Dr. Jordan Peterson has pointed out that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which receives over a billion dollars in taxpayer funds each year, has garnered less than 100 viewers on its last 19 videos, and therefore believes it should be defunded.
In an August 31 post on X, Peterson, a best-selling Canadian author and clinical psychologist, implied that that the CBC is massively overfunded considering its dismal engagement numbers with the public.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and CBC CEO Catherine Tait are trading barbs about the continued relevance of the CBC. Among its fans, and even some foes, there’s much hand-wringing about Poilievre’s threat to shut down the English-language arm of the public broadcaster.
“I think the Conservative party has a lot of very valid criticisms of the CBC as it now stands,” nods the soft-spoken media stalwart Kenneth Whyte in a recent conversation. “And there are many more criticisms that you could make of the CBC beyond Pierre Poilievre’s concerns, which are mostly ideological.”
Multiple political conventions have happened across North America in the last one-and-a-half years, and journalists have been busy covering them.
But while The National, CBC’s flagship program during the nightly news devoted loads of coverage to US conventions while mere minutes to Canadian ones.
I don’t watch their coverage because of CBC’S TDS and its knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
Money woes, harassment pose barriers to diversifying Ont. politics, study finds
New research is highlighting harassment and a lack of financial resources as two common barriers for diverse candidates in Ontario municipal politics.
Titled Mapping the Experiences of Diverse Candidates Running for Municipal Office in Ontario, the project was commissioned by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and released during their annual conference in Ottawa earlier this month.
Its results were compiled from a mix of approaches, including interviews, survey responses and focus groups. There were a total of 118 participants.
Apparently we should be footing the bill for “minority candidates.”
This is even weirder than the Masters of the Universe cartoon episode where the hero, He-Man, teamed up with the villain, Skeletor, to save Christmas.
The CBC doled out$18.4 million in bonuses. Meanwhile, the state broadcaster was also threatening to eliminate some positions just before Christmas.
And that has even its “friends” upset.
OTTAWA – The Liberal government is refusing to say if it approved a bonus for the head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., as Opposition Conservatives demand answers and New Democrats call for a ban on bonuses.
It is up to the federal government to approve a bonus for Catherine Tait following a review of her performance and recommendation by the board of directors at CBC/Radio-Canada.
CBC deferred questions to the federal government. Canadian Heritage, which oversees the Crown corporation, then deferred questions to the Privy Council Office, which supports cabinet and the prime minister.
The number of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) employees earning six-figure salaries has skyrocketed by 231% since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office, according to recent data obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF).
In 2023, 1,450 CBC staff members earned more than $100,000 annually, a dramatic increase from 2015 when only 438 employees took home six-figure salaries.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. paid $18.4 million in bonuses this year after hundreds of jobs at the public broadcaster were eliminated.
Documents obtained through access to information laws show CBC/Radio-Canada paid out bonuses to 1,194 employees for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
More than $3.3 million of that was paid to 45 executives.
That means those executives got an average bonus of over $73,000, which is more than the median family income after taxes in 2022, according to Statistics Canada.
CBC is welfare for the connected.
Somewhere between streaming hours of water polo and puzzling out the nuances of the kayaking obstacle course, I realized I was witnessing a miracle.
As a wizened man of 36, I am old enough to remember when Olympic coverage consisted of turning on the TV and hoping something interesting was being broadcast. Now, thanks to CBC Gem, every sport, from boxing to break dancing, can be consumed free and on demand at your leisure.
A tax payer boondoggle paying for TV rights to an even bigger boondoggle. Honestly I have not watched more than a few Twitter clips.
Defenders of public broadcasting are sketching out their response to ongoing calls by Pierre Poilievre to “recklessly” defund the CBC, after the Conservative leader has been doubling down on that position in a recent social media post and at campaign-style rallies.
In an email to the The Hill Times, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge (Brome-Missisquoi, Que.) said that Canada needs “a strong public broadcaster that connects and informs us coast to coast to coast.” She said the government is reviewing the public broadcaster’s financing, governance, and mission with the goal of modernizing it, adding this “contrasts sharply” with the Conservative proposal to “defund and dismantle” an organization that “millions of Canadians count on.”
CBC has given opposition leader Pierre Poilievre another reason to defund it.
Shortly after the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran on Wednesday, a top CBC reporter was blasting whoever did it.
CBC employees should exercise caution when commenting on controversial news stories on Twitter, according to a network ombudsman.
Blacklock’s Reporter says the advisory follows a tweet by a CBC producer expressing sympathy for a Palestinian activist arrested for threatening to kill Jews and drink their blood.
Polls suggest former president Donald Trump is in a strong position to win back the presidency this November — a development that could have wide-ranging implications for Canada, given how tumultuous his first term was for this country.
Trump leads a united party despite sometimes intense opposition and criticism of his election denial and role in the January 6 insurrection attempt.
On Monday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre posted on X that he “can’t wait to defund the CBC.”
Good for him.
Of course, Poilievre has promised before to yank taxpayers’ dollars — $1.4 billion a year — from the state broadcaster. (The CBC hates being called the “state” broadcaster. They prefer “public” broadcaster. But they act far more like toadies of the state than servants of the public.)
OTTAWA – The board of directors for CBC and Radio-Canada has approved bonuses for some staff, following a fiscal year that saw 141 employees let go, and another 205 vacant positions eliminated.
The decision was posted quietly on the public broadcaster’s website last month following a board of directors meeting.
A spokesman for CBC would not disclose how much money was doled out to the 1,194 eligible employees during the 2023-24 fiscal year, saying it’s internal information.
