically to
4 ethnocultural groups should reflect national, regional
5 and local experiences and provide information about
6 Canada. It should serve as a link to the community
7 while yet strengthens and unifies by informing
8 listeners and viewers about the larger Canadian
9 community of which they are part.
10 41 The CBC should be required to air at
11 least 10 hours per week of ethnic broadcasting which
12 should be allocated to communities based on population,
13 demand and ability of the community to produce or
14 supply programming which contains 50 per cent Canadian
15 content. This will result in heightening community
16 awareness of activities from coast to coast and the
17 promotion of greater understanding amongst Canada's
18 diverse population for which Canada will surely
19 benefit.
20 42 Radio Canada International's
21 Ukrainian programming has a threefold function: it
22 informs Ukrainians in eastern Europe about Canada and
23 its democratic way of life; it informs Ukrainians in
24 Canada about issues, events and achievements of the
25 Ukrainian Canadian community; and, it informs Canadians
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1 about the major developments in Ukraine and eastern
2 Europe.
3 43 RCI programs should be rebroadcast in
4 Canada through the CBC's local AM and FM stations.
5 Recommendations and conclusions of the Ukrainian
6 Canadian Congress strongly urges the CRTC to ensure
7 that the CBC, more than any other broadcaster, focuses
8 on reflecting the full range of Canada's multicultural
9 experience and all its programming; two, the CBC
10 allocate at least 10 hours per week of ethnic
11 broadcasting; three, RCI programs be rebroadcast in
12 Canada through the CBC's local AM and FM stations; and,
13 four, the CBC adheres to the spirit of values
14 entrenched in the Broadcasting Act, the Canadian
15 Multiculturalism Act, the Canadian Human Rights Act,
16 and the Canadian Charter of Rights or Freedom, and the
17 creation of any programming.
18 44 Thank you.
19 45 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you very
20 much, Ms Szwaluk.
21 46 Mr. Krushen.
22 1310
23 47 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
24 Commissioner Wylie.
25 48 Maintenant, j'appelle M. Christian
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1 Dandeneau et M. George Parastre.
2 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
3 49 M. DANDENEAU: Bon après-midi, Madame
4 la Commissaire. Je me nomme Christian Dandeneau. Je
5 suis membre du C.A. d'Oniric et je réside au Manitoba.
6 50 J'aimerais maintenant vous présenter
7 George Parastre, membre du C.A. d'Oniric, qui vous fera
8 une brève description de notre organisation.
9 51 M. PARASTRE: Madame la Commissaire.
10 52 Oniric, dont les lettres veulent dire
11 Organisme de nouvelles initiatives régionales en
12 information et communication, est un organisme
13 interprovincial à but non-lucratif de l'ouest canadien
14 qui existe depuis plus de trois ans. Son conseil
15 d'administration est composé de professionnels du monde
16 des nouveaux médias et du secteur de l'éducation
17 provenant des diverses provinces de l'ouest ainsi que
18 du territoire que couvre Oniric et qui comprend aussi
19 le Yukon et les Territoires-du-nord-ouest.
20 53 Tel que le décrit sa mission, Oniric
21 regroupe des intervenants dont le but commun est de
22 créer un environnement qui promouvoit l'entrepreneuriat
23 chez les francophones de l'ouest canadien dans le
24 domaines des médias numériques. Oniric accomplit cette
25 mission en assumant le mandat de réaliser des activités
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1 de recherche et de développement, d'assurer l'accès à
2 des services d'appui de formation, en établissant des
3 partenariats, en faisant de la sensibilisation et de la
4 promotion.
5 54 Il est évident que pour les
6 représentants d'Oniric, les enjeux du réseautage via
7 l'internet sont trop nombreux pour que les intervenants
8 francophones, que ce soit les écoles, les communautés
9 et les institutions, ne s'y engagent pas énergiquement.
10 Et c'est sur ce point même que je vais repasser la
11 parole à mon collègue Christian qui va vous présenter
12 notre mémoire plus formel.
13 55 M. DANDENEAU: Merci, George.
14 56 Notre présentation devant vous
15 aujourd'hui dans le cadre d'audience en vue du
16 renouvellement de licence d'exploitation de la Société
17 Radio-Canada s'appuie sur l'importance que cette
18 Société de la couronne représente quand au
19 développement des communautés francophones et des
20 jeunes francophones de l'ouest canadien et des
21 territoires.
22 57 Il est important de rappeler le rôle
23 essentiel que Radio-Canada a joué tout au long de son
24 histoire dans l'ouest dans le soutien au développement
25 des communautés francophones, que ce soit en
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1 fournissant des services d'information, en produisant
2 des programmes culturelles et en procurant aux
3 francophones de ces régions un lieu d'expression et un
4 outil de rassemblement. Il faut également noter que la
5 Société Radio-Canada continue de jouer ce rôle malgré
6 les importantes réductions budgétaires qu'elle a subies
7 dans les dernières années.
8 58 Il est essentiel que Radio-Canada
9 continue de jouer ce rôle. La Société doit aussi
10 s'assurer que notre réalité régionale trouve une place
11 sur l'ensemble du réseau, particulièrement à la télé,
12 sous forme de productions locales, documentaires et
13 autres, en partenariat avec le secteur privé.
14 59 D'un intérêt plus spécifique pour
15 Oniric, à l'heure des médias numériques et alors qu'on
16 assiste à une convergence des médias, nous constatons
17 que la radio de la Société Radio-Canada s'engage avec
18 détermination dans le monde de l'internet où elle
19 occupe déjà une place remarquable. Elle est le premier
20 réseau de radio francophone au monde qui diffuse en
21 continu sur l'internet.
22 60 Dans un monde où les médias
23 numériques sont la voix du présent et de l'avenir, la
24 Société Radio-Canada dans l'ouest entend aussi élargir
25 ce mandat et devenir un partenaire communautaire dans
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1 une intervention dont bénéficieront écoles et
2 communautés francophones.
3 61 Si nous pouvons appuyer cette
4 démarche, c'est que nos stratégies de développement
5 reposent sur trois éléments principaux qui
6 s'harmonisent avec la vision et le mandat élargi de
7 Radio-Canada dans nos régions.
8 62 Nous voulons en effet, premièrement,
9 privilégier la formation et l'éducation des jeunes de
10 nos provinces et territoires, particulièrement dans le
11 domaine des nouveaux médias, en vue d'assurer une
12 relève qui sera à même d'intervenir en région dans la
13 préparation d'un nouveau contenu et la mise en place de
14 technologies répondant aux besoins de nos communautés.
15 63 Dans un premier temps, il s'agit de
16 développer chez les jeunes une compréhension des médias
17 et leur rôle dans notre société. Mais il faut aussi
18 les familiariser avec les techniques spécifiques aux
19 médias numériques, particulièrement la radio, afin de
20 les inviter à produire pour leurs écoles, leurs
21 communautés et éventuellement au niveau national.
22 64 Deuxièmement, fournir aux jeunes
23 entrepreneurs francophones de l'ouest des occasions de
24 travailler et de se perfectionner en français en
25 nouveaux médias dans un environnement professionnel
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1 alors que les occasions d'emploi au sein des grandes
2 institutions d'état deviennent de plus en plus
3 limitées.
4 65 Ce sera aussi pour eux l'occasion de
5 développer des produits dans les deux langues
6 officielles du pays, et finalement, de permettre aux
7 détenteurs de droit d'auteur du domaine culturel de
8 diffuser ses oeuvres dans les nouveaux médias.
9 66 Aujourd'hui, la radio de Radio-Canada
10 veut jouer un rôle actif en partenariat avec d'autres
11 intervenants dans le soutien des communautés
12 francophones. Certaines des initiatives déjà mises de
13 l'avant par Radio-Canada en ce qui concerne la
14 formation et l'éducation témoignent de cette vision et
15 de cet engagement.
16 67 Ces initiatives visent
17 particulièrement un développement de la radio dans les
18 régions par la culture et l'information. Ceci repose
19 sur la nouvelle présence des stations régionales de
20 radio sur le réseau d'internet. Ainsi, Radio-Canada
21 veut utiliser les nouvelles technologies pour se
22 rapprocher des communautés.
23 68 La production en région d'un CD-ROM
24 permettant l'accès et une utilisation profitable et
25 facile des contenus des sites de Radio-Canada par les
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1 jeunes et le grand public contribuera à cet objectif.
2 69 Le fonds MicroRadio(ph) est aussi une
3 initiative de Radio-Canada. Ce projet vise la
4 production de matériel destiné à la clientèle jeunesse
5 et à la clientèle scolaire jusqu'au secondaire.
6 70 Radio-Canada veut aussi être associé
7 à des expériences de perfectionnement en productions
8 radiophoniques et en multimédias ici-même à
9 St. Boniface, un programme destiné aux jeunes de
10 l'ouest.
11 71 Radio-Canada veut également être
12 associé à des programmes de formation en productions
13 radiophoniques numériques pour les jeunes, une
14 formation qui pourrait faciliter d'autres initiatives
15 communautaires ou scolaires en radio.
16 72 Il est essentiel de souligner le
17 leadership que le Canada joue dans le développement des
18 nouvelles technologies dans un monde francophone. Les
19 initiatives régionales que nous avons décrites peuvent
20 contribuer à ce rôle de leadership et amener d'autres
21 importantes retombées pour le Canada et pour nos
22 régions dans ce domaine. Il est toutefois important de
23 préciser les conditions au soutien que nous apportons à
24 ces initiatives.
25 73 Malgré ce que l'on dit de la
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1 révolution numérique, notamment qu'elle abolit les
2 distances et qu'elle a un effet rassembleur, on
3 pourrait être tenté de profiter des avantages de cette
4 technologie pour gérer les démarches proposées de trop
5 loin et donc de réduire la présence locale de
6 Radio-Canada. C'est le contraire qu'il faut faire.
7 74 L'enracinement de Radio-Canada dans
8 les communautés et sa présence continue et renforcée
9 dans nos régions sont indispensables si la Société veut
10 baser son intervention, telle qu'elle se doit, sur une
11 connaissance approfondie de sa spécificité, des
12 intérêts et des aspirations des francophones de
13 l'ouest.
14 75 L'engagement des représentants de
15 Radio-Canada nous assure que les conditions ci-dessus
16 mentionnées seront remplies. Donc, pour toutes les
17 raisons précédemment énoncées, c'est avec plaisir que
18 nous appuyons le renouvellement de la licence de la
19 Société Radio-Canada ici au Manitoba et naturellement
20 dans les autres régions de l'ouest canadien et les
21 territoires.
22 76 Nous vous remercions de nous avoir
23 donner cette occasion de présenter notre point. Merci.
24 77 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Nous vous remercions,
25 MM. Dandeneau et Parastre, pour votre présentation.
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1 78 Monsieur Krushen.
2 1320
3 79 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
4 Commissioner Wylie.
5 80 I would now like to call
6 Mr. Jack Kowalchuk.
7 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
8 81 MR. KOWALCHUK: Thank you very much.
9 82 I live in a small farming town about
10 100 miles north of Winnipeg called Fisher Branch. At
11 Fisher Branch we have the CBC tower which is
12 approximately a mile and a half from my house.
13 83 The views that I'm saying today are
14 the views of being a viewer of CBC and a person that
15 listens to CBC radio quite often.
16 84 To start the day off, I turn on the
17 TV to CBC because we -- okay, we just have two choices,
18 CBC and CTV. CTV, half the time, the picture is not
19 very good -- very bad, very fuzzy. CBC is quite well,
20 so we watch CBC quite often.
21 85 However, being 100 miles north of
22 Winnipeg, I turn on the TV in the morning and the first
23 thing I see is Mykasou(ph) Morning, I hear bingo from
24 Thompson and then music from Churchill with pictures
25 from Churchill. I'm quite disappointed in that.
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1 86 I go to work and come back about five
2 o'clock, go downstairs, watch the kids, the kids are
3 watching CBC Simpsons -- bad programming, bad timing,
4 bad altogether.
5 87 However, CBC is not all that bad.
6 I'm just saying the view of the -- now, this is my day.
7 88 However, I do have a lot of time
8 during the wintertime; I'm fairly busy in the
9 summertime. I like to watch CBC TV. It's a good
10 network and CBC should keep up the good work. However,
11 I think they are missing the viewpoint of the viewers.
12 They have lost their touch in communicating with the
13 people that watch TV at all.
14 89 Okay, Saturday night -- Hockey Night
15 in Canada, back-to-back, Hockey Night in Canada. I
16 love hockey; my kids are in hockey. Back-to-back night
17 Hockey Night in Canada. It comes from where? Toronto.
18 Rename the CBC the TBC, the Toronto Broadcasting
19 Corporation. I'm sick and tired of seeing stuff from
20 the east. We don't get stuff here locally.
21 90 When we had the Winnipeg Jets for a
22 hockey team we were trying to get the Jets to be on TV.
23 We couldn't get them. We couldn't even get the Jets
24 when they were playing away. We got Toronto, Toronto,
25 Toronto, maybe Montreal and then they go to Vancouver.
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1 91 So I think you should look at that
2 more often. You should keep in touch with your
3 viewers.
4 92 However, Sunday night comes along you
5 have Walt Disney. Fantastic. You have some fantastic
6 programs on there the kids like. Wind on my Back and
7 all those shows are great. However, you bring in
8 specials at the wrong time. You brought the Junos,
9 that's great, but three hours of it? Come on, have a
10 heart. Okay. There is stuff that -- you know, figure
11 skating the whole week. Too much.
12 93 You put on too much stuff at one time
13 and it gets boring. I get frustrated so I turn back to
14 CTV and they have figure skating, too, so I lose both
15 ways, you know.
16 94 However, we up there believe that CBC
17 should become a multichannel network for the people
18 that don't have the privileges of living in the big
19 towns, in the big cities, and the big luxury visions
20 and watching cable TV and all that.
21 95 I would like to recommend that CBC
22 definitely look into installing Newsworld, you know,
23 100 miles north of Winnipeg. If I could get bingo in
24 Churchill I'm pretty sure that I could get Newsworld
25 100 miles north. That should be a network must.
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1 96 Another network that they should
2 provide is a sports network, totally sports. When the
3 world soccer was on I was frustrated. I couldn't watch
4 it. I would have loved to have watched the world
5 soccer games. I would love to watch the world
6 championships and a few of those games. We had some
7 Mexican students stay at our place and they were truly
8 disappointed because they couldn't watch, like, world
9 soccer.
10 97 And the third feature would be keep
11 your regular channel but maybe provide an entertainment
12 channel, more of the movie channel, and stuff like
13 that.
14 98 When CBC does have something on good
15 and nice to watch -- like, they do have good movies
16 occasionally -- they kill us with too much advertising:
17 15 minutes of movie, 15 minutes of advertising;
18 15 minutes of movie, 20 minutes of advertising. It's
19 terrible.
20 99 You know, we have come to watch TV.
21 We know it costs a lot of money. We are paying for it
22 through our taxes. We are supporting it by looking at
23 it. Maybe the art of communication between the viewer
24 and CBC must be improved in the TV section.
25 100 Another frustration I have with the
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1 CBC is that when they were cutting back the funds to
2 the corporation we had some fantastic local programs.
3 We had the Coleman and Company. That was great. It
4 dealt with Manitobans working in Manitoba. The first
5 thing off the air. The first thing when CBC slashed
6 their budget, the first thing to go was the good local
7 programs, and that's wrong. People get mad and
8 frustrated. People aren't very happy.
9 101 So what do the people do? They go
10 out and buy satellite dishes. They go out and by sky
11 cable. They invest their money to get alternative
12 programming because the CBC was not providing the
13 programs that they had which they enjoyed in the past.
14 So they went out and bought something else. So you are
15 losing a lot of people up north. You are losing a lot
16 of people in the rural areas.
17 102 Okay. I would like to talk a little
18 bit about CBC radio. It's good.
19 103 CBC radio has maintained local
20 program. This is good. CBC radio has a fantastic
21 morning show, keep up the good work; and they have a
22 fantastic news show at six o'clock, keep up the good
23 work. In between is okay.
24 104 CBC radio has multi bands. If you
25 want to listen to classical music you can; if you want
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1 to listen to it in the north you could. It's good.
2 There's no complaints of CBC radio.
3 105 Finally, I didn't come here to praise
4 the CBC but I didn't come here to run them down. What
5 I would like to see the CBC do or the Commission -- I
6 blame you guys, too. I came down here thinking, "I'll
7 come down here, see a bunch of guys from the east, big
8 table, big books, a bunch a lawyers on one end, you
9 guys on the other end, and I'll be sitting back there
10 facing you with the intention, which I truly believe
11 will happen, that this is a formality." But how much
12 of this stuff will you really listen to?
13 106 We believe that you have a platform
14 and these are the things you have to do. We believe
15 that the government of today has given you a mandate to
16 spend money or save money -- I don't know -- but I
17 believe, and a lot of people back where I come from
18 believe, that things are going to happen to the CBC
19 which may downgrade it. Don't downgrade it.
20 107 Make CBC a competitive TV station
21 like you did with the radio station. Look at multi
22 channels, look at different ways, but first of all talk
23 to your viewers. I guess the main word I'm saying is
24 "communication". You have lost the art of
25 communication and some people are getting frustrated.
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1 108 So, in closing, thank you very much
2 for this short time to make a presentation.
3 109 Keep up the good work, keep up the
4 good thoughts, but don't lose your viewers, okay?
5 110 Thank you.
6 111 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
7 Mr. Kowalchuk.
8 112 As you can see, we got you to sit
9 very close. Thank you for your presentation.
10 113 Mr. Krushen.
11 1328
12 114 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
13 Commissioner Wylie.
14 115 I would now like to call
15 Mr. Scott MacNeil.
16 116 It doesn't appear that Mr. MacNeil is
17 in the room.
18 117 Now I would like to call
19 Mr. Greg Lowe.
20 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
21 118 MR. LOWE: Hi. Can you hear me?
22 119 THE CHAIRPERSON: Yes, we can.
23 120 MR. LOWE: Okay. Testing.
24 121 THE CHAIRPERSON: Welcome. Good
25 afternoon, Mr. Lowe.
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1 122 MR. LOWE: I'm a composer, a
2 musician. I just have a couple of points to make and
3 one very definite one.
4 123 First of all, the CBC is doing a
5 great job as far as content of local performers and
6 supporting artists in every genre. I feel it is very
7 evenly dispersed.
8 124 The specific issue that I would like
9 to bring up is, as an orchestra composer, with the new
10 technology coming in, at the present time when you
11 actually get an orchestra piece recorded and broadcast,
12 which would cost the CBC well over $10,000 in musician
13 fees and recording, those pieces are broadcast twice
14 and then they are put on the shelf. For the amount of
15 money it takes to commission a composer and to record
16 and broadcast the performance, it seems like two
17 broadcasts are very minimal and, also, I guess the
18 composer loses access to that recording and doesn't
19 have access to the master tapes.
20 125 Recently there has been -- on smaller
21 projects, the CBC has been initiating or attempting to
22 initiate a project that when a musician does record
23 music there is a possibility of leasing the master tape
24 back and producing CDs and being able to sell them in
25 the -- if they can get distribution of some sort, and
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1 at the same time the CBC would be getting an allotment
2 back off of the sales giving them an opportunity
3 perhaps to make some of their own money back, although
4 in the case of orchestra music that is unlikely.
5 126 My point is, with the new technology
6 coming in, there will be scheduled broadcasting but I
7 assume there will also be the option for the public to
8 select what radio programs they want to listen to
9 without having to tune in at a specific time, which
10 means they would be downloading the program, which
11 means that they would be downloading an orchestra
12 piece. My question is: If the present situation is
13 that when you have a piece recorded and it can only be
14 broadcast twice, how is it going to sit in the digital
15 world where people can download it as many times as
16 they would like without some form of payment that would
17 go back to the CBC and in fact back to the musicians?
18 127 This is obviously a question for the
19 AF of M and CBC to sort out. But my concern is that it
20 might make it more difficult for an orchestral composer
21 to get work recorded because it will indeed become more
22 expensive.
23 128 So that is basically the issue that I
24 wanted to bring up.
25 129 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
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1 Mr. Lowe.
2 130 Your concern is in part the copyright
3 issue?
4 131 MR. LOWE: Yes.
5 132 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you for your
6 presentation.
7 133 Mr. Krushen.
8 1331
9 134 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
10 Commissioner Wylie.
11 135 I would now like to call
12 Ms Gustine Wilton.
13 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
14 136 MS WILTON: Thank you.
15 137 I would like to begin by introducing
16 ourselves. Beside me is Jeanne Ball and in the
17 audience Ivy MacNeil, Dorothy Donnelly and
18 Bruce MacNeil, and we are regular attenders of the
19 Wednesday Morning Meetings.
20 138 Wednesday Morning Meetings have been
21 happening in Carmen, a town of 2,500, 70 kilometres
22 southwest of Winnipeg for almost 19 years. Each week
23 we have a speaker, film or discussion and our topics
24 are wide ranging: the arts; health; nature; science;
25 current issues; local, national and international
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1 politics; et cetera.
2 139 At one of our recent meetings it
3 became clear that in an audience of twenty-some, almost
4 without exception, we were fans of the CBC. It was
5 this rather dramatic unanimity that suggested to us
6 that we might have something to say at these hearings.
7 140 We are rural people and the CBC
8 connects us to other communities and people in our
9 province, our country and the world. It helps to keep
10 us current in literature, music, visual arts, politics
11 and government, business, the law, justice, science.
12 We are here to add our voices to those who believe that
13 a strong public broadcaster, well supported by public
14 funds, is essential to Canada continuing as a country
15 with a strong identity.
16 141 On the whole, we believe the CBC
17 fulfils its role as a national public broadcaster very
18 well. It brings the country and the world into our
19 homes.
20 142 We appreciate the TV documentaries
21 and specials as well as regular programs such as The
22 Nature of Things, Market Place, The Health Show,
23 Witness, and The Fifth Estate. Drama series like
24 DaVinci's Inquest and North of 60 are not afraid to be
25 obviously set in Canada. Seeing ourselves reflected in
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1 our media is essentially essential to our sense of who
2 we are and to our sense of it being okay to be who we
3 are.
4 143 For most of us, radio is an even more
5 important medium than TV. It entertains us and informs
6 us. It tells us what other Canadians are thinking and
7 doing. High quality programs such as Quirks and
8 Quarks, The Vinyl Cafe, As It Happens, The Inside
9 Track, Ideas, Between the Covers, and Tapestry simply
10 do not exist on commercial radio stations.
11 144 Connecting Canadians to each other
12 and to our culture is an important role for a public
13 broadcaster and CBC has done this well in the past and
14 we hope will continue to do so in the future.
15 145 The CBC has also been a leader in
16 having women and people from a variety of racial and
17 ethnic backgrounds among their on-air personnel. We
18 applaud the CBC for this leadership. We believe it
19 makes a positive contribution to our society by helping
20 to break down gender and racial stereotype.
21 146 The CBC promotes the development of
22 Canadian talent in music and literature. We see this
23 as an important function of a public broadcaster.
24 Because they are not dependent on ratings, they can
25 afford to explore the new and the fringes. They don't
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1 have to stick to the already popular and to the safe.
2 147 Regional and national programming are
3 both important services of the CBC. If others can do
4 local programming better, why do we always have our
5 radios tuned to the CBC?
6 148 For us, in a rural community, the
7 Radio Noon show is an important one and in fact there
8 are many of our neighbours who may not be so hooked on
9 the rest of CBC broadcasting but make a point of tuning
10 in to Radio Noon. It is simply the most comprehensive
11 show of its kind.
12 149 We would urge the CBC to keep this
13 rural content. In spite of our relatively small
14 numbers, our urban neighbours need to stay in touch
15 with rural issues and people. Farming and fishing,
16 after all, are our primary industries. It would be a
17 great loss if more budget cuts squeeze the CBC further
18 and our regional broadcasting has to cover wider areas.
19 It's important for us to be informed about the issues
20 arising for town councils and school boards in our
21 province, what's happening in local art galleries and
22 concert halls, what the local weather is and what's
23 happening in our provincial legislature.
24 150 Many people in our group felt that
25 one recent change did not improve the local versus
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1 national balance and would like to see 24 Hours Late
2 Night restored to its 11:00 p.m. time slot instead of
3 repeating The National at that time; 11:25 we felt is
4 too late for local news.
5 151 Should programming provided by the
6 CBC radio and television be different?
7 152 Of course it should. Because it is
8 supported by public funding, it does not have to be a
9 slave to ratings. It can provide service to more
10 specialized groups both in terms of interest and
11 geography. A one-hour program of conversation with the
12 author of a literary work may not be to everyone's
13 taste, but Writers and Company is intensely interesting
14 to some and CBC should continue to meet such
15 specialized needs.
16 153 By the same token, CBC has a
17 responsibility to report on and to isolated and remote
18 communities in Canada. It's a service essential to our
19 sense of who we are as Canadians, and private
20 broadcasters are not likely to choose to provide it.
21 154 Canadians also need international
22 news reported from a Canadian perspective. While
23 private broadcasters may choose to hire other nationals
24 to do much of their overseas reporting, we believe the
25 CBC has a responsibility to provide Canadian coverage.
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1 155 There are of course things that we
2 don't like about the CBC. Many find the comedy of Air
3 Farce and Comics coarse and questions if it has to be
4 on at all could it not be at a later time. Warnings
5 alone are insufficient.
6 156 The events surrounding the APEC
7 Conference in Vancouver have us wondering if there is
8 enough distance between the government and the CBC. Is
9 there a danger of censorship?
10 157 We think that advertisements during
11 the news are inappropriate and two hockey games on
12 Saturday night are at least one too many.
13 158 Occasionally, the CBC has given us
14 more coverage of an event than we want. Did we need
15 Peter Mansbridge reporting from London night after
16 night following Princess Diana's death; and, although
17 radio showed that it could provide a community service
18 of a different kind during the flood, in our opinion,
19 it continued past its usefulness.
20 159 To this point I have been talking
21 about the CBC as a listener and a viewer. A few times,
22 however, I have been closer to news events and those
23 experiences have raised concerns about how news is done
24 by various media outlets, including the CBC.
25 160 Several years ago, Wednesday Morning
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1 had a legislature reporter from the CBC as our guest.
2 In response to a question about Major Gas, this
3 reporter said that the worst thing that had ever
4 happened was that they hadn't foreseen the big Liberal
5 gains in the recent provincial election. It surprised
6 me that she saw predicting the news as a media
7 responsibility.
8 161 During the Meech Lake debate, I was
9 registered as a presenter at the hearings in Winkler.
10 A few days before the session a CBC producer phoned me
11 to ask about the content of my presentation. She
12 indicated that they had covered the points I was making
13 after the Brandon hearings and that they were really
14 looking for the anti-Quebec story. In fact, that story
15 didn't show up at Winkler. In my opinion, another TV
16 station that sent a reporter and a camera operator to
17 the hearings and gave a summary of the presentations
18 did what had to be done.
19 162 Some years ago my husband attended a
20 meeting called to discuss crisis in agriculture.
21 Hundreds of farmers gathered in a community hall. The
22 scene was of recent debate. People expressed their
23 opinions calmly and articulately, all except one
24 hothead who was neither calm nor reasonable. Who do
25 you think was interviewed for the news.
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1 163 I wonder if it's time that media
2 people re-thought their man-bites-dog definition of
3 news. We consumers of news depend on the media to be
4 our ears and eyes, and when they choose to report the
5 exceptional rather than the event they do us a
6 disservice. We don't need the news predicted nor
7 created nor distorted. We can have confidence in a
8 news service that reports, describes and analyzes. CBC
9 as a public broadcaster can and should be that news
10 service.
11 164 Thank you.
12 165 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
13 Ms Wilton, for your presentation and for the presence
14 of the Wednesday Group on Tuesday.
15 166 MS WILTON: On Tuesday.
16 (Off microphone...)
17 167 THE CHAIRPERSON: Mr. Krushen.
18 1342
19 168 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
20 Commissioner Wylie.
21 169 Maintenant, j'appelle M. Paul Ruest.
22 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
23 170 M. RUEST: Bonjour, Madame la
24 Commissaire.
25 171 Monsieur Krushen.
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1 172 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Bonjour,
2 Monsieur Ruest.
3 173 M. RUEST: Je tiens à vous remercier
4 pour la tenue de ces audiences portant sur l'avenir de
5 la Société Radio-Canada.
6 174 Permettez-moi de me présenter ainsi
7 que l'établissement que je représente. Je suis Paul
8 Ruest, Recteur du Collège universitaire de
9 St. Boniface, université de langue française du
10 Manitoba et la seule université de langue française de
11 l'ouest canadien. Les débuts de notre établissement
12 remontent à 1818 et notre histoire est intimement liée
13 à celle des francophones du Manitoba.
14 175 Notre établissement accueille
15 aujourd'hui les diplômés des écoles secondaires
16 francophones et d'immersion française. Il est
17 également devenu, au cours des dernières années, une
18 université d'accueil pour des étudiants et étudiantes
19 un peu partout à travers le monde qui choisissent de
20 venir étudier en français au Manitoba.
21 176 Le Collège universitaire a contribué
22 à la formation de plusieurs des employés de la Société
23 Radio-Canada qui oeuvrent présentement ou qui ont
24 contribué dans le passé, soit ici-même à Winnipeg ou
25 ailleurs au Canada. On n'a qu'à mentionner M. Henri
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1 Bergeron comme diplômé du Collège.
2 177 Notre représentation portera sur deux
3 points: soit le principe d'un réseau public et son
4 importance pour une population francophone vivant en
5 milieu minoritaire.
6 178 La Société Radio-Canada a été soumise
7 au cours des dernières années à un régime d'austérité
8 tout en questionnant la nécessité-même d'un tel réseau
9 public. Certains éléments de la population canadienne
10 ont questionné le rôle de l'état dans le domaine de la
11 radio et télédiffusion à l'égard qu'il s'agissait là
12 d'une dépense publique inutile et d'un domaine
13 d'activité qui relève davantage de l'entreprise privée.
14 179 Nous ne partageons pas ce point de
15 vue. À notre avis, la Société Radio-Canada est une
16 institution qui contribue à l'identité canadienne et
17 qui répond à un mandat unique qui ne pourrait être
18 rencontré par une agence privée. Son statut public
19 fait en sorte qu'elle doit répondre aux aspirations et
20 aux besoins des citoyens et citoyennes canadiennes
21 plutôt que des impératifs privés axés sur la quête des
22 profits financiers.
23 180 Il est à noter que ce qui est
24 important n'est pas toujours rentable et ce qui est
25 rentable n'est pas toujours très important.
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1 181 C'est d'ailleurs ce statut
2 particulier qui lui permet de véritablement refléter
3 les valeurs canadiennes. Elle possède ainsi
4 l'autonomie et la latitude nécessaire pour offrir un
5 service parfois pas très rentable mais important pour
6 la population canadienne.
7 182 La Société Radio-Canada est reconnue
8 pour la qualité de sa programmation, son sens de
9 l'objectivité dans le partage de l'information et sa
10 présence partout au Canada... entre tous les Canadiens,
11 peu importe où ils demeurent.
12 183 La programmation en français de la
13 Société Radio-Canada occupe une place non-négligeable
14 dans la vie des francophones qui vivent en milieu
15 minoritaire. Nous savons tous que cette présence est
16 rarement rentable pour un diffuseur, mais elle est
17 doublement importante pour les populations isolées,
18 tant sur le plan géographique que linguistique et
19 culturel.
20 184 Elle contribue au maintien et au
21 développement des communautés francophones, et dans ce
22 sens, elle aide au gouvernement du Canada à s'acquitter
23 de ses engagements, tel que prévu par la Loi sur les
24 Langues officielles.
25 185 Aucune entreprise privée serait en
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1 mesure de maintenir à long terme un tel engagement qui
2 se veut aucunement rentable sur le plan financier.
3 D'ailleurs, on n'a qu'à penser à la réticence des
4 câblodistributeurs à incorporer des chaînes françaises
5 dans leur offre pour comprendre qu'il serait utopique
6 de penser qu'une entreprise privée pourrait remplacer
7 la Société Radio-Canada.
8 186 D'autre part, il faut noter que la
9 SRC offre des services de nature parfois moins connue
10 ou moins appréciée par les personnes qui ne vivent pas
11 dans des milieux linguistiques minoritaires. Il s'agit
12 de services que je qualifie d'ordre pédagogique.
13 187 La SRC nous offre en permanence un
14 modèle de langue alors que la situation en milieu
15 minoritaire tend vers l'appauvrissement linguistique.
16 Elle vient appuyer nos efforts pour l'apprentissage du
17 français tout en faisant connaître la francophonie
18 canadienne sous ses multiples facettes à ceux et celles
19 qui veulent la découvrir.
20 188 Il s'agit là d'un puissant outil
21 pédagogique pour l'enseignement de la langue première
22 comme pour l'apprentissage de l'autre langue officielle
23 du Canada, et du même coup, cette présence quotidienne
24 au sein de notre vie contribue à un véritable
25 rapprochement entre les différentes communautés
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1 francophones vivant au Canada. Cette présence et ce
2 service irremplaçable ne pourraient être assurés par
3 une entreprise qui doit s'autofinancer ou qui n'est pas
4 clairement mandatée de contribuer à la promotion de
5 l'identité canadienne.
6 189 Il ne faudrait cependant pas
7 conclure, à partir de mes commentaires, que nous sommes
8 complètement enchantés des services offerts par la SRC.
9 Il est évident que sa programmation n'est pas en mesure
10 de répondre à tous les goûts à tout temps.
11 190 Nous sommes d'ailleurs heureux de
12 constater que la SRC s'intéresse au domaine des réseaux
13 spécialisés d'information. Il s'agit là de nouveaux
14 outils d'information dont nous saurons prendre
15 pleinement avantage et auxquels il nous fera plaisir de
16 contribuer.
17 191 D'autre part, nous tenons à souligner
18 l'importance d'augmenter le nombre de productions en
19 région. Celles-ci sont particulièrement utiles pour
20 promouvoir un véritable sens de l'identité canadienne.
21 Elle permet de développer un sens d'appartenance des
22 différentes régions au réseau national tout en leur
23 donnant l'occasion de développer leurs compétences dans
24 le domaine de la production. L'ère des nouvelles
25 technologies devrait grandement faciliter ce genre de
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1 productions.
2 192 Enfin, il serait important que la SRC
3 entreprenne une véritable campagne de promotion de sa
4 programmation auprès des jeunes. Il faudrait qu'elle
5 se fasse mieux connaître auprès des écoles et des
6 universités. À notre avis, la SRC offre d'excellents
7 produits qui ne sont pas suffisamment connus par le
8 public en général et surtout par la jeunesse.
9 193 J'espère que ces quelques
10 commentaires vous auront été utiles et je profite de
11 l'occasion pour vous souhaiter des audiences
12 fructueuses qui contribueront à l'avancement de la
13 Société Radio-Canada. Et soi-dit en passant, Madame la
14 Commissaire, cette initiative est extraordinaire.
15 194 Je vous remercie.
16 195 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Nous vous remercions,
17 Monsieur Ruest, pour votre présentation.
18 196 Monsieur Krushen.
19 1349
20 197 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
21 Commissioner Wylie.
22 198 Maintenant, j'appelle
23 M. Daniel Boucher.
24 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
25 199 M. BOUCHER: Bonjour, Madame la
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1 Commissaire. Bienvenue de nouveau au Manitoba.
2 200 Monsieur Krushen, bonjour.
3 201 Je m'appelle Daniel Boucher et je
4 suis le Président et Directeur-général de la Société
5 franco-manitobaine.
6 202 La Société franco-manitobaine est
7 l'organisme porte-parole officiel de la communauté
8 francophone du Manitoba. Elle veille à
9 l'épanouissement de cette communauté et revendique le
10 plein respect de ses droits. De concert avec ses
11 partenaires, elle planifie et facilite le développement
12 global de la collectivité et en fait la promotion.
13 203 Aujourd'hui, vous entendrez les
14 propos de la Société franco-manitobaine ainsi que
15 d'autres groupes de la communauté -- et vous en avez
16 déjà entendu quelques-uns -- en ce qui a trait au rôle
17 de Radio-Canada dans notre communauté et nos besoins en
18 tant que communauté de langues officielles.
19 204 Je vous remercie de cette occasion de
20 faire valoir le point de vue sur la Société
21 Radio-Canada car tel que vous le constaterez dans notre
22 présentation, la Société Radio-Canada, tant la
23 télévision que la radio, joue un rôle primordial dans
24 notre communauté et dans l'ensemble de nos communautés,
25 et ce, d'un océan à l'autre.
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1 205 Vous conviendrez que la Société
2 Radio-Canada a joué un rôle direct de développement
3 dans notre communauté, et ce, depuis plusieurs années.
4 La Société Radio-Canada a été pour plusieurs de nos
5 communautés et à plusieurs points de vue le seul
6 véhicule de média francophone.
7 206 Ici au Manitoba, nous avons la chance
8 d'accéder d'autres médias qui jouent des rôles
9 particuliers dans notre communauté. Je cite en exemple
10 la radio communautaire qui offre principalement un
11 service de divertissement et qui se démarque
12 considérablement du service de Radio-Canada, qui est
13 plutôt axé sur l'information.
14 207 Nous sommes également bien servis par
15 notre journal hebdomadaire "La Liberté". Nous avons
16 aussi accès à d'autres postes de télévision français
17 que nous apprécions énormément. Il s'agit cependant
18 d'un produit que nous consommons beaucoup mais auquel
19 nous ne participons pas à la production. L'avantage de
20 la SRC est que nous pouvons non seulement consommer le
21 produit mais aussi participer à sa production.
22 208 La Société Radio-Canada, je réitère,
23 a participé au développement de la communauté
24 francophone du Manitoba. Au niveau du poste de radio,
25 qui existe depuis plus de 50 ans, nous avons pu
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1 développer une radio qui reflète la plupart des
2 activités qui existent dans notre communauté. Nous
3 avons des émissions de qualité qui sont produites chez
4 nous et qui renforcent l'identité de notre
5 collectivité.
6 209 Si on écoute à la radio de
7 Radio-Canada le matin, le midi et en fin d'après-midi,
8 nous avons non seulement un bon portrait de ce qui se
9 passe dans notre communauté mais aussi un bon portrait
10 national et même international. L'accent est cependant
11 sur les activités locales et régionales car c'est ce
12 qui touche de près les gens.
13 210 C'est ce sentiment d'identité qui
14 nous démarque des radios anglophones où on peut
15 entendre les mêmes nouvelles en anglais, mais le simple
16 fait de ne pas parler des gens de chez nous diminue le
17 lien entre notre vie comme francophone et l'histoire
18 racontée.
19 211 En ce qui a trait à la télévision de
20 Radio-Canada, la télévision joue aussi un rôle
21 important dans le développement de notre communauté,
22 qu'il s'agisse du bulletin de nouvelles quotidien de
23 "Ce Soir" ou les émissions spéciales telles la "Télé
24 relais" qui est produit et diffusé en direct lors du
25 Festival du Voyageur. Ce type de production locale
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1 permet de faire connaître le visage de notre
2 communauté.
3 212 De plus, Radio-Canada, depuis environ
4 cinq ans, nous offre un produit qui fait connaître tous
5 les Canadiens et Canadiennes d'expression française, et
6 ce, par le Réseau de l'information. À tous les jours,
7 RDI produit des émissions provenant de chaque région du
8 Canada et ces émissions nous permettent de mieux
9 connaître les gens d'un peu partout au Canada.
10 213 De plus, des émissions telles
11 "L'accent francophone" font en sorte que l'ensemble de
12 la francophonie se rejoignent et connaissent un peu
13 mieux les réalités de chacune de nos communautés
14 francophones.
15 214 Malgré le fait que le Réseau de
16 l'information nous offre un produit de grande qualité,
17 il reste que plusieurs francophones vivant à
18 l'extérieur de la ville de Winnipeg et qui ne sont pas
19 câblés ne reçoivent pas le RDI. Aussi, certains de
20 ceux qui sont branchés au câble ne sont pas
21 nécessairement abonnés à un câblodistributeur pouvant
22 émettre le signal.
23 215 Sur ce point, nous considérons que la
24 Société Radio-Canada, qui n'avait pas demandé que la
25 diffusion du RDI soit obligatoire d'un océan à l'autre,
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1 et le CRTC, qui ne l'a pas imposé dans l'octroi de sa
2 licence, ont tous deux à revoir cette décision.
3 216 Nous considérons que le Canada est un
4 pays bilingue d'un océan à l'autre. Nous estimons
5 qu'avec le nombre de francophones vivant à l'extérieur
6 du Québec et qu'avec une population grandissante de
7 diplômés d'écoles d'immersion qu'il est essentiel
8 d'offrir des produits de Radio-Canada d'un océan à
9 l'autre.
10 217 La SRC, financée par le gouvernement
11 fédéral, a un mandat tout à fait spécifique et direct
12 qui touche les valeurs fondamentales du Canada.
13 Rappelons que l'une de ces valeurs est que le Canada a
14 deux langues officielles.
15 218 Cette valeur doit dépasser les
16 considérations financières. Cette valeur doit aussi
17 dépasser la bonne volonté de certains
18 câblodistributeurs. Le CRTC doit considérer les
19 valeurs fondamentales canadiennes lorsqu'il prend des
20 décisions sur la diffusion des produits.
21 219 La Société Radio-Canada a un rôle
22 très particulier vis-à-vis nos communautés et une place
23 très particulière dans l'immensité du monde de la
24 radiodiffusion. Nous voulons que la Société
25 Radio-Canada soit un véritable produit canadien conçu
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1 pour les Canadiens et Canadiennes et par les Canadiens
2 et Canadiennes.
3 220 Il doit y avoir un contenu
4 pan-canadien produit par des gens provenant des
5 communautés locales et régionales car la voix d'un
6 francophone de l'ouest, malgré certaines similarités,
7 est différente de la voix du francophone du Québec ou
8 du Nouveau-Brunswick. Nous avons tous un message
9 unique à livrer même si nous partageons la langue et la
10 culture française.
11 221 Il est aussi important de noter que
12 Radio-Canada doit jouer un rôle très important pour
13 appuyer les producteurs locaux qui font du travail de
14 qualité et qui souvent cherchent des partenaires avec
15 qui ils peuvent développer des projets ou à qui ils
16 peuvent vendre leurs produits.
17 222 Dans un monde de plus de 200 canaux,
18 la Société Radio-Canada et le CBC doivent se démarquer
19 de façon très spécifique pour y trouver leur place.
20 Qu'il s'agisse de nouvelles demandes qui ont été
21 avancées par la Société Radio-Canada telles InfoRadio,
22 le Réseau de la Culture, le Réseau des Arts, le Réseau
23 de l'Économie, et j'en passe, ce sont tous des produits
24 qui doivent refléter l'ensemble des communautés. Pour
25 bien répondre à son mandat pan-canadien, la SRC doit
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1 s'assurer que ses produits valorisent l'expertise
2 locale.
3 223 Depuis quelques années, nous avons
4 remarqué, surtout au niveau local, des changements au
5 niveau du produit de la Société Radio-Canada. Résultat
6 immédiat des coupures: nous avons beaucoup moins de
7 productions locales et beaucoup moins de productions
8 culturelles.
9 224 Les possibilités de développement de
10 produits locaux sont maintenant limitées. Il est
11 essentiel de contrer cette tendance et d'augmenter le
12 nombre d'heures de productions locales. Nous devons
13 aussi être diffusé de façon plus régulière à l'échelle
14 du pays, et ce, en plus du RDI.
15 225 Nous convenons que beaucoup plus de
16 produits viennent et viendront toujours du Québec.
17 D'ailleurs, la qualité des produits en provenance du
18 Québec est très impressionnante et nous ne voulons
19 certainement pas laisser l'impression que nous sommes
20 insatisfaits avec le produit.
21 226 Cependant, nous cherchons une plus
22 grande voix à l'intérieur des produits de Radio-Canada.
23 Le CRTC peut certainement jouer un rôle en demandant à
24 la Société Radio-Canada d'accentuer la production et la
25 diffusion d'émissions provenant des différentes régions
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1 du pays.
2 227 Ici, au Manitoba, nous avons une
3 histoire très riche et une communauté qui a la capacité
4 de contribuer à l'essor de la Société Radio-Canada.
5 Que ce soit au niveau de la production, au niveau
6 artistique, au niveau des émissions d'information, nous
7 avons développé des équipes solides et des produits de
8 qualité dignes d'exportation à l'échelle du pays.
9 228 Néanmoins, nous avons soif de
10 découvrir et d'apprendre et nous bénéficions des
11 produits venant d'autres communautés francophones à
12 l'extérieur du Québec. Le RDI a fait des pas dans
13 cette direction et continue à y jouer un rôle important
14 mais il doit toujours accentuer la diffusion de
15 produits locaux.
16 229 Nous croyons que la licence de
17 Radio-Canada doit être flexible pour permettre au
18 Réseau de l'information et à la Première chaîne de
19 faire des échanges sans que l'un ou l'autre soit
20 pénalisé. Il est important que les échanges de
21 produits entre la Première chaîne et les chaînes
22 spécialisées, de même que les partenaires avec les
23 autres postes tels TV5, soient souples et dans le
24 meilleur intérêt du consommateur.
25 230 J'aimerais terminer en vous disant
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1 que nous considérons que la Société Radio-Canada a un
2 mandat précis en ce qui a trait au reflet des valeurs
3 canadiennes. La Société Radio-Canada doit recevoir un
4 financement adéquat pour refléter ces valeurs et pour
5 promouvoir les richesses qui existent partout au
6 Canada.
7 231 La Société Radio-Canada doit se
8 développer de façon innovatrice tout en respectant sa
9 concurrence privée. Avec ces lignes directrices en
10 tête, la SRC sera assez forte pour contrer les
11 influences nord-américaines.
12 232 Merci beaucoup.
13 233 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Nous vous remercions,
14 Monsieur Boucher.
15 234 Monsieur Krushen.
16 1400
17 235 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you, Madam Wylie.
18 236 J'appelle maintenant Mme Mona Audet.
19 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
20 237 MME AUDET: Bonjour, Monsieur.
21 Bonjour, Madame.
22 238 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Bonjour,
23 Madame Audet.
24 239 MME AUDET: Il me fait plaisir au nom
25 des membres du conseil d'administration et du personnel
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1 de Pluri-Elles Manitoba Inc. de vous adresser la parole
2 cet après-midi.
3 240 Permettez-moi d'abord d'expliquer qui
4 nous sommes. Pluri-Elles est un centre de femmes qui
5 travaillent auprès des femmes francophones du Manitoba
6 depuis 1982. Pluri-Elles dessert les femmes vivant en
7 régions rurales et urbaines et offre des services
8 d'information et d'aiguillage, d'accompagnement, de
9 counselling et d'orientation.
10 241 En plus de ces services, plusieurs
11 programmes ont déjà été développés et offerts aux
12 femmes, tel qu'un programme de promotion de la santé et
13 un programme de réintégration sur le marché du travail.
14 242 En plus des dossiers spécifiques à la
15 clientèle féminine, Pluri-Elles travaille dans les
16 programmes d'alphabétisation, de refrancisation et de
17 francisation, ainsi que le service d'aide à l'emploi,
18 qui sont offerts aux hommes et aux femmes.
19 243 Le programme "Pour de meilleures
20 relations" est un programme qui vise directement les
21 adolescents et les adolescentes qui risquent de devenir
22 parents ou qui le sont déjà.
23 244 En tant qu'organisme provincial,
24 Pluri-Elles croit important de travailler étroitement
25 avec les médias francophones afin de sensibiliser notre
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1 communauté. La Société Radio-Canada, tout
2 particulièrement CBWFT et CKSV, travaille étroitement
3 avec nous depuis plusieurs années.
4 245 En 1994, Radio-Canada a été
5 partenaire avec Pluri-Elles dans la production d'une
6 vidéo intitulée "Se prendre en main". Ce projet,
7 financé en partie par Santé Canada, nous a permis de
8 sensibiliser les femmes de 50 ans et plus sur la
9 préparation de la retraite, à la violence chez la femme
10 et la ménopause. La vidéo a été distribuée à travers
11 les groupes de femmes au niveau pan-canadien.
12 246 Encore cette année, grâce à une
13 subvention de Santé Canada et un partenariat avec le
14 Festival des vidéastes, Radio-Canada a été
15 collaborateur technique dans notre nouvelle production,
16 "Félicitations, I guess", un documentaire touchant la
17 grossesse chez les adolescentes et adolescents. Le
18 lancement de cette vidéo aura lieu bientôt.
19 247 De plus, la contribution de la
20 Société Radio-Canada est importante pour nous
21 francophones du Manitoba. Tant à la radio qu'à la
22 télévision, les journalistes sont à l'écoute des
23 besoins et réalités francophones. Nous pouvons
24 toujours compter sur la SRC pour parler de nos
25 activités, nos réalités, nos besoins, tant dans le
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1 domaine d'éducation, d'économie, de santé, de services
2 sociaux, culturels, et j'en passe.
3 248 Cependant, il est aussi important que
4 des émissions provenant de chez nous soient aussi à
5 l'antenne afin de garder la culture francophone vivante
6 dans l'ouest et le nord canadien. Les émissions venant
7 de l'est du pays sont toujours très intéressantes mais
8 nous sommes encore plus ravis lorsque les émissions
9 sont tournées chez nous avec notre contenu.
10 249 Nous croyons fermement que la Société
11 Radio-Canada doit continuer à être un partenaire dans
12 la communauté, tant dans la diffusion des nouvelles
13 locales, nationales et internationales, que partenaire
14 dans le développement de productions francophones du
15 Manitoba.
16 250 En terminant, nous espérons de voir
17 la continuité du service en français de la Société
18 Radio-Canada tant à la radio qu'à la télévision.
19 251 Je vous remercie beaucoup.
20 252 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Nous vous remercions,
21 Madame Audet.
22 253 Monsieur Krushen.
23 1404
24 254 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
25 Commissioner Wylie.
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1 255 I would now like to call
2 Ms Evelyn Downey.
3 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
4 256 MS DOWNEY: Can you hear me?
5 257 I am making this presentation as a
6 concerned and interested individual, a long-time
7 listener of CBC, in fact, the roots go back I guess to
8 the second world war and listening to Matthew
9 Holten(ph), that's my father, tuning into a radio. It
10 was a lifesaver during the time that I was raising my
11 own children.
12 258 I preface my remarks by saying that
13 they are connected mainly with radio, both CBC One
14 and Two, as I seldom watch television. The two
15 programs that I watch regularly are on PBS.
16 259 I recently attempted to watch a
17 special program produced by our native community on
18 CBC TV and I was so frustrated with all of the
19 advertising I gave up. I have tried other times and it
20 has been the same thing, so I find the amount of
21 advertising is anathema.
22 260 Secondly, and maybe most important is
23 my deep concern about the cost-cutting measures that
24 are and have for some time been visited on CBC. I
25 perceive this as being due to a current economic and
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1 political climate in this country. When I voted for
2 the Liberals I voted for a change in the economic
3 principles enunciated by Milton Freedman and the
4 Chicago School of Economics that dominated the policies
5 of the previous Conservative government, and much to my
6 chagrin they continue under the present government.
7 That these policies are destroying the country can be
8 seen all around us from the gutting of the CBC to the
9 horrors that are occurring in our cities.
10 261 Thirdly, the present push to
11 privatize the CBC is of very deep concern to me. I
12 seldom listen to other stations, but I did so at the
13 beginning of the current technicians' strike. I was
14 aghast to hear the diatribe against the CBC in general
15 and against the striking technicians in particular.
16 The whole tenor of the program, both from the host of
17 the program and for many of those who called in,
18 reminded me of what might have been heard in pre-war
19 Nazi Germany.
20 262 The host of the show was against
21 unions, pinkos and communists ad nauseam. He was
22 forcefully stating that the private stations could take
23 over any programs that the CBC does and do them equally
24 well. It is axiomatic that the bottom line of business
25 is profit, or so I have been informed by people
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1 knowledgeable in the business world.
2 263 It is my understanding that a man by
3 the name of Tom d'Aquino is a focal person pushing the
4 present government with governmental policies. I would
5 like to hear from him and I think it would be of great
6 interest to have him interviewed on CBC.
7 264 Fourthly, I am deeply concerned about
8 the scaling back of our foreign news bureaus. It is
9 extremely important that we have a balanced news
10 coverage.
11 265 Fifthly, I cannot comment on the
12 issues of the technicians' strike and a threatened
13 strike by the reporters, editors, producers and
14 anchors. These issues I understand have to do with
15 wages, job description and workloads. We have had
16 insufficient information on which to base any informed
17 comment on this issue and I'm concerned that the CBC
18 has not done something about that.
19 266 Sixthly, with regard to the issue of
20 reliance on commercials on TV, they are one of the
21 reasons that I seldom watch TV, and I do hope that
22 commercials will not be allowed on CBC radio. Surely,
23 there must be a right for people not to have to be
24 bombarded by commercials.
25 267 Seventh, the issue of the
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1 arm's-length relationship of the Crown Corporation from
2 the government and from political pressures to me is
3 highly important for the objectivity of the news that
4 we receive. If we wish to preserve democracy, we need
5 to be wary of any form of dictatorship.
6 268 Eighth, the need for stable
7 year-to-year funding for CBC is vital to maintain the
8 integrity of our public broadcasting system.
9 269 Ninth, CBC programming is the envy of
10 our neighbours to the south. One only needs to tune
11 into the radio to hear the number of listeners that
12 tune in to CBC from all areas of the states, north,
13 south and from states as far away as California. I
14 personally visited a number of areas in the United
15 States and have been unable to tune into anything but
16 pap.
17 270 With regard to the issues to be
18 addressed directly -- the role of the CBC.
19 271 Firstly, our public services are
20 under assault in this climate of globalization. I see
21 CBC as being the preeminent national institution for
22 maintaining our Canadian identity and to keep the
23 electorate informed on both national and local issues.
24 Without an informed citizenry democracy is lost.
25 272 I would refer, for example, to the
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1 Massey Lecture Series and in particular to the writings
2 of one of our Canadian scholars, John Ralston Saul. I
3 think it is crucial that this type of programming
4 continue.
5 273 As far as the programming is
6 concerned, I would like to request a continuation of
7 such programs as Ideas with Lister Sinclair, Writers
8 and Company with Eleanor Wachtel(ph), Quirks and
9 Quarks, The House, This Morning, As It Happens, and The
10 Royal Canadian Air Farce, and of course the regular
11 news.
12 274 I sorrily miss the depth and breadth
13 of Peter Gzowski, of the gutting of CBC Sunday Morning,
14 and my Sunday morning church service with
15 Clyde Gilmor(ph).
16 275 I enjoy The Opera and programs The
17 Classical Vote(ph) and Music from All Parts of the
18 World. I must say I intensely dislike much of the
19 modern popular music and see it intruding more and
20 more. I would like to see CBC balance this type of
21 music especially, for example, on Saturday evenings
22 between CBC One and Two, so that people might have a
23 choice. Teenagers are not the only ones who at times
24 stay in on a Saturday evening.
25 276 I have just once tuned into the
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1 overseas broadcast after twelve o'clock in the
2 evening -- during the night and I was just wondering if
3 it might be possible to hear more of that during the
4 day when those of us that have normal hours could
5 perhaps listen to it.
6 277 I think it is vitally important that
7 we have more coverage on the current crisis in -- and
8 here I am talking about in-depth coverage -- on the
9 current health care crisis and on the breakdown that is
10 occurring in our society. I think we see it
11 drastically occurring in our core area in Winnipeg and
12 I think there needs to be an in-depth examination of
13 what is producing this type of breakdown and an
14 encouragement of programs to try to do something about
15 it.
16 278 As far as the direction, further
17 direction as far as the CBC, I really can't comment
18 further other than to say that to retain a functional
19 and vibrant democracy, I see CBC as being crucially
20 important.
21 279 That is the end of my presentation.
22 I would like to thank you for holding the consultations
23 with the public. I think it is very important and to
24 thank you for hearing me.
25 280 THE CHAIRPERSON: We thank you,
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1 Ms Downey.
2 281 This will conclude the presentations
3 of the first group of registrants.
4 282 We will take a 15-minute break and
5 resume with the next group.
6 283 Alors, nous reviendrons dans 15
7 minutes. Maintenant, je vous rappelle à tous qu'il y
8 aura une transcription d'un procès-verbal de ce qui se
9 passe aujourd'hui qui fera partie du dossier public du
10 renouvellement.
11 284 I remind you all that your
12 presentations have been transcribed and will become
13 part of the renewal file.
14 285 We thank you very much for taking the
15 time to come and see us.
16 --- Short recess at 1412 / Courte suspension à 1412
17 --- Upon resuming at 1432 / Reprise à 1432
18 286 LA PRÉSIDENTE: À l'ordre, s'il vous
19 plaît. Order please.
20 287 Mr. Krushen, would you please call
21 the next group of presenters.
22 288 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
23 Commissioner Wylie.
24 289 At this point I will call all of the
25 remaining registered presenters. If you would please
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1 come up to the table: Mr. Kevin Miller; René Piché;
2 Anna Sudletsky; Alex Gardiner; Pat Carrabre; Richard
3 Horne; Raymond Theberge; Leo Robert; Mariette Mulaire;
4 Eric Pownall; Len Soltis; Frank Lawson; Bernice
5 Baldwin; Margaret Waterman; and Roberta Christianson.
6 --- Short pause / Courte pause
7 290 THE CHAIRPERSON: We welcome you all.
8 Bienvenue à tous.
9 291 Mr. Krushen, please.
10 292 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
11 Commissioner Wylie.
12 293 I don't believe Mr. Miller is here.
13 294 Mr. Kevin Miller, are you at the
14 table? No.
15 295 Maintenant, j'appelle René Piché.
16 296 Monsieur Piché.
17 1435
18 297 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Bonjour,
19 Monsieur Piché. Oui, c'est ça, vous avez besoin de
20 votre micro.
21 298 M. PICHÉ: Je parle très fort mais...
22 299 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Il s'agit de faire la
23 transcription et l'interprétation. Allez-y.
24 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
25 300 M. PICHÉ: J'aimerais tout d'abord
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1 vous remercier de nous offrir l'occasion d'exprimer nos
2 propos sur l'importance qu'a la Société Radio-Canada
3 pour la collectivité francophone du Manitoba.
4 301 Je m'appelle René Piché. Je suis
5 Président fondateur de la Société des communications du
6 Manitoba et m'accompagnent M. Alain Boucher, Directeur
7 général du Centre culturel franco-manitobain ainsi que
8 Guy Noël, Directeur de l'Ensemble folklorique de la
9 Rivière Rouge.
10 302 Cette présentation est faite aussi au
11 nom du Cercle Molière, la plus ancienne troupe de
12 théâtre du Canada français et du Festival du Voyageur,
13 la fête d'hiver la plus importante de l'ouest canadien.
14 303 La Société Radio-Canada est depuis
15 l'extension pan-canadienne de son réseau de
16 télécommunications, à titre de société d'état et de par
17 son mandat, l'allié naturel des communautés
18 minoritaires de langue officielle française.
19 304 Bien que nous accueillons volontiers
20 d'autres chaînes télévisuelles indépendantes de langue
21 française sur la scène nationale, nos communautés
22 mettent toujours leurs espoirs dans cette société
23 d'état qui a comme mandat de présenter aux autres
24 Canadiens et Canadiennes leur réalité sur les ondes et
25 à l'écran ainsi que de les informer sur les événements
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1 pertinents dans leur propre localité.
2 305 De fait, Radio-Canada est à plusieurs
3 égards, la radio particulièrement, un intervenant
4 socio-culturel actif au Manitoba français grâce à ses
5 émissions locales réalisées avec des talents d'ici,
6 émissions qui ont été exportées avec succès dans
7 d'autres coins du pays.
8 306 Un an environ avant l'annonce des
9 réductions budgétaires imposées par le gouvernement
10 fédéral, le CRTC avait répondu positivement à une
11 demande conjointe et très remarqué des communautés
12 francophones de l'ouest canadien en exigeant comme
13 condition de renouvellement des licences que la Société
14 Radio-Canada accorde une plus grande place à la
15 production régionale.
16 307 Cette dernière, après consultations
17 intenses à la grandeur du pays, avait développé un plan
18 pluriannuel imposant qui avait su satisfaire les
19 demandes. Malheureusement, sauf pour la radio, ces
20 plans restèrent sur les tablettes de Radio-Canada dès
21 que les restrictions furent imposées. Des émissions
22 disparurent et même les émissions d'information
23 subirent des changements.
24 308 Certes, la création de RDI a permis
25 la production d'une émission de nouvelles et
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1 d'information quotidiennes importante sur les réalités
2 pertinentes de la francophonie de l'ouest.
3 Malheureusement, peu de gens d'ici la regardent
4 puisqu'elle est diffusée l'après-midi.
5 309 Avec les réductions budgétaires, nous
6 avons perdu à la télévision la majorité de nos
7 émissions artistiques et culturelles et bien que nous
8 accueillons avec empressement la proposition de créer
9 de nouvelles chaînes spécialisées à visée culturelle,
10 économique et historique, nous voulons que la chaîne
11 générale fasse une plus grande place à nos productions
12 afin qu'une population canadienne plus large puisse
13 être exposée à nos réalités et à notre vision des
14 choses.
15 310 La Société Radio-Canada,
16 particulièrement la télévision, doit encourager
17 davantage la production locale ou régionale dans toutes
18 les régions du pays pour améliorer la pertinence de son
19 contenu canadien afin que celui-ci soit un vrai reflet
20 du Canada et non seulement de Montréal.
21 311 Les francophones du Manitoba ne
22 veulent pas seulement être des auditeurs de
23 Radio-Canada mais ils veulent y participer en tant que
24 créateurs et producteurs.
25 312 Il est vrai que les réductions
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1 budgétaires gouvernementales des dernières années ont
2 motivé la Société Radio-Canada à s'allier avec des
3 producteurs indépendants de diverses régions du Canada
4 pour créer un contenu qui reflète mieux la réalité
5 canadienne.
6 313 Une entente signée entre la Société
7 des communications du Manitoba et la Société
8 Radio-Canada permet à nos producteurs d'accéder à des
9 licences de diffusion et, par le fait même, d'accéder
10 aux investisseurs tels Téléfilm Canada et le fonds des
11 câblodistributeurs, mettant par le fait même nos
12 producteurs sur un même pied d'égalité que les autres
13 au Canada.
14 314 Nous pensons par contre que la
15 Société Radio-Canada devrait manifester plus de
16 générosité financière et travailler de très près avec
17 les producteurs francophones du Manitoba et de l'ouest
18 afin de planifier avec eux une production accrue de
19 contenu spécifique et diversifié sur une base
20 pluriannuelle. La création de chaînes spécialisées
21 rendrait ceci impératif.
22 315 Nous croyons aussi que la Société
23 doit donner plus de discrétion d'ordre décisionnel
24 qu'elle ne le fait aux directeurs régionaux. De même,
25 elle devrait cesser de penser que des fonds alloués
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1 pour la production régionale, et ceci va aussi bien
2 pour les régions du Québec, porte préjudice aux
3 producteurs de la métropole montréalaise.
4 316 Sachez qu'au cours des quatre
5 prochaines années, la Société des communications aura
6 consacré 1 265 million à la formation et au
7 perfectionnement professionnel des équipes de
8 production francophones de l'ouest afin d'assurer la
9 qualité des productions locales et régionales.
10 317 Nous souhaitons que les responsables
11 du Réseau à Montréal cessent de caser les producteurs
12 hors Québec dans le cadre, pour ne pas dire le carcan,
13 de l'identité culturelle minoritaire. Ils sont
14 capables aussi de tourner des reportages ou de réaliser
15 des émissions sur des thèmes universels.
16 318 À l'heure actuelle, deux consortiums
17 de producteurs sont activement engagés dans des
18 productions. Un partenariat entre trois producteurs
19 hors Québec en provenance de l'Acadie, de l'Ontario et
20 du Manitoba participe à la création de neuf
21 documentaires dans un cadre de premières oeuvres. Un
22 autre partenariat entre ces mêmes producteurs et deux
23 autres du Québec ont débuté le processus de fabrication
24 de documentaires d'une heure sur la francophonie
25 canadienne.
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1 319 Quant à la radio française de
2 Radio-Canada, permettez-nous d'abord de vous dire
3 comment nous apprécions le travail de notre station
4 CKSV, qui se fait remarquer au niveau national pour ses
5 initiatives heureuses. Au-delà des actualités toujours
6 très appréciées et bien présentées, cette équipe
7 participe vraiment au développement de la communauté.
8 320 Au niveau culturel, CKSV est un
9 partenaire important et réclame plusieurs initiatives.
10 Nous n'avons qu'à penser à son implication en tant que
11 partenaire dans la série "En Éclosion", au Gala
12 manitobain de la chanson, au Festival du Voyageur, au
13 Salon du livre français, aux productions de séries
14 d'émissions telles "Les petites oreilles" et "Contes du
15 monde" et j'en passe.
16 321 Toutes ces activités auxquelles
17 participe CKSV sont des occasions de développement et
18 de formation pour nos artistes. Cette participation au
19 niveau de la communauté permet une diffusion du produit
20 culturel franco-manitobain et parfois, mais pas encore
21 assez souvent, au régional et au national.
22 322 Nous désirons une diffusion qui
23 dépasse les frontières du Manitoba pour nous faire
24 connaître partout au pays. L'avènement de la
25 numérisation des nouvelles technologies va permettre
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1 d'autres collaborations. Déjà, CKSV et le Collège
2 universitaire de St. Boniface collaborent dans un
3 projet de cours de maîtrise en études canadiennes.
4 CKSV va produire deux séries d'émissions à contenu
5 historique qui serviront d'appui à ce cours tout en
6 étant l'objet d'une radiodiffusion.
7 323 Nous apprécions la création du fonds
8 national MicroRadio pour la production de contenu et
9 l'apprentissage de la langue par les jeunes. De plus,
10 CKSV va créer un CD-ROM à visée éducative qui va
11 l'ancrer davantage dans le milieu de la jeunesse. Son
12 site internet, réalisé par la Société Oniric et Les
13 jeunes entrepreneurs francophones du Manitoba fait sa
14 gloire au sein de la Société.
15 324 Enfin, permettez-nous de réitérer
16 notre appui à la Société Radio-Canada que nous croyons
17 être un outil essentiel au développement de nos
18 communautés.
19 325 Grâce à une diffusion accrue de nos
20 productions et de nos réalités au niveau national ainsi
21 qu'à une collaboration plus intensive et systématique
22 avec nos producteurs indépendants, nous sommes
23 confiants que la Société Radio-Canada répondra de plus
24 en plus aux besoins de la population canadienne de
25 langue officielle française.
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1 326 Merci de nous avoir entendu.
2 327 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Nous vous remercions,
3 Monsieur Piché, et saluez M. Boucher pour nous.
4 328 M. PICHÉ: Merci.
5 329 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Monsieur Krushen.
6 1445
7 330 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you, Madam Wylie.
8 331 Is Ms Anna Sudletsky with us?
9 Ms Sudletsky, please.
10 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
11 332 MS SUDLETSKY: Good afternoon,
12 Madam Wylie.
13 333 I speak primarily as a listener and a
14 fan of CBC radio although I feel some of my comments
15 apply to the TV as well.
16 334 The CBC's role as a national public
17 broadcaster should continue into the new millennium as
18 it has in the past been our Canadian voice promoting
19 Canadian artists and giving every Canadian the
20 opportunity to hear and see them.
21 335 The CBC reaches out regionally by
22 producing programs across Canada. Although my
23 favourite program may originate in Vancouver, I like
24 the fact that talented, knowledgeable people can work
25 in their field in Winnipeg as part of the voice of
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1 Canada.
2 336 The programming provided by the CBC
3 should be different from other broadcasters. It should
4 continue offering Canadians quality non-commercialized
5 programs promoting Canadian arts and artists presented
6 to us by skilled, talented broadcasters who in the past
7 have become revered household names such as
8 Foster Hewitt, Clyde Gilmor, Peter Gzowski, and
9 continued in the present by Shelagh Rogers, Stuart
10 MacLean(ph), Jurgen Goth(ph), Micheal Enright(ph), and
11 Avril Benoit(ph).
12 337 This national treasure should be
13 nurtured and preserved for the next generation when
14 they recognize this is our voice, it speaks to us and
15 for us as Canadians, or we may just wake up one day and
16 realize what we are listening to is the voice of
17 America.
18 338 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
19 Ms Sudletsky.
20 339 Mr. Krushen.
21 1448
22 340 MR. KRUSHEN: I would now like to
23 call Mr. Alex Gardiner.
24 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
25 341 MR. GARDINER: Thank you very much
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1 and thank you for this opportunity to speak to the
2 CRTC.
3 342 In my day-to-day life I'm the General
4 Manager of the National Sports Centre Manitoba. We are
5 a relatively new organization that supports Manitoba's
6 best athletes and coaches in their preparation for
7 national/international competition. We are part of a
8 network of seven national centres across the country
9 who are all designed to do the same thing, to help
10 Canadians, young Canadians, athletes compete with the
11 best in the world.
12 343 Although my focus today will be on
13 what we term amateur sport, I would like to begin with
14 some general comments about the CBC as a private
15 citizen.
16 344 How well does the CBC fulfil its role
17 as the national public broadcaster? I asked myself the
18 question: Why do I turn on CBC radio every morning in
19 my car and why do I watch the Late Night News on CBC
20 and why do I, whenever I do turn on television, tend to
21 drift towards Channel 2? Where else do you find the
22 diversity of programming?
23 345 I remember very fondly driving
24 through the Ontario countryside one summer and
25 listening to a story on CBC radio about a rural Alberta
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1 surgeon who also happened to suffer from Tourette's
2 Syndrome and how he got on with his life, and then that
3 same evening I was able to watch This Hour Has 22
4 Minutes and some wonderful sport programming as well.
5 Not only are they diverse, they are timely and they are
6 thorough and they are creative in most of the work that
7 they do.
8 346 Should the programming provided by
9 CBC Radio and television be different?
10 347 Yes, I think it should be. I think
11 we need to tell as many Canadian stories as we can and
12 I think we need to present the Canadian perspective on
13 global issues.
14 348 A special role for CBC is they
15 continue to strive and be supported as leaders in
16 broadcasting, not just in Canada but throughout the
17 world. They need to be encouraged as innovators and
18 risk takers and they need to be supported as they
19 achieve an excellence that they are recognized for.
20 349 I want to speak very, very briefly
21 about sport and amateur sport. I will leave Hockey
22 Night in Canada alone, although I do enjoy exploring it
23 for Ron MacLean's puns, two broadcasts on a Saturday
24 seem to be too much for most people.
25 350 Amateur sport tells stories that
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1 bring communities together in the most compelling of
2 ways. As an illustration, I had the great fortune of
3 being in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympics. At that point,
4 I was working for Athletics Canada Track and Field
5 Association, and people envied me that I had a position
6 on the finish line, at Donovan Bailey's wonderful
7 100-metre victory and the men's relay victory.
8 351 It certainly was tremendous, but my
9 first thought was: Where is the replay; where is the
10 commentary; where is the in-depth profiles that CBC
11 provides? I was at loss without that. When I got back
12 to Ottawa, where I was living at the time, I asked
13 people what they were doing on that day. They said,
14 "Well, we were out at our cottage, but the minute those
15 races were won there were parties that erupted and a
16 group of us went into a television store, we were
17 shopping in the mall."
18 352 What point I'm bringing out right now
19 is that stories like this are national and
20 international, however, they deliver strong messages
21 and they really certainly bind communities together. I
22 don't think there is any greater cultural glue than
23 great stories in sport. The CBC network does a
24 first-rate job in describing amateur sport.
25 353 I certainly urge the CBC to continue
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1 their excellence in amateur sport coverage and would
2 also urge them to increase their coverage of all sport
3 across the country. I'm a big fan as you can see and I
4 think they have done an absolutely wonderful job.
5 354 Thank you very much.
6 355 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
7 Mr. Gardiner.
8 356 Mr. Krushen.
9 1450
10 357 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
11 Commissioner Wylie.
12 358 I would now like to call
13 Mr. Pat Carrabre.
14 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
15 359 MR. CARRABRE: Thank you.
16 360 I'm here today with a variety of hats
17 on. I'm the Academic Vice-President at Brandon
18 University. I'm a composer. I have been an associate
19 composer with the Winnipeg Symphony for the last four
20 seasons. I'm currently Vice-President of the Canadian
21 League of Composers and I'm also an avid listener of
22 CBC. I have also been a guest host and commentator on
23 the corporation as well.
24 361 CBC is an important and vital part of
25 our Canadian culture. It's one of the most important
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1 venues for the dissemination of Canadian music, and I'm
2 speaking specifically about what is frequently called
3 concert music or classical music. It's part of an
4 infrastructure that supports a very diffuse culture
5 across this country that is not well co-ordinated
6 amongst the various partners.
7 362 There is the Canada Arts Council and
8 provincial arts councils, there are Canadian orchestras
9 and other professional performing organizations, there
10 are the universities that train musicians and the
11 conservatoire, there are individual performers and
12 composers and there is CBC and other broadcasters.
13 363 So how does the CBC fulfil its role?
14 It is the component that supports the making of music
15 and its dissemination across the country. It supports
16 access. It allows you, no matter what part of the
17 country you are in, to hear a wide variety of music
18 from the vast reaches of this country, and it's the
19 kind of music, in particular, on Radio Two that's not
20 supported by private broadcasters. It really does need
21 an investment from the federal government and from our
22 provincial governments and from all Canadians.
23 364 It also provides an infrastructure
24 that pays the salaries of musicians across this country
25 that help to make music on a daily basis, that help to
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1 teach young people how to play music, that help to
2 train audiences for the future.
3 365 This is a very exciting time in
4 Canadian music. It's a time when many of the
5 orchestras in Canada have decided, I think very wisely,
6 that their future and the vitality of music in Canada
7 requires that they enter into various kinds of
8 agreements and relationships with living composers.
9 You will find composer-in-residence programs now across
10 this country from Vancouver to Edmonton to Winnipeg to
11 Quebec City to Halifax, and that these
12 composer-in-residence programs are helping to
13 revitalize the audience for our orchestras in this
14 country. And certainly with the help of CBC, they have
15 been helping to revitalize the radio audience as well
16 for live music.
17 366 CBC, unfortunately, is not able
18 always to play the role that I think it would like to
19 play. There is a lot of creativity in the corporation,
20 but I certainly have seen the cuts myself, how they
21 have affected the people who work there and how they
22 have affected their ability to realize their vision for
23 the life of music in our country.
24 367 Just as a couple of examples, the
25 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is not able to pay
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1 the league rates that have been set by the Canadian
2 League of Composers when they do commission composers.
3 Frequently, that means that composers are asked to
4 write work at a rate that would not support their
5 livelihood in any way as professionals. This is
6 something that we very much need in this country.
7 368 We have come from a time when
8 composers have been marginalized to a time when they
9 are much more ready to meet their public and the public
10 wants to hear their work. All we have to do is look at
11 the New Music Festival here in Winnipeg to see up to
12 2,000 people a night over 10 days on their feet after
13 almost every piece, hungry to hear the work of their
14 living composers.
15 369 I think there are a number of other
16 things that have impacted on CBC, not the least of
17 which is the ever-growing demand from a new variety of
18 stakeholder groups that have come up in our country,
19 different ethnic music, world music, popular music that
20 now are asking the CBC to help them as well.
21 370 I think this is an excellent
22 development for our country. However, what it does
23 mean is that there is less air time for the traditional
24 stakeholder groups that have been supported by CBC. I
25 think this probably means in many ways that CBC needs
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1 to expand the number of minutes that it has for
2 broadcast that's available to this variety of groups.
3 371 Information that we have received
4 from CBC through the Canadian League of Composers is
5 that about 50 per cent of the music broadcast by CBC
6 would meet the Maple Code of content for Canadian
7 content. However, only 5 per cent of that repertoire
8 is actually written by Canadian composers. I think
9 this is a serious concern for the long-term health of
10 creativity and the creation of music in Canada. I
11 think it's excellent that the Canadian performers are
12 supported to that level by CBC, but I think it is a
13 tragedy that we aren't able to do the same for our
14 composers.
15 372 I think that 30 years of investment
16 in private broadcasting and the Maple Code has ensured
17 that Canadian artists are at the top of the world
18 charts in popular music. I think that if we had the
19 same kind of support for Canadian composers in
20 classical music or concert music that within a period
21 of time that's not that long we would be able to have
22 the same kind of recognition on an international level.
23 373 The regional and national components
24 of CBC are quite important. I can speak from personal
25 experience. When I first came back to Canada after
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1 studying abroad in the mid-eighties I was able to go in
2 to CBC and speak directly with a producer and I was
3 fortunate enough to have my work broadcast. That work
4 from that first concert of mine later went on to be
5 recorded on CD and nominated for a Juno award.
6 374 I think that the infrastructure in
7 Canada can work, however, the cutbacks at CBC has made
8 it that much more difficult for the producers at CBC to
9 know the artists in their region and to have those
10 artists move up through the ranks so that they can be
11 recognized at the national level.
12 375 I think there are a lot of partners
13 at play in this. I think that the Canadian orchestras
14 are now taking a much more active role in developing
15 artists across this country, as are all Canadian
16 performers. They are taking a much more proactive role
17 and I think that CBC would like to take a more
18 proactive role, but I think that the current situation
19 that they face in terms of the infrastructure within
20 the corporation make it very difficult for them to
21 realize that objective.
22 376 So I think that it's really vital for
23 us to work together with the infrastructure and with
24 our public policy in this country so that we can
25 cultivate the talent that we do have because our brain
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1 drain is not necessarily to the United States in
2 classical music; our brain drain is that people
3 eventually get tired of living on the margin
4 financially and they eventually go to other means of
5 subsidizing their livelihood, which frequently means
6 that they cannot create as much work.
7 377 I think that a publicly funded
8 broadcaster like CBC must have a focus on the creation
9 of music by Canadian composers. I don't think it
10 matters what genre that's in. I think that the
11 corporation needs to spread its wings and support as
12 many Canadian creators as they can. I think that there
13 is a certain progression as that music moves into the
14 realm of financial viability on its own.
15 378 I think that concert music in this
16 country is very much alive. We should all be concerned
17 about it because the ongoing development of an audience
18 for a diverse kind of music such as classical music is
19 not that easy to support and it certainly requires an
20 investment on the part of our country. But I think
21 that if CBC was to take its mandate to a further degree
22 than it has and to, just as an example, say that a
23 target of 25 per cent of its broadcast should be work
24 directly created by Canadian musicians, not just
25 performers but composers as well, I think in a very
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1 short period of time we would all see the benefits of
2 this in an increased healthy infrastructure and in a
3 more diverse audience for the work of all musicians.
4 379 Thank you.
5 380 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
6 Mr. Carrabre.
7 381 Mr. Krushen.
8 382 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
9 Commissioner Wylie.
10 383 I understand that Raymond Theberge
11 has cancelled.
12 384 Maintenant, j'appelle M. Leo Robert.
13 385 Monsieur Robert? No.
14 386 Mme Mariette Mulaire? No.
15 387 I don't believe the next two are here
16 either: Mr. Eric Pownall or Mr. Len Soltis.
17 388 Now, Mr. Frank Lawson, please.
18 1458
19 389 THE CHAIRPERSON: Good afternoon,
20 Mr. Lawson.
21 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
22 390 MR. LAWSON: Hi. I don't represent
23 any particular interest group, but I hope I do
24 represent a few of the 30 million people in the
25 country.
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1 391 There is a well-known author by the
2 name of Scott Peck. I'm sure many of you will
3 recognize the name. He defined "religion" as being one
4 sense of worldliness, a sense of community, of
5 interconnectiveness and balance, fairness and openness.
6 392 I think if you study some of the
7 countries who have public broadcasting systems, I think
8 you will find a group of people who are indeed more
9 community minded, seem to be more interconnected with
10 those around them and the world, seem to be a little
11 more balanced in their views towards others and on any
12 subjects, just seem to be all around more open and more
13 fair.
14 393 If you have ever had the misfortune
15 of watching any extensive television down, say, in
16 Los Angeles, I think you will find just the opposite.
17 It is extremely insular and self-serving and a lot of
18 other adjectives that will properly describe it I
19 guess.
20 394 The point is that some of our
21 commercial radio has gone the way of the Americans. I
22 personally don't care for it. I think the CBC is the
23 anchor that prevents us from falling into that trap. I
24 think that if this country and its people and, in
25 particular, possibly the immigrants that are coming to
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1 this country in the millions now over the last couple
2 of decades, if they are to discover their real self, I
3 think in the deepest sense of that it is going to be
4 through the CBC and not commercial radio.
5 395 Last summer I believe it was the CRTC
6 imposed some more restrictions on Canadian content. It
7 just happens the following morning or thereabouts I met
8 a popular DJ in a restaurant which I frequent, and I
9 have known him for years gone by and brought up the
10 subject. He was indignant. He was hostile. He was
11 angry and he was extremely defensive. The bottom line
12 to basically his argument was: We don't need any
13 Canadian content.
14 396 You know, I got this in the mail.
15 I'm sure many others who live in Winnipeg here got it
16 in the mail in the last couple of days -- I'm not going
17 to mention the radio station, I don't think that's
18 material -- but it lists their schedule, their daily
19 schedule of programming. Out of 24 hours, 11 of it is
20 piped in, taped and rebroadcast American radio. With
21 this, I think if we didn't have some Canadian content
22 and the CBC, that ratio would be much higher, in my
23 view.
24 397 I even have to question where Canada
25 today would be without the asset of CBC over the years.
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1 Today we have newspapers that are owned by virtually a
2 few people. We have radio stations that are now in
3 conglomerates or groups. We have split-run magazines
4 which are an issue now in our free trade agreement.
5 These are all owned principally by a very, very few
6 number of people, and the CBC is owned by 30 million
7 people. This institution we call the CBC is our
8 broadcasting system. I don't think it's the CRTC's and
9 it's certainly not the politicians' and it isn't the
10 bureaucrats' and it's certainly not the large
11 corporations' or the multinationals'.
12 398 I'm here to say basically that it is
13 not for sale nor demolition. I guess I have to say,
14 too, that if I were Monsanto I would be really
15 concerned about public broadcasting in this world
16 because every time we find out about something devilish
17 that is going on, it's almost on every occasion through
18 a public broadcasting system. As a Canadian citizen, I
19 thank God for that because without it it's really quite
20 hard to imagine where we might be, what we might be
21 eating, and ingesting and so forth.
22 399 Anyway, I think, as a Canadian
23 politician, I think we should caution the parties. I
24 think we should caution the back room spin doctors,
25 because we are not going to tolerate this systematic
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1 demolition of the CBC. I think it has gone far enough
2 now that there are enough people who are really getting
3 angry and realize what we are really losing.
4 400 Now, democratic governments by
5 necessity require checks and balances. The CBC may
6 very well be the biggest check and balance that we have
7 in the country.
8 401 I give you an example of the Monnino
9 Inquiry. Would it exist while we sit here today if it
10 hadn't been for the journalistic investigative
11 resources of the CBC, and the courage, I might add?
12 Would we have known about two years of secret meetings
13 in Paris, France on the MAI if it had not -- which, by
14 the way, the Canadian government was a participant
15 in -- if it had not been for public broadcasting both
16 in Europe and in Canada?
17 402 So CBC is basically our newspaper,
18 our magazine, our radio and our TV broadcaster. We own
19 it. The politicians do not. The corporations nor the
20 bureaucrats do not own it.
21 403 I have here a list. I'm not going to
22 read it for the sake of time. But I have to tell you,
23 and I would like to tell every Canadian, if they get a
24 chance you should read the endless list of
25 commendations received by the CBC at various levels,
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1 regionally and nationally, from international bodies,
2 among our own people regionally and so forth. It is
3 astounding. It is absolutely astounding to realize the
4 quality of people we have, the creativity and
5 sensitivity and intelligence that we have at the CBC
6 who is doing this on our behalf.
7 404 I don't think I have to give you this
8 because I'm sure you will have access to it. I would
9 like, though, to ask the CRTC to add this to what
10 little presentation I may be adding here, that it be
11 considered.
12 405 I think we have reached a stage where
13 we have to now reinvest in the CBC. I think we have to
14 look at it for what it is. CBC TV is class, it's
15 educational, it's on the cutting edge of humour, hence,
16 how many writers and producers and directors have gone
17 south to help the Americans improve their gain.
18 406 You look at radio, Tapestry? Where
19 are you going to hear the program Tapestry in
20 commercial radio in this country? Cross Country
21 Checkup, the program ideas for those of you -- I mean,
22 The Massey Lectures. Where on earth are you going to
23 get it if you don't get it from CBC?
24 407 I think that public broadcasting
25 influences the way we think, how we think about
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1 ourselves and about the world around us. In the last
2 10 years I have seen the people who are the art of
3 deception slowly but surely dismantling what is really
4 owned by the people of Canada and I think it's about
5 time we stood up.
6 408 My intuition, that gut feeling, tells
7 me that something smells bad in the woodpile. I'm from
8 the country, and those of you from the country know
9 that usually when there is a smell in the woodpile it's
10 because there's a few skunks hidden in there.
11 409 Thank you.
12 410 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
13 Mr. Lawson.
14 411 You will leave this document with us?
15 412 MR. LAWSON: Pardon me?
16 413 THE CHAIRPERSON: You will leave the
17 list or the document that you would like appended to
18 your presentation with Mr. Krushen?
19 414 MR. LAWSON: Yes. My point was,
20 though, this is a trivial amount by comparison to the
21 total if you just took the last 10 or 15 years. What I
22 would like to do is -- if this is possible, I'm not
23 sure -- is to request the CRTC to obtain from CBC a
24 complete list of all the awards ever awarded to CBC at
25 every level and make it part of my presentation.
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1 415 Is that a fair request or not?
2 416 THE CHAIRPERSON: We will hear from
3 the CBC later and I'm sure they would be delighted.
4 417 MR. LAWSON: Okay. Thank you.
5 418 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
6 Mr. Lawson.
7 419 Mr. Krushen.
8 1510
9 420 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
10 Commissioner Wylie.
11 421 I must apologize to
12 Mr. Richard Horne, whose name I inadvertently skipped
13 over on the list.
14 422 Mr. Horne, may I now ask you to do
15 your presentation?
16 423 MR. HORNE: Thank you.
17 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
18 424 MR. HORNE: Hello. My name is
19 Richard Horne. I'm the Executive Director of the
20 Manitoba Motion Picture Industry's Association.
21 425 I'm very pleased to be here. I would
22 like to talk about the CBC's television rather than
23 radio, as a lot of the discussion has focused on.
24 426 The association supports actively the
25 concept of the public broadcaster. We believe that it
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1 is critical in order to maintain and to develop our
2 cultural identity as Canadians. 100 per cent Canadian
3 content in prime time is a good thing we believe and we
4 actively support that.
5 427 As a public broadcaster, CBC's
6 interests differ from other broadcasters because of its
7 role as a public broadcaster. I would like to refer
8 you back to your own Visions statement that says, and I
9 quote:
10 "CBC will lead the way in
11 providing relevant, reliable and
12 meaningful programming that
13 reflects the diversity of Canada
14 to Canadians and to the world.
15 Our services will be recognized
16 by Canadians as unique and
17 essential services that are not
18 offered by the private component
19 of the Canadian broadcast
20 system." (As read)
21 428 In short, the CBC should show
22 Manitoba to Canada, show Canada to Manitoba and show us
23 all to the world. Is this happening?
24 429 Well, locally, over the last few
25 years, CBC Manitoba television has worked very hard to
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1 develop relationships with the independent community
2 here in order to show Manitoba to Canada. They have
3 supported it through some development funding, some
4 regional broadcast licences and participation in
5 initiatives like Prairie Wave. These have all been
6 driven through the regional office of the CBC.
7 430 The public's support for the CBC has
8 also been obvious through their recent open house where
9 thousands of people came down to the CBC's offices in
10 Manitoba to come and take a look at what they consider
11 to be part of their heritage. This is the good news.
12 431 The bad news is this, though, that
13 these commitments are not a reflection of the national
14 broadcaster but are a reflection of the particular
15 ingenuities of the regional director. They do not
16 reflect what the corporation overall does.
17 432 The staff itself of the CBC on the
18 television end has been reduced by almost 50 per cent
19 over the last five years, and the cuts to the operating
20 budget have been likewise. The regional office itself
21 has little presence outside of the supper hour news
22 program and this already is being limited severely.
23 433 To my knowledge, there is no ongoing
24 financial commitment from the national office to the
25 regional offices. There is no air time outside of the
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1 news hour dedicated to the regions. Any air time that
2 the regional office wants to get has to be negotiated
3 through the national office.
4 434 As well, the abilities of the
5 regional office to participate in the ongoing
6 development of the independent production community in
7 Manitoba is also severely restricted. There is no
8 dedicated funding to broadcast licence or to
9 development funding. Given the CBC's ever-shrinking
10 budget, both nationally and especially regionally where
11 it has been hit the hardest, it's through these
12 relations with the independent community that the CBC
13 can potentially meet its mandate.
14 435 Furthermore, CBC's relationship with
15 the independent community has been hampered by its
16 reliance on commercial production for revenue.
17 Although it's understood why CBC produces commercials,
18 and that is part of how they perceive revenue and
19 that's also part of how the limited funding that is
20 sometimes dedicated to independent production is
21 arrived at, it's also competing with the private
22 sector, which is a major concern of a lot of my
23 membership who are commercial producers who wind up, in
24 effect, trying to compete with the public coffers for
25 production.
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1 436 Furthermore, the regional licences
2 that are offered to local producers are not allowed,
3 through the CBC's own regulations, to trigger
4 additional funding from the Canadian Television Fund.
5 This is because of the envelope that CBC National
6 reserves for national projects. In short, very little
7 regional production ever hits the national screen.
8 437 There has actually been a significant
9 decline of CBC production on the prairies. The Western
10 Television Production Study prepared for the Department
11 of Canadian Heritage shows that CBC's production of
12 western Canadian television has dropped 51 per cent
13 between 1993 and 1998. The majority of this production
14 was MOWs, movies of the week, for television and
15 miniseries.
16 438 In the next year, the CBC has
17 restricted further the production of miniseries and
18 movies of the week, these productions which have
19 typically benefitted regional producers. Now, with
20 North of 60 concluded, there is no prairie series
21 either. In fact, the only series in Canada at this
22 point is either from the east coast or west coast or
23 Toronto. There is nothing reflecting a prairie
24 sensibility.
25 439 Although, it is understood that the
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1 executives of the CBC, the people who actually wind up
2 making decisions in terms of what is going to be on
3 your television station, operate out of Toronto and
4 they are very busy people with very hectic schedules.
5 As a public broadcaster, they have an obligation to
6 come out to us, to meet with the producers on the
7 prairies, define what is available here and to work
8 with the people that are here to make production.
9 440 I'm not suggesting a politically
10 correct situation where it says you have to come out
11 and do 1 per cent here and 2 per cent there because the
12 population is spread out this way. The problem really
13 is that producers on the prairies have an incredibly
14 difficult time even connecting over the telephone with
15 producers at the CBC National in Toronto. It has
16 become described as the $1,500 lunch. If you can
17 afford $1,500 to go to lunch in Toronto to meet with
18 CBC producers you may have a shot of getting some sort
19 of production happening. If you can't, you won't.
20 441 The eastern-based producers will have
21 regular contact with the CBC just because they are down
22 the street. We don't have that fortune here. It is
23 imperative that the CBC seek out the best production
24 across the country including the prairies and seek
25 opportunities to bring this to the screen.
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1 442 The historical realities have changed
2 significantly over the last few years. There are
3 production companies in Manitoba and Saskatchewan that
4 are equal in strength and in stature to Atlantis,
5 Alliance 10 years ago. Manitoba has proven itself a
6 centre for movies of the week and miniseries through
7 productions like The Arrow, Nights Below Station
8 Street, and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down.
9 Manitoba can do television series, as shown through The
10 Adventures of Shirley Holmes.
11 443 The CBC has a vital role to play.
12 They have an obligation to reach out to the country in
13 its entirety and find out what kind of production is
14 available and bring this back to the screens and show
15 it to Canadians. It is within their mandate to do
16 this. The continual cutbacks to the CBC, regionally
17 and nationally, have hamstringed the efforts of local
18 producers and the CBC to realize this.
19 444 It is critical that if the CBC wants
20 to be able to maintain a viable role as a public
21 broadcaster, that it reaches out to the community, that
22 it stops cutting its own budgets, that it stops having
23 its efforts to reach its mandate being cut continually
24 by the government, and that it develop the
25 relationships with the regions similar to the
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1 relationships that it has developed with its eastern
2 partners.
3 445 Thank you.
4 446 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
5 Mr. Horne.
6 447 Mr. Krushen.
7 1518
8 448 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
9 Commissioner Wylie.
10 449 I would now like to call
11 Ms Bernice Baldwin.
12 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
13 450 MS BALDWIN: Thank you.
14 451 You have to have a comedian always
15 for every hearing, so I'm going to fill that capacity.
16 452 THE CHAIRPERSON: You are welcome,
17 Ms Baldwin.
18 453 MS BALDWIN: Thank you.
19 454 Since early in the eighties the
20 Conservative and Liberal record on privatization: The
21 airports; cutbacks on railroads and privatization; the
22 sale of the Churchill Sea Port, which affects us, and I
23 don't think they have the constitutional right to sell
24 sea ports. Halifax wants help to build up their
25 seaport so it is a super port, and I understand Ottawa
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1 is not going to come to the support of them, so they
2 have to stand on their own and compete with Boston or
3 New York or whatever.
4 455 They have withdrawn support for the
5 Health Protection Branch and our health.
6 456 I don't think it's unusual to expect
7 that they were going to work to privatize the CBC.
8 It's in the books. They don't want anything to do with
9 Canadians.
10 457 I wasn't going to do a presentation,
11 but I have been reading "The Globalization of Poverty:
12 The impacts of IMF and World Bank Reforms" and I had to
13 talk because I'm going to read you a little bit of
14 this:
15 "While financiers are involved
16 in politics, politicians have
17 increasingly acquired a
18 financial stake in the business
19 community. Marred by conflict
20 of interests, the state system
21 in the west is in crisis as a
22 result of the ambivalent
23 relationship to private economic
24 and financial concerns. Under
25 these conditions the practice of
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1 democracy in the developed
2 countries has also become a
3 ritual. No policy alternative
4 is offered to the electorate.
5 As in a one-party state, the
6 results of the ballot have
7 virtually no impact on the
8 actual conduct of state economic
9 and social policy. In turn, the
10 state, under the neo-Liberal
11 policy agenda, has become
12 increasingly repressive in
13 curbing the democratic rights of
14 its citizens." (As read)
15 458 We recognize that the aim of the
16 present government is also as of the preceding one,
17 desirous of disappearing the Canadian nation as soon as
18 it is politically feasible. But let us warn them we
19 will not vanish quietly in the night.
20 459 I see these hearings as a repeat of
21 the methods employed by the Spicer hearings in
22 preparation for the vote on the Charlottetown Accord.
23 So you are surprised at the number of concerned
24 Manitobans who have an opinion on the future of public
25 broadcasting? We care. We do care.
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1 460 If they really wanted to hear from
2 us, why did they silence the voice of the local CBC
3 stations a few years ago and continuing to?
4 461 We have surfaced again news of a
5 desire, or is it an intention, to bury nuclear waste in
6 the Canadian Shield. Located in that same shield, I
7 vote for a location in Ottawa as being as reasonable as
8 any other site. What emanates from that area is not
9 conducive to a continued nation of Canada or care for
10 its citizens.
11 462 What is happening to all the money
12 the government brags about saving? It's not going
13 towards alleviation of the needs of the hungry and the
14 homeless. Who would ever think that, what was
15 considered one of the bread baskets of the world, we
16 would have hungry people and food banks and soup
17 kitchens, and an expectation that they are going to be
18 a permanent part of our societies and areas.
19 463 They have taught us to be cynical of
20 any program on information that they purport to share
21 with us. It's a cloud with no silver lining, any
22 expectation that anything good for us, in attempting to
23 maintain our public broadcasting, will arise from these
24 hearings.
25 464 Public broadcasting is our window on
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1 the whole of Canada, keeping us in touch with what our
2 neighbours are thinking and doing. It offers a
3 magnification nationwide of the talented artists,
4 academics, musicians who are born and developed on the
5 local scene first and need the opportunity on the wider
6 stage that the CBC offers.
7 465 We don't want to be delivered to
8 private stations with their dedication to consumerism.
9 In making this appeal for a continuation of an access
10 to an uninterrupted hour of pleasure which is provided
11 by ideas, reviews, serializing of recent books,
12 symphonies, farm news, I speak for all which adds to
13 our sense of sharing with our neighbours from to sea to
14 sea to sea.
15 466 We do not all have available
16 libraries, concert halls, art galleries, sports arenas
17 or theatres. We count on the CBC to deliver these into
18 our homes, isolated as many of us are.
19 467 With little expectation that these
20 hearings are any more than another exercise, I still
21 have a shred of hope that we may impress upon the
22 bureaucracy that maintenance of our voice in the world
23 is a wise political manoeuvre, the only aspect which
24 carries any credence in government choices, while
25 realizing that their voice, too, is secondary to an
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1 upper echelon of power.
2 468 I'm not persuaded that we are not
3 being submitted to the clutches of the International
4 Monetary Fund and the World Bank even now. I would
5 like to read you just this little bit from the end of
6 his book.
7 "Yugoslavia is a mirror of
8 similar economic restructuring
9 programs applied not only in the
10 developing world but also in
11 recent years in the United
12 States, Canada and Western
13 Europe. Strong economic
14 medicine `is the answer
15 throughout the world.' People
16 are led to believe that there is
17 no other solution. Enterprises
18 must be closed down, workers
19 must be laid off and social
20 programs must be slashed. It is
21 in the foregoing context that
22 the economic crisis in
23 Yugoslavia should be understood.
24 Pushed to the extreme, the
25 reforms are the cruel reflection
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1 of a destructive economic model
2 imposed under the neo-Liberal
3 agenda on national societies
4 throughout the world."
5 (As read)
6 469 Thank you very much.
7 470 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
8 Ms Baldwin.
9 471 Mr. Krushen.
10 1526
11 472 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
12 Commissioner Wylie.
13 473 I would now like to call Ms Margaret
14 Waterman.
15 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
16 474 MS WATERMAN: Thank you very much.
17 475 I wasn't going to make a
18 presentation. I was just going to come. But I do
19 think that I'm one of the silent majority across the
20 country who listens only to the CBC and has it on much
21 of the day, so my remarks are about radio only, both
22 Radio One and Radio Two.
23 476 Other speakers have commented on
24 various programs. I could add some, too, but I think
25 those of us who are here probably all have our
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1 favourite ones, and even ones that aren't our
2 favourites. We can see that the variety is there.
3 477 Commercial radio stations cannot do
4 what the CBC can do. Of course they are driven by the
5 profit motive and they must have advertising and they
6 must meet the wishes of their advertising public, but
7 what a dearth of radio listening we would have if we
8 had no choice.
9 478 I was in St. Louis, Missouri a few
10 years ago visiting relatives and I said "What is the
11 public radio station?" one evening when I was going to
12 be there alone. My daughter said, "Well, I don't think
13 you will find it very exciting, mom, but this is it."
14 Well, it was a whirlwind experience. There wasn't even
15 a 10-second introduction before we were launched into a
16 movement of a Mozart symphony, and I think perhaps
17 there was five seconds between that offering and the
18 next. The whole thing was done with so little dignity
19 that I couldn't even enjoy it. I came home enjoying
20 even the occasional seconds of silence on the CBC.
21 479 The benefits have also been named by
22 even the few people that I have heard speak. The CBC
23 must be one of the few forces that really hold this
24 country together now. We used to have a TransCanada
25 railway, we still do have a TransCanada Highway, but I
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1 think we may have to wait until we get a TransCanada
2 hiking trail before we can feel that there is anything
3 as important as the radio, which goes not just to the
4 cities and all the homes there but to the country and
5 to places where people have not access to some of the
6 things that the former speakers spoke of.
7 480 It overcomes regional isolation,
8 which is impossible given the size of our country. It
9 is impossible not to feel isolated if we can't share
10 something of the lives of people elsewhere in the
11 country. The CBC has done that in a marvellous way.
12 We find ourselves enjoying aspects, insights into
13 people's lives that none of us would -- or very few of
14 us could experience very much arising in that respect.
15 481 The thing that I have not heard
16 mentioned is that we live next to a very much larger,
17 not geographically but in all other ways, country to
18 the south of us. There has been a constant pressure
19 ever since Canada has been a country to make the ties
20 north-south rather than east-west. I'm not a U.S.
21 hater, but if we have a national radio we can withstand
22 those pressures much better and have a significant
23 difference in our approach to some of the questions
24 that are uppermost in many minds.
25 482 There is a great variety of
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1 programming on the local level and what chance have the
2 local people to get their programs shown or heard
3 nationally if they haven't got the wherewithal, the
4 money to develop them in the local scene.
5 483 I, too, am going to quote, and that
6 is, in 1993 when, in renewing the CBC's four radio
7 networks, the CRTC -- I think it is the CRTC -- said:
8 "The Commission considers that
9 the Corporation, in a time of
10 financial restraint and
11 uncertainty, should be commended
12 for the general excellence of
13 its radio programming which
14 stands as a model for
15 broadcasting in Canada and
16 around the world." (As read)
17 484 And in 1994, for renewal of the
18 English television network licence, I quote:
19 "The need may be greater than
20 ever for an outlet to express
21 truly Canadian stories, ideas
22 and values amid these foreign
23 voices. A strong Canadian
24 national public broadcaster is
25 indispensable in this context."
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1 (As read)
2 485 How are we going to keep that strong?
3 How are we going to fulfil that and continue to do so
4 if we experience the cutbacks and the controls that we
5 are threatened with?
6 486 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
7 Ms Waterman.
8 487 Mr. Krushen.
9 1533
10 488 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
11 Commissioner Wylie.
12 489 I would now like to call
13 Ms Roberta Christianson.
14 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
15 490 MS CHRISTIANSON: Good afternoon.
16 491 I would like to begin by thanking you
17 for allowing us this opportunity. I know how very
18 exhausting these kind of things can be, so thank you so
19 much for your time.
20 492 THE CHAIRPERSON: We are not even
21 tired.
22 493 MS CHRISTIANSON: Yet.
23 494 I would love to be able to have time
24 to speak to you about what CBC has meant to me as a
25 person who has chosen Canada as my country, I would
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1 love to be able to speak to you about what the CBC
2 means to me as someone who lives in rural Manitoba and
3 spends many, many hours in my car feeling a very
4 personal relationship with CBC as I drive around the
5 countryside, but I think it is most appropriate that I
6 speak to you today in my role as Chair of the Manitoba
7 Arts Council.
8 495 The council is the provincial funder
9 for artists and arts organizations in every discipline,
10 and I would like to speak to you of the importance,
11 from our perspective, of the role of the CBC and the
12 development of Manitoba artists and the education of
13 its audiences.
14 496 We see CBC as a very, very important
15 partner in this and they have done it very well to date
16 and we hope they will continue to do it.
17 497 As you know, Manitoba has a
18 relatively small population, most of it concentrated in
19 one large centre. We are isolated geographically from
20 other large centres and from the benefits of ready
21 access to media and markets. We do not have the
22 opportunities for arts dissemination, the venues or the
23 population base to sustain the arts that are available
24 to other Canadian artists. In spite of this, the
25 excellence of our arts is applauded throughout the
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1 world, and national media such as Globe and Mail
2 regularly cite Manitoba as being a centre for artistic
3 excellence.
4 498 Frequently, when regional programming
5 provides the opportunity for exposure, the programs are
6 picked up nationally. Programming such as Hot Off the
7 Docks, It's a Living and Heartland have been nominated
8 for awards and run across Canada to appreciative
9 audiences.
10 499 The CBC has been an equalizer of
11 opportunity for Manitoba Arts, and once that exposure
12 is provided, we can and do easily compete on national
13 and international levels. The CBC in Manitoba provides
14 an opportunity for our artists to be heard and seen.
15 This alone often leads to a demand and market for more
16 work and is a factor in the ability of artists to
17 develop a career with self-generated income.
18 500 For years I have been involved at the
19 community level in tour presentation and the groups
20 that would sell most easily are inevitably the groups
21 that we cannot afford; they have a very high national
22 profile. But the next easiest group to sell is someone
23 who has been exposed by CBC. They have been
24 interviewed, they have been heard, the community will
25 right away embrace, and it makes it much easier for us
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1 to bring that artist into our community and it makes
2 the community acceptance of it one step already
3 developed.
4 501 The CBC's commissioning of work is
5 also an employment opportunity and an important one for
6 artists in every discipline here who compete at a
7 disadvantage for public recognition. The commissioning
8 of work by the CBC has another benefit, that of
9 training and development. Through editorial and
10 production direction, Manitoba artists receive
11 professional development sometimes not otherwise
12 readily available to them in learning to edit and
13 refine their work to reach what is often a new or at
14 least an expanded audience.
15 502 The other important point I would
16 like to make is the CBC's role in the education of the
17 audiences.
18 503 The type of regional arts programming
19 provided by the CBC gives analysis and critical
20 attention to artistic work. This commitment to serious
21 arts journalism is of immeasurable benefit to the
22 artists in their own development, but it also has
23 another crucial benefit: it educates the audiences to
24 the work. Without understanding access and
25 appreciation for the context and intent of artistic
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1 endeavour, audiences would have no knowledge of how to
2 view or hear the work, how to understand its role in
3 their lives, and its important to their culture.
4 504 More than merely telling us what our
5 entertainment choices are, the CBC tells us, through
6 its analysis and coverage, how and why the work was
7 created and what it has to do with the rest of the
8 country and with being Manitobans.
9 505 The arts journalism provided by CBC
10 programming is a critical factor in the present and
11 long-term sustainability for the arts in Manitoba. It
12 is important to recognize that the CBC is the sum of
13 its parts and that the excellence of its regional
14 programming is therefore essential to the overall
15 quality of the CBC. If belonging to a culture is an
16 active rather than a passive state, we need the
17 commitment of the CBC to provide a vehicle for that
18 activity.
19 506 In this electronic age, it is no
20 longer the railroad or the TransCanada Highway that
21 binds our country together from sea to sea, it is
22 however a role that CBC can play. The CBC is one thing
23 the Government of Canada does that is accessible and
24 beneficial to us all.
25 507 The Manitoba Arts Council supports
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1 this work and would encourage the continued support of
2 this valuable service to Canadians.
3 508 Thank you.
4 509 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
5 Ms Christianson.
6 510 Mr. Krushen.
7 511 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
8 Commissioner Wylie.
9 512 That completes the current group that
10 I called to the table earlier.
11 513 As our colleagues next door in the
12 other room are not progressing through the agenda quite
13 as quickly as we have, we have moved three presenters
14 from next door to this room.
15 514 In addition, I will now also be
16 recalling the names of those who were not present when
17 I called their names initially.
18 515 At this time could I ask Ann Loewen,
19 Menno Klassen, Thomas Walker to please come to the
20 table.
21 516 In addition, if any of the following
22 names are present, could they come up as well:
23 Scott MacNeil, Kevin Miller, Leo Robert,
24 Mariette Mulaire, Eric Pownall and Len Soltis.
25 --- Short pause / Courte pause
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1 517 MR. KRUSHEN: I have just been handed
2 one additional name, Reverend Harry Lehotsky.
3 1539
4 518 At this time, I would like to ask
5 Ms Ann Loewen to commence her presentation.
6 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
7 519 MS LOEWEN: Good afternoon. Thank
8 you for the opportunity to speak here.
9 520 THE CHAIRPERSON: You are welcome,
10 Ms Loewen. It's our pleasure.
11 521 MS LOEWEN: Can you hear me?
12 522 THE CHAIRPERSON: Yes.
13 523 MS LOEWEN: Okay.
14 524 I would like to start out by saying
15 that I hate commercials and so I only listen to the
16 CBC radio and watch the commercial-free children's
17 programming with my children in the mornings, so my
18 comments will be confined to that.
19 525 I am a long-term CBC radio listener.
20 As some of the other speakers have mentioned, it was
21 only when I lived in the more remote and less
22 accessible parts of Canada that I realized how
23 important CBC was and continues to be.
24 526 While I was in university I was in a
25 major centre, but neither myself nor my colleagues had
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1 TVs or newspaper subscriptions and we all listened to
2 CBC. My American friends at the university I attended
3 were very envious of the information and quality of
4 listening that was available on the CBC.
5 527 When I move to Newfoundland to
6 continue training and then to work and live, I was in
7 Labrador and various other parts of Atlantic Canada.
8 It was both a revelation to me to realize how important
9 it was to access the same familiar programming, but
10 also to become familiar with the new culture and
11 geography that I was experiencing in that region
12 through the local Newfoundland and Atlantic Canada
13 programming.
14 528 I cannot see how I could have I could
15 have as quickly assimilated the understanding of the
16 issues that faced that community and population and its
17 various subregions without the CBC, because I do not
18 feel that the print media adequately reflected the
19 depth and breadth of the local issues and certainly the
20 local media did not report the national and
21 international events with any degree of thoroughness.
22 I found that I became absolutely dependent on CBC for
23 information when I lived in these very remote areas.
24 529 I have now moved back to Manitoba,
25 but I work in a rural area and, again, with the
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1 driving, with the distances, with the relative
2 superficiality of many other radio broadcasts, I do
3 find that there is a very major role for a
4 commercial-free, in-depth, Canadian-oriented but with a
5 world vision form of broadcasting to both make us
6 better as individual world citizens and to bind us
7 together and reinforce what makes us Canadian.
8 530 I was living in Newfoundland when one
9 of the first major rounds, in my knowledge of such
10 things, of cutbacks came to the CBC and all the
11 regional offices in Newfoundland and Labrador were
12 closed down and it was completely centralized to
13 St. John's, Newfoundland. Even as an outsider to the
14 Newfoundland culture, I realized what a shame this was
15 because Newfoundland is a culture of its own but it has
16 many subcultures within itself and those voices are
17 very important.
18 531 Again, in Manitoba, the northern
19 voices are very different from the southern voices, the
20 farming from the urban, and I think that the
21 regionality of CBC radio, in particular, is very
22 important and within the television realm as well, I'm
23 sure.
24 532 It would be a shame to see the CBC
25 become more centralized in Central Canada, as many
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1 trends seem to be these days, and I would certainly
2 urge the CRTC to consider encouraging very strongly
3 that the CBC's mandate be very much across Canada and
4 not just central Canada and radiating from there
5 outwards.
6 533 I would see it as a positive step if
7 the CBC television could reduce its dependence on
8 commercialization, however, this is perhaps something
9 beyond the CRTC and perhaps more a political issue.
10 But without a doubt, I see the effects of how
11 commercialization effects the transmission of
12 information and entertainment.
13 534 As I mentioned, I'm very glad that
14 there is commercial-free entertainment for the children
15 because I have seen, in very clear effects, the way it
16 modifies their behaviour and their desires and I don't
17 want that for my children any more than I want to be
18 barraged with the hype that goes along with
19 commercials.
20 535 In closing, I would like to say I'm
21 glad that I'm able to recommend to my colleagues, who
22 are frequently foreign and coming to rural areas, that
23 they tune into CBC when they come to Canada to be able
24 to hear what is going on around the world as well as to
25 familiarize themselves with the country they have moved
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1 to, and I would like to thank the CRTC for making this
2 process available to those of us who really care about
3 the CBC and its future.
4 536 Thank you.
5 537 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
6 Ms Loewen.
7 538 Mr. Krushen.
8 1545
9 539 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
10 Commissioner Wylie.
11 540 I now call Mr. Menno Klassen.
12 Mr. Klassen.
13 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
14 541 MR. KLASSEN: Thank you.
15 542 Hi. I have headed my presentation
16 "Canada's Fate and Quality of Life is Tied to the CBC".
17 It is that serious with us. I have headed that
18 presentation in that way.
19 543 In the twenties, we listened to the
20 CBC through crystal sets. In fact, we constructed
21 these sets in order that we could hear Foster Hewitt
22 announce the hockey games in those days, and other good
23 programs.
24 544 To us it is not a question of CBC or
25 no CBC but the need to restore the necessary funding so
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1 that it can do its job. No efforts should be spared in
2 order to achieve this perfection.
3 545 My presentation is short, I put it
4 together this morning, but every word could be expanded
5 into a presentation by itself, so I will proceed with
6 what I have here.
7 546 Without a strong and independent CBC,
8 Canadian distinctiveness will be lost forever. Without
9 it Canada, as we have come to know it, will vanish from
10 our seeing and from our hearing. The quality of
11 Canadian life would be drastically diminished. The CBC
12 has become such a significant part of our lives that
13 unless it is kept strong and healthy, pride of country
14 will fade into oblivion and responsible citizenship and
15 democracy will be insufferable -- will suffer.
16 547 Without the CBC listener choice will
17 be drastically reduced. People's lives will be filled
18 with unnecessary and irrelevant clutter to insult our
19 intelligence. An alternative source of broadcast
20 information, which an independent CBC can offer, will
21 be denied to discriminating Canadians. Our only
22 independent, unfettered broadcaster will be no more.
23 Many of our best and active citizens will be forced to
24 turn off the broadcast medium altogether and seek out
25 other types of media. The priceless educational
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1 service and cultural values that characterizes CBC
2 broadcasting has greatly enriched our lives.
3 548 Listeners to CBC may be in the
4 minority, but I would suggest it is a minority that we
5 dare not ignore or to undervalue this minority. The
6 fans of a strong and healthy CBC could well be
7 considered the true patriots of Canada that hold the
8 country together and defend its best democratic
9 traditions and cultural and spiritual values.
10 549 It is therefore of prime importance
11 that this value and national-building institution, the
12 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, be restored to its
13 proper place in the life of our country.
14 550 Submitted respectably. Thank you.
15 551 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
16 Mr. Klassen.
17 552 Mr. Krushen.
18 1550
19 553 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
20 Commissioner Wylie.
21 554 I would now like to call
22 Mr. Thomas Walker.
23 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
24 555 MR. WALKER: First of all, I would
25 like to apologize on two points. One is that, given
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1 the room, that I am not able to speak in the other
2 official language, especially since I have a
3 granddaughter who speaks only French. I think it shows
4 right away some of the educational inadequacies of our
5 country and some of the barriers that we allow to
6 occur.
7 556 Now, about another barrier, the 49th
8 Parallel, which I give thanks for every day --
9 incidentally, I make no apologies for being an
10 out-and-out nationalist, given all my prejudices and so
11 on.
12 557 I recall being at a luncheon attended
13 by a variety of professional people, working people,
14 and the one person asks a question -- this was a
15 relative recent arrival from the U.K. -- an
16 understandable question: Why is there a boundary on
17 the 49th Parallel? Why is it there?
18 558 Good question. Out of at least
19 15 professionals, now keep in mind most of them were
20 engineers and accountants and you don't expect them to
21 know very much any how, but nobody was able to answer
22 the question.
23 559 So what on earth is lacking not only
24 in the schools and universities but in our general
25 input of knowledge? Nobody has heard of the United
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1 Empire of Lobbyists, for example, as they call it, and
2 the General Activists and the War of 1812. There is
3 definitely a conflict, a conflict of values and
4 attitudes. I won't bother going into that because my
5 knowledge of that is about as sparse as my knowledge of
6 the French language.
7 560 What on earth is going to keep this
8 country together?
9 561 We currently are faced with this
10 magazine issue, the split-runs on magazines, if you
11 have heard anything about it. But, personally, I think
12 the saving of the CBC radio and television is as
13 important if not more important than the saving of a
14 couple of Canadian publications. The thing that is
15 more insidious is that if the CBC were to disappear and
16 be taken over, I'm talking radio here, they would be
17 Canadian owned -- whoop de do -- but they would
18 generate nothing but U.S. material; in other words, all
19 our history and all the difference in attitudes and
20 values gradually become eroded.
21 562 I don't have too much sympathy with
22 the present Quebec government, but I can see their
23 point, that the rest of the North American continent is
24 turning into a bland homogenous entity and if you want
25 to retain any character, or so on, you have to do
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1 something about it.
2 563 It's sad to say a lot of my peers
3 don't feel the same way. The thing that bothers me
4 this afternoon is that we are reaching at the
5 converted. It's all about the same people that you
6 would expect to have at this type of hearing, the
7 people that care. Now, you would probably count on the
8 same people on almost anything if it was important to
9 their country, but the others aren't there.
10 Unfortunately, come election day, the others' votes
11 count just as much as do the votes of anybody in this
12 room.
13 564 My own experience with the CBC -- you
14 know, I'm a junkie, a CBC junkie, like everybody else
15 here. I have had every radio. If I could have them
16 fused to one station, I would, but the CBC One and the
17 CBC Two makes it a little difficult.
18 565 My only complaint is the signal is
19 usually so weak and it is perpetually being jammed by
20 rock and roll stations. Once you get off the station,
21 I find it hard to get back on it. I don't know if
22 anybody else runs into that.
23 566 The wonderful thing about radio is
24 you can do something else and still hear it, or you can
25 be some place where you can't get TV and you can still
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1 listen to it.
2 567 I also have the odd acquaintances, a
3 member of a right-wing party I won't mention, and they
4 say they can't wait to have it commercialized or
5 privatized. Well, we in Manitoba went through an
6 experience with our telephone company and we believe
7 that the word "privatize" has become synonymous with
8 "sodomize".
9 568 What would be worse, more degrading
10 yet, is another type of PBS where people stand there
11 weekly and beg for nickels and dimes. You know, a
12 great and important national institution that happens
13 to operate on charity would just be unconscionable.
14 You know, you might as well get rid of all the
15 libraries and everything else.
16 569 Yes, perhaps this person from the
17 U.K. is right. Why bother with the 49 Parallel? We
18 can all go down to Texas and go into -- well, anyhow.
19 570 Thank you.
20 571 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
21 Mr. Walker.
22 572 Mr. Krushen.
23 1555
24 573 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
25 Commissioner Wylie.
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1 574 I would now like to call Reverend
2 Harry Lehotsky.
3 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
4 575 REV. LEHOTSKY: Hi.
5 576 My own perspective is maybe a little
6 bit different from some of those who have spoken. I'm
7 an inner-city pastor and I guess the issues that I deal
8 with on a day-to-day basis sometimes overwhelm me to
9 the point where I feel out of place at a hearing like
10 this.
11 577 I don't share the same angst I guess
12 about the loss of a Canadian identity. I don't have
13 the same paranoia about the government cutting out our
14 tongues.
15 578 I am concerned, though, and that's
16 what brought me here anyway, I plugged my parking meter
17 with an extra coin because what the CBC does is
18 important to us as well in the inner city and the work
19 that we are doing.
20 579 I can speak to this from a number of
21 different issues.
22 580 I guess as a pastor, I have
23 experienced a respect without a patronizing attitude.
24 Those of you who are familiar with the evangelical
25 church, evangelical tradition, there is a great
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1 paranoia about the media, and sometimes even a fear of
2 doing things out in the public arena because of the
3 fact that people just won't understand and it won't be
4 reported fairly.
5 581 Part of what has happened in my
6 experience, in the circle of churches that I'm familiar
7 with or that are familiar with me, has encouraged them
8 to get more involved as well, because as they have seen
9 us involved in the inner-city community doing things,
10 sometimes from a right-of-centre perspective, sometimes
11 from an evangelical rather than mainline perspective,
12 what has encouraged them is that we have been treated
13 fairly. That has encouraged me and given me more
14 boldness to keep going out and doing the things we have
15 done. I have not always experienced that in different
16 places.
17 582 So as a pastor I have been encouraged
18 and I have seen other faith communities also get more
19 involved in the community as a result of having some of
20 those fears alleviated of unfair treatment.
21 583 I do want to give a little bit of a
22 shot to the CRTC about the resistance to a Christian
23 station, an explicitly Christian station. You can
24 have -- you know, some of the stuff that we have, the
25 specialty stations already, the head-banging
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1 obscenities set to music, that's kosher, you know, but
2 a Christian station is somehow off limits, aboriginal
3 networks, country or musical classic stations. We
4 don't have one music station and say give equal time to
5 every style of music. I think it is kind of ludicrous
6 to say we have one faith station, give equal time to
7 every faith. It wouldn't be fair to the music lovers
8 and its not fair to people of faith to say you are not
9 allowed to have your own network if you have the
10 resources to do it.
11 584 But that aside, let's move on to some
12 of the other stuff.
13 585 In terms of some of the inner-city
14 work that I do, I appreciate the regional work that CBC
15 does. I appreciate the fact that they have invested in
16 the inner city in terms of the place where their
17 station is. It's encouraging to see them there, as I
18 live not too far from there.
19 586 It also brings across some vested
20 interest in terms of the reporters when they go out
21 into the community. They want to get to know the
22 community around them a little bit better, and that has
23 been I think a benefit to us as well.
24 587 I have seen a depth of reporting in
25 terms of -- and that has something to do with resources
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1 that has been talked about here, you need resources to
2 be able to have that depth of reporting, but also a
3 passion and questions that I don't hear asked by other
4 people. That I'm very appreciative of. It's not just
5 what sells ads, but sometimes what needs saying, and
6 even by people who aren't that articulate.
7 588 In the other room they were talking
8 about how it's a showcase for Canadian talent before it
9 gets viable enough on the commercial airways. It also
10 is a showcase and a platform for people in the
11 community who are not that articulate yet. Somebody
12 has the time to work through the issue and actually
13 hear what they are saying and then report it, and that
14 is a huge benefit to our community.
15 589 There are issues of zoning, planning,
16 housing policy, by-laws that are totally skimmed over
17 by other media outlets at times, and we have found the
18 CBC quite helpful in terms of even helping us clarify
19 how to articulate those concerns and issues.
20 590 Cuts in funding is always an issue, I
21 guess, and that's not your scope I guess right now, but
22 I mean the question begs asking: Wouldn't a dollar be
23 better spent putting food in a kid's mouth or building
24 a house than paying a CBC reporter what they are paid
25 as opposed to someone else or the facilities? But I
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1 think that also in the inner city what we need -- and
2 there are other ways of doing that. I don't think if
3 it is cut in one place it is necessarily going to go to
4 the kids anyway. I'm not naive enough to think that.
5 591 What we do need is an institution
6 that promotes excellence and a depth of coverage and
7 reporting, and I appreciate that.
8 592 In terms of recommendations, I would
9 like to see some more community round tables that are
10 facilitated through the CBC discussions, whether it is
11 news or forums, that have a breadth of perspective.
12 593 I would like to see more youth
13 programming, youth involvement in programming and youth
14 programming itself.
15 594 I would like to see a further
16 development of technology in terms of even archives for
17 students. More and more students are doing their
18 research on the Net, and to have some archives in the
19 real video or real audio kind of stuff. Those kinds of
20 things are very helpful to kids in terms of education
21 as well, and adults. I would like that as well.
22 595 Those are my comments. Thanks.
23 596 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
24 Rev. Lehotsky.
25 597 Mr. Krushen.
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1 1600
2 598 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
3 Commissioner Wylie.
4 599 I would now like to call
5 Mr. Eric Pownall.
6 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
7 600 MR. POWNALL: Well, I want to start
8 off by saying that the best way to protect Canadian
9 culture would be to maintain the levels of Canadian
10 content within all broadcasting within Canada. The
11 idea of maintaining a CBC for that purpose is not only
12 foolish and stupid, but an incredible waste of money.
13 I mean, both CBC TV and CBC radio represent a costly
14 indulgence and misuse of taxpayers' money that the
15 Canadian public can no longer afford to subsidize to
16 the tune of $800 million a year. With this, all we
17 get, all we buy with that money is a paltry less than
18 11 per cent market share, which is another way of
19 saying that over 89 per cent of the Canadian public is
20 saying they don't like what you offer at CBC. It's
21 just worthless to them.
22 601 You have to keep in mind that a lot
23 of that 11 per cent is based on a few very popular
24 programs. They bring the average up, which means the
25 others -- there must be a great many programs on CBC
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1 that have such a low rating they are barely above that
2 of a test pattern, which is really not saying much for
3 the bulk of CBC content with an average of less than
4 11 per cent market share.
5 602 When I confronted Mister -- I think
6 his name is Redekopp and Mr. Beatty and asked the
7 question about what do they plan to do about the 11 per
8 cent market share, the response I got was that it
9 didn't matter. They simply didn't care, or at least
10 that's the impression I got, that a less than 11 per
11 cent market share is perfectly acceptable to them,
12 which is the same as saying so what if we are flushing
13 money down the toilet?
14 603 It also seems that -- and this issue
15 was also brought to their attention as well -- that the
16 CBC seems to cater to small but very vocal special
17 interest groups. They seem to have the ear of the CBC.
18 The mainstream doesn't seem to.
19 604 It is highly politicized by a very
20 corrupt government, and a current government, since it
21 is being used by the government in power to reward
22 certain special interest groups for their political
23 support. Whenever our government exerts influence or
24 control there is always a strong possibility that the
25 kind of corruption associated with cronyism, nepotism
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1 and political patronage are likely to occur.
2 605 You only have to reference the
3 comments made by Prime Minister Chrétien to
4 Peter Mansbridge on a CBC TV interview shortly after he
5 was first elected as Prime Minister in which he
6 commented that the use of political patronage by the
7 Liberal party was natural, normal and accepted and will
8 continue to occur because they have to do it in order
9 to survive politically. Without it, they would never
10 survive.
11 606 And CBC is not an independent
12 organization. It may be a so-called Crown Corporation,
13 but it's -- I mean, when you consider the head of the
14 CBC is appointed by the government, effectively they
15 have say over its every function, in effect. That
16 means that it can also be used as an instrument by
17 government to serve its purposes rather than perform
18 all the intended functions and the be self-supporting,
19 that is to say not be a burden to the taxpayer.
20 607 It has had a very long time to get
21 its act together and it hasn't. I think it is
22 blatantly obvious to anyone with an ounce of
23 intelligence they never will. They have neither the
24 will, the intention or the ability to do so.
25 608 I mean, after the comments I made
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1 about the heads of CBC when I asked them those
2 questions and got such a flaccid response, I was
3 amazed. And it tells me that the people running CBC
4 have a lack of business acumen because of their lack of
5 concern about their 11 per cent market share. I mean,
6 it should be run to a certain extent like a business.
7 They should try to make it self-supporting.
8 609 The Canadian content regulations
9 should be sufficient to foster Canadian culture and
10 with time that should grow, but not when it's a burden
11 to the taxpayer to the tune of $800 million a year.
12 610 CBC will become increasingly
13 irrelevant as time goes by. It will be lost in a sea
14 of cable channels and satellite service. I mean, there
15 are hundreds of channels. Now you can -- I think as
16 long as you sign up for something like a 30-month
17 period you can get the satellite dish thrown in free,
18 and it's like $15 a month or something. Some services
19 are offering it as cheap as that. It's cheaper than
20 cable. People in remote locations don't need CBC any
21 more, they can save a lot of money by taking the
22 $800 million and buy them all satellite dishes and tell
23 them to have fun. It would be a lot cheaper and maybe
24 probably a lot happier.
25 611 To make things even worse, or better,
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1 depending on how you want to look at it, eventually the
2 Internet will add more programming to the mix,
3 especially when broadband service, brought about by
4 fibre optic hook-ups to homes, will be made available
5 in the future. I mean, they offer an incredible
6 broadband service that will put the satellite service
7 to shame.
8 612 CBC will become so irrelevant. I
9 mean, all I hear here are the -- probably most of the
10 11 per cent of our audience in Winnipeg are probably
11 here. That is a very small audience for CBC. It's a
12 horrible waste of money, especially when it can be used
13 by so many other things. I mean, you could probably
14 take a portion of the $800 million and do a lot more
15 for Canadian culture than CBC has ever been able to do.
16 A lot of the programming they produce seems to be of a
17 generic bland nature, nondescript, not even so much as
18 to hide the Canadian aspect of the location so that the
19 programming will have appeal to an American audience
20 with a possible eye towards selling the programs to
21 Americans. I begin to wonder: Where is the Canadian
22 culture in that? None.
23 613 So the use of CBC as a -- it seems to
24 be the government tends to use CBC as an instrument of
25 government policy, at least this government does. When
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1 the CBC has a meagre 11 per cent market share, it seems
2 to not only be foolish and pathetic but a horrible
3 waste of money.
4 614 The only way to remove this stain of
5 a very corrupt government would be to privatize CBC and
6 maintain the Canadian content as would any other
7 private station. Having it Canadian owned and heavily
8 subsidized by the Canadian government has done nothing
9 at all to improve either the content or the quality of
10 the program or its market share.
11 615 It doesn't seem to matter how much
12 you put into it, nothing seems to change at CBC, and
13 the only way to fix it is to privatize it.
14 616 Thank you.
15 617 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
16 Mr. Pownall.
17 618 Mr. Krushen.
18 1609
19 619 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
20 Commissioner Wylie.
21 620 At this point I would like to call
22 Ms Melinda McCracken to come up to the table.
23 621 In addition, if there is anyone else
24 in the audience who has not yet made a presentation but
25 would like to do so, please come up to the table now as
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1 well.
2 622 Thank you.
3 --- Short pause / Courte pause
4 623 MR. KRUSHEN: Please start when you
5 are ready, Ms McCracken.
6 PRESENTATION / PRÉSENTATION
7 624 MS McCRACKEN: Good afternoon,
8 everyone, and thank you very much for accepting me,
9 Mr. Krushen.
10 625 I'm a writer and I'm also a CBC
11 junkie. Unlike the previous speaker, I would like to
12 say the way to fix CBC is not to privatize it but to
13 keep it going because I think we all benefit very
14 deeply and broadly from the CBC.
15 626 So my presentation is a more personal
16 and first-person singular kind of presentation because
17 I usually do this sort of thing.
18 627 Winnipeg had its biggest snowfall of
19 the year yesterday. I left my job at 9:45 p.m. and
20 went out into a silent world, muffled in a foot of
21 snowflakes. I brushed the fluffy snow off my car, got
22 in and turned the key. The radio came on. I drove
23 home in my car cocoon treated to a conversation between
24 Eleanor Wachtel and Nobel Prize winning novelist
25 Tony Morrison. A repeat, but what a repeat. What
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1 better company than Writers and Company when you are
2 tired and snowbound in Winnipeg in March?
3 628 I got a hint of the importance of CBC
4 radio to those of us living out on the prairies two
5 summers ago when I drove from Winnipeg to Vancouver and
6 back. When I left the mountains and hit the flats east
7 of Calgary before Medicine Hat, the roads straightened,
8 the land flattened out and the sun blazed down in a
9 vast empty sky. I pointed the noise of the car toward
10 the east and held it there. With no steering to do and
11 nothing to see I naturally switched on the radio. The
12 sounds that filled the sky kept me awake and alive all
13 the way home.
14 629 As a writer, I carry out many
15 solitary tasks. I live by the CBC perhaps more than
16 most people. On a bracing walk this morning I heard
17 Michael Enright talk to D.M. Thomas about Thomas'
18 biography of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I eat lunch to
19 The Farm Report, paint my kitchen to the Richardson's
20 Roundup and marvel at how listeners to that program
21 have access to the airwaves via telephone and cell
22 phone, even calling in from the highway and honking
23 their car horns.
24 630 Bill Richardson has taken
25 story-writing techniques from creative writing
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1 workshops and adapted them to radio. He asks people to
2 call in with stories about their strange names or their
3 worst jobs.
4 631 On Halloween this year, I raked my
5 leaves to Bob Mcdonald interviewing a scientist about
6 the nocturnal habits of vampire bats.
7 632 I eat dinner to CBC's 24 Hours and
8 always watch Monday's when my friend, Ian Ross, the
9 playwright, as Joe from Winnipeg gave his weekly shot
10 of wisdom and whimsy and asked: What's up with that?
11 633 I wrote and read a three-minute bit
12 on the CBC information radio's New Manitoba Voices. I
13 was looking forward to doing more such pieces. I was
14 just beginning to settle in to enjoy the CBC and to
15 marvel at the quality of programming we were getting
16 when the technicians struck.
17 634 During the 1997 flood of the century,
18 I listened from dawn until dusk as reliable familiar
19 local CBC hosts fielded phone calls from farmers asking
20 for help with moving animals, requests for volunteers
21 to build dykes. People out battling the flood were
22 able to relay their stories of acts of heroism to the
23 community at large. Men with cell phones stopped on
24 the highway to report convoys of army trucks converging
25 on Winnipeg from the east and the west.
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1 635 During the flood, radio came into its
2 own as a medium with hosts spelling off and fielding
3 calls. CBC's 24 Hours expert cameramen hauled their
4 high-tech cameras up in planes and helicopters and with
5 mobile uplink units seized the inspired shots of the
6 Red Sea, water stretching far as the eye could see and
7 beamed them around the world. These were the shots
8 that prompted the entire globe to give spontaneously
9 from its heart to those in need.
10 636 You just can't beat radio. I'm sold
11 on it as a medium. Sound is evocative and immediate.
12 Recently I picked up some glossy coloured magazines. I
13 noticed their news seemed strangely out of date
14 compared to the news I have been hearing on the radio.
15 A steady dose of CBC radio, with constant news updates,
16 accustoms a listener to information that is on top of a
17 breaking story just as it happens, something print is
18 not capable of doing. I have been spoiled by CBC
19 radio.
20 637 CBC radio and TV binds Canada
21 together in one intelligent, thoughtful, responsible
22 community. The image the CBC reflects to Canadians is
23 the image of ourselves we Canadians prefer. CBC's
24 Radio broadcast journalism based in BBC traditions and
25 standards is top notch, fact-packed, up to date, on top
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1 of events providing some documentaries that bring
2 reality right into your home.
3 638 Even on a budget that is anorexic
4 compared to what it once was, the CBC continues to
5 deliver programming that reflects the talents and
6 intelligence of the skilled people it employs and its
7 commitment to excellence in public service
8 broadcasting.
9 639 I'm grateful to the CBC for
10 steadfastingly continuing to deliver the values of
11 public broadcasting, honesty, responsibility, ethics
12 and intelligence without the undermining of the drive
13 for profit.
14 640 I believe the CBC should be even more
15 objective, more critical of governments and politicians
16 and more diligent in its quest to expose corruption.
17 641 How to improve the CBC? Give it more
18 money, restore cuts in funding. Let it develop more
19 This Hour Has 22 Minutes, more Kids in the Hall, more
20 Air Farce, more fantastic Witness documentaries, more
21 Fifth Estate investigations, more health shows, more
22 Market Places. Let it nurture more Finklemans(ph),
23 both Danny and Ken; more Denis Foons(ph); more Norma
24 Baileys(ph); more Red Greens; more David Adams Richards
25 or Wendy Mesleys(ph); more Mark Styrowitzes(ph); Holger
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1 Petersens; Terry MacLeods; Diana Swaines(ph); Ross
2 Rutherfords; Al Rays; Ian Rosses; Dean Jenkinsons; Mike
3 Beauregaurds(ph); Maurine Pendigrasses(ph); Robert
4 Enrights; Laurie Browns; and Peter Mansbridges; Peter
5 Gzowskis; Eric Sorensens; Joan Leichmans(ph); Jason
6 Mochkovitches(ph); Ian Adam Mansings(ph); Don Murrays;
7 more Sandy Colemans; more still cameramen and graphic
8 artists; more great comedy, documentaries and drama.
9 642 The CBC is essential to Canada.
10 Canada is a vast land mass with very few people. The
11 CBC provides friendly intelligent voices telling us
12 what is going on, sharing jokes, stories, information,
13 drama and fun with thousands of solitary listeners
14 scattered across the continent. Many of us are
15 engrossed in doing solitary tasks: driving vehicles,
16 painting walls, carpentry and cooking, eating,
17 computing, all tasks we can do while listening to the
18 radio.
19 643 We work alone with no one to talk to.
20 With CBC we are never alone. We may have no one to
21 talk to, but we always have someone to listen to. CBC
22 broadcasters are some of our best friends. The CBC
23 expands our community, gives us more friends.
24 644 Does CBC serve the needs of the
25 people of Canada? Yes, by keeping us on top of
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1 late-breaking stories with great journalism, by
2 allowing us phone-in access to air our views, by giving
3 us great comedy to laugh at and great drama to cry
4 about.
5 645 Yes, the CBC is a major contributor
6 to the health and wellbeing of Canadians. It is the
7 most important link between Canadians. It binds us
8 together. Rather than indulging in too much naval
9 gazing, let's celebrate the CBC's great accomplishments
10 and support its enterprise into the 20th Century.
11 646 So remember, if it ain't broke don't
12 fix it, and right now it's not broke.
13 647 Thank you very much.
14 --- Applause / Applaudissements
15 648 THE CHAIRPERSON: Thank you,
16 Ms McCracken.
17 649 MS McCRACKEN: Thanks.
18 650 THE CHAIRPERSON: Mr. Krushen.
19 651 MR. KRUSHEN: Thank you,
20 Commissioner Wylie.
21 652 I would just like to ask once again
22 if there is anyone else in the room who has not yet
23 made a presentation that would like to do so, could you
24 please come forward now.
25 653 THE CHAIRPERSON: We will now take a
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1 15-minute break, after which we will hear the comments
2 of representatives of the CBC.
3 654 Nous prendrons maintenant une pause
4 de 15 minutes, après quoi nous entendrons les
5 représentants de Radio-Canada.
6 655 So we will be back in 15 minutes.
7 --- Short recess at 1620/ Courte suspension à 1620
8 --- Upon resuming at 1630/ Reprise à 1630
9 656 THE CHAIRPERSON: Order please.
10 657 We will now proceed to hear from
11 representatives of the CBC.
12 658 Nous entendrons maintenant les
13 commentaires d'un représentant de Radio-Canada.
14 659 M. FONTAINE: Bonjour, Madame Wylie,
15 Monsieur Krushen.
16 660 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Bonsoir ou bonjour,
17 Monsieur.
18 REPLY / RÉPLIQUE
19 661 M. FONTAINE: Je m'appelle
20 René Fontaine et je suis le Directeur de la radio
21 française pour les régions des Prairies. Au nom de
22 tous mes collègues de Radio-Canada, je tiens à
23 remercier le Conseil de l'occasion qui nous est donnée
24 d'entendre des commentaires du grand public sur la
25 programmation qui leur est offerte.
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1 662 Listening to the public's comments
2 today are representatives of each of the CBC media, and
3 among us are Carl Karp, Director of Programming for
4 English Television; the Director of English Radio in
5 Manitoba, John Bertrand; et il y a aussi le Directeur
6 de la télévision française de l'ouest, Lionel
7 Bonneville.
8 663 The issues and opinions that were
9 presented today are of great importance to the CBC. We
10 value input from our audiences and we appreciate the
11 opportunity to hear it directly. We have noted the
12 numerous comments made here today and it is our
13 intention to address it directly with each intervenor
14 wherever there is any question that was left
15 unanswered.
16 664 It is also our intention to respond
17 in writing to the CBC, if it so wishes, to any concerns
18 that have been brought forward and that require further
19 clarification.
20 665 Je veux vous assurer que nous allons
21 accorder la plus grande considération à tous les propos
22 qui ont été avancés à cette audience et que nous
23 chercherons à y répondre dans la mesure du possible
24 lorsque nous présenterons nos demandes de
25 renouvellement de licence au mois de mai prochain.
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1 666 Today's presentations have raised
2 many points that are worthy of further discussion and
3 we will be pleased to follow up with these during the
4 licence renewal hearings.
5 667 J'aimerais dire à quel point j'ai été
6 particulièrement touché par la ferveur et l'intensité
7 des propos de tous nos intervenants et aussi par le
8 degré d'appréciation qu'ils ont -- c'était assez
9 évident, je le crois -- degré d'appréciation qu'ils ont
10 pour la programmation à Radio-Canada.
11 668 Once again, my colleagues and I would
12 like to thank you for today's opportunity to hear the
13 public's concerns and their appreciation of our
14 programming.
15 669 Merci beaucoup.
16 670 LA PRÉSIDENTE: Merci,
17 Monsieur Fontaine.
18 671 I would like to remind everyone that
19 a transcript is being made of the proceeding today and
20 all the presentations have been transcribed and will
21 become part of the renewal file in the May hearing.
22 672 Alors, je voudrais rappeler aux gens
23 qu'il y a eu un procès-verbal créé et que toutes les
24 représentations donc feront partie du dossier du
25 renouvellement de Radio-Canada qui aura lieu à Hull
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1 vers la fin du mois de mai, le 25 mai de fait.
2 673 Nous remercions tous ceux qui se sont
3 présentés. Il nous est très important évidemment
4 d'avoir des réponses à nos invitations pour ces
5 consultations et nous sommes toujours bien contents de
6 voir autant de gens que possible.
7 674 So we thank you all who have answered
8 our call. We are always happy to see that people do
9 respond to our attempt to give more Canadians the
10 opportunity to speak to us.
11 675 Thank you again.
12 676 Of course we will be back at 6:00 to
13 hear those who have registered to come and visit us
14 tonight.
15 677 Merci.
16 678 Merci, Monsieur Fontaine.
17 --- Recess at 1635 / Suspension à 1635
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