The Americans, not at all keen on the idea that their companies have to subsidize another country’s cultural ambitions, are watching all of this with great interest.
Please tell the CRTC on my behalf that as a retired Canadian reference librarian who consumes online information daily, and was doing online research professionally back in the 1980s, before most people even knew what the internet was, I have never been concerned to know what proportion of the information I consume is Canadian. All I want to know is whether what comes to my attention is interesting, accurate, relevant and useful. Government bodies or policies that attempt to regulate, censor, or shape information flow in any way are unacceptable threats to the health of the information commons.
As I read the history of information diffusion, the major premises underwriting CRTC reasoning and decision-making are all false, and the CRTC would best serve the interests of Canadians by consigning itself to nonexistence. The CRTC's helping hand rests on the shoulders of citizens with a weight reminiscent of that of Orwell's Big Brother; a phrase like 'delusional bureaucratic overreach' seems hardly adequate to describe an impulse that arrogates to itself responsibility for controlling what an entire country sees and hears. No government agency has the wisdom to fulfill such a mandate, nor the ethical right to claim it on your behalf or mine.
While I dealt with some extraordinary individuals at the CRTC in my almost two decades in broadcasting, I applaud your use of “sloth” to describe the Commissions sometimes glacial pace of pondering matters and issuing decisions.
I once waited almost two years for a simple uncontested radio station license renewal, and the draconian Canadian content requirements simply push listeners and viewers away to non-Canadian content.
It’s 2025, the Commission is still mired in “1970’s think,” and I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for Mr. Carney and pals to make changes: the CRTC, is after all, a 1968 child of the Liberals and Trudeau the elder.
There is so little to watch on any streaming services now and with commercials making it no different from cable which we haven’t had ( nor satellite) for over 33 years we have talked about getting rid of it altogether. Sooner or later, if Donald doesn’t set us free ;) that will be our decision. Lose, lose
It’s fucking broken. “Government is not in the business of being in business!”!Ralph Klein. Sure,he made mistakes,but he said it like it is. Heaven for bid someone speaks the truth today
“Alberta Clipper dumps heavy wet snow on…” hahahaha! Alberta gets blamed for snowfalls,let’s blame us for wanting complete access to All information without a Canadian Content lens.
There was a great political comic strip called “Pogo” . One of the characters was called “ Churchy La Femme” borrowed from the theory that a woman was behind any mysterious conspiracy or crime. Any suspects?
In the case of the CRTC, it seems more likely that “Follow the Money” is more appropriate. Especially its history of being an executive revolving door between Regulators and Regulatees.
I’m grateful for my VPN service right now. I suspect I’ll be even more grateful when un-Canadian news start being censored or blocked off streaming services.
Yesterday, Matt promised to "keep the dial (of US criticism) at its (currently very high) level." Yet here is a well-written criticism of ponderous, ineffective and, frankly, stupid Canadian leadership.
I do not for a second suspect this was due to yesterday's suggestion to "Dial it (US criticism) down". Do I sense some sneaky "balance" creeping onto The Line...or was it simply a slow day for US intolerance?
If you think the CRTC has trouble handling broadcasting issues, cast an eye on the telecommunications side. (Perhaps some have forgotten that the CRTC is Canada's telecom regulator, given its extremely low profile.)
The CRTC has struggled for decades with trying to make Canadian telecommunications markets more competitive, while at the same time maintaining incentives for innovation and investment. One of the principal tools it has developed is estimating the costs of various services, both retail to end customers, and wholesale to their competitors who depend on them for access to essential services.
Proper service costing is difficult. In the late 2010s. the CRTC asked whether it should substitute other tools, but concluded that costing was necessary. In 2020, it promised to launch a review of its existing costing methodology and processes. I am still waiting for any sign of that review.
Given earlier delays, I wrote a letter to then Vice Chair for Telecommunications, a certain Peter Menzies, offering to help the CRTC with its problem. I never received a reply.
I now believe that, on the telecommunications side, an inert regulator is much preferable to an active one. At least it does no harm.
Yes. My letter would have been in 2016. The CRTC was already having a lot of difficulty with its Phase II costing back then. Things only got worse after your departure.
On another topic, it took the CBC 6 days to comment on Trump's new National Security Strategy. They wrote on it's impact on and reception by Europe. Not a word about the impact on Canada.
On Saturday, I asked where the CBC's coverage was and included a link to a Telegraph article that did include a comment on Canada. Their respondent wrote back, asking what document I was referencing. It appeared they didn't open the link.
This is supposed to be our national newsroom. A week after the document's release, they still have no comment on it's implications for Canada. Shame on them.
I don't think Canadians would be surprised that adding a bunch of middle managers with poly sci degrees to make decisions has slowed a sloth like system further.
Let the frontline staff with industry knowledge and experience make practical decisions based on rationale criteria and get rid of as much of the half baked nanny state wishful thinking as they can, and cut middle management by half.
That the Conservatives talk about defunding the CBC but not getting rid of the CRTC entirely is in my top three reasons for not voting for them last spring.
Conservatives would love to get rid of all the government-funded news and media, media subsidies, CanCon rules, and prevent all the censorship and Liberal-defined "hate speech" laws coming down the pipe. Unfortunately the media ecosystem in Canada has a very strong immune system when it senses a threat, as seen by just about all the coverage during the last three elections.
Explicitly threatening the CRTC (rather than just implicitly leaving it with nothing to do) also would just give more ammunition to the TV screens screaming how the CPC "hates Canadian culture". What fucking culture, if it has to be rammed down our throats?
Im not certain if there's even a handful of Canadians left out there who would even notice if the CRTC just suddenly disappeared one day. The CBC however, should be exclusively Canadian and telling stories about average Canadians. I miss SCTV and the Kids in the Hall and want them back. At whatever cost.
I think the state of for-profit media in the US has made it crystal clear how important independent media really is. Yes, they need to do a lot better on news coverage, but that comes with a cost. Remember the days when they had a reporter based in half the national capitals of Europe and the Far East?
I'm not sure how you can have "independent media" without a profit motive. We are seeing the problems with state funding right now - can't criticize the sitting government too much or too effectively or you might elect the always-terrible-nasty-can-do-nothing-right opposition who will immediately end your media career.
At least in the US they have idiotic rage bait profit-motivated news on both the left and right rather than a false consensus which is really just pro-government propaganda. (And PostMedia preaching to the choir and persuading nobody else, while also tainted by subsidies.)
And the days of lavishly funded news bureaus with a thoughtful highly paid and highly educated correspondent set up in every major capital are unfortunately long over. Honestly I think that if we had the news media environment from 1990 (or even 2010) our society and the world would have far fewer problems but I'm not sure how we get back to that...
Perhaps CBC News should be split off from the rest of the CBC and be treated like Elections Canada. It needs to be very well funded and completely isolated from the government of the day. The media should be able to slam the government when it screws up. It should have one goal...deliver facts as they are known at the time; a fatal flaw of the 24-hour news cycle where getting the story out first matters more than getting it out right.
The US media are either complicit with Trump's destruction of the country, and that gets worse as billionaires buy it up, or click-bait nonsense. Both are pure fertiliser with over-the-top headlines backed by hot air.
I'm not sure either, but what we are doing, and social media is a catalyst, is purely self-destructive.
Please tell the CRTC on my behalf that as a retired Canadian reference librarian who consumes online information daily, and was doing online research professionally back in the 1980s, before most people even knew what the internet was, I have never been concerned to know what proportion of the information I consume is Canadian. All I want to know is whether what comes to my attention is interesting, accurate, relevant and useful. Government bodies or policies that attempt to regulate, censor, or shape information flow in any way are unacceptable threats to the health of the information commons.
As I read the history of information diffusion, the major premises underwriting CRTC reasoning and decision-making are all false, and the CRTC would best serve the interests of Canadians by consigning itself to nonexistence. The CRTC's helping hand rests on the shoulders of citizens with a weight reminiscent of that of Orwell's Big Brother; a phrase like 'delusional bureaucratic overreach' seems hardly adequate to describe an impulse that arrogates to itself responsibility for controlling what an entire country sees and hears. No government agency has the wisdom to fulfill such a mandate, nor the ethical right to claim it on your behalf or mine.
While I dealt with some extraordinary individuals at the CRTC in my almost two decades in broadcasting, I applaud your use of “sloth” to describe the Commissions sometimes glacial pace of pondering matters and issuing decisions.
I once waited almost two years for a simple uncontested radio station license renewal, and the draconian Canadian content requirements simply push listeners and viewers away to non-Canadian content.
It’s 2025, the Commission is still mired in “1970’s think,” and I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for Mr. Carney and pals to make changes: the CRTC, is after all, a 1968 child of the Liberals and Trudeau the elder.
There is so little to watch on any streaming services now and with commercials making it no different from cable which we haven’t had ( nor satellite) for over 33 years we have talked about getting rid of it altogether. Sooner or later, if Donald doesn’t set us free ;) that will be our decision. Lose, lose
It’s fucking broken. “Government is not in the business of being in business!”!Ralph Klein. Sure,he made mistakes,but he said it like it is. Heaven for bid someone speaks the truth today
“Alberta Clipper dumps heavy wet snow on…” hahahaha! Alberta gets blamed for snowfalls,let’s blame us for wanting complete access to All information without a Canadian Content lens.
There was a great political comic strip called “Pogo” . One of the characters was called “ Churchy La Femme” borrowed from the theory that a woman was behind any mysterious conspiracy or crime. Any suspects?
In the case of the CRTC, it seems more likely that “Follow the Money” is more appropriate. Especially its history of being an executive revolving door between Regulators and Regulatees.
I’m grateful for my VPN service right now. I suspect I’ll be even more grateful when un-Canadian news start being censored or blocked off streaming services.
Hey...Now you just wait a minute.
Yesterday, Matt promised to "keep the dial (of US criticism) at its (currently very high) level." Yet here is a well-written criticism of ponderous, ineffective and, frankly, stupid Canadian leadership.
I do not for a second suspect this was due to yesterday's suggestion to "Dial it (US criticism) down". Do I sense some sneaky "balance" creeping onto The Line...or was it simply a slow day for US intolerance?
The CRTC exists why??
If you think the CRTC has trouble handling broadcasting issues, cast an eye on the telecommunications side. (Perhaps some have forgotten that the CRTC is Canada's telecom regulator, given its extremely low profile.)
The CRTC has struggled for decades with trying to make Canadian telecommunications markets more competitive, while at the same time maintaining incentives for innovation and investment. One of the principal tools it has developed is estimating the costs of various services, both retail to end customers, and wholesale to their competitors who depend on them for access to essential services.
Proper service costing is difficult. In the late 2010s. the CRTC asked whether it should substitute other tools, but concluded that costing was necessary. In 2020, it promised to launch a review of its existing costing methodology and processes. I am still waiting for any sign of that review.
Given earlier delays, I wrote a letter to then Vice Chair for Telecommunications, a certain Peter Menzies, offering to help the CRTC with its problem. I never received a reply.
I now believe that, on the telecommunications side, an inert regulator is much preferable to an active one. At least it does no harm.
All good points but for clarity’s sake, Peter Menzies left the CRTC in 2017
Yes. My letter would have been in 2016. The CRTC was already having a lot of difficulty with its Phase II costing back then. Things only got worse after your departure.
On another topic, it took the CBC 6 days to comment on Trump's new National Security Strategy. They wrote on it's impact on and reception by Europe. Not a word about the impact on Canada.
On Saturday, I asked where the CBC's coverage was and included a link to a Telegraph article that did include a comment on Canada. Their respondent wrote back, asking what document I was referencing. It appeared they didn't open the link.
This is supposed to be our national newsroom. A week after the document's release, they still have no comment on it's implications for Canada. Shame on them.
I don't think Canadians would be surprised that adding a bunch of middle managers with poly sci degrees to make decisions has slowed a sloth like system further.
Let the frontline staff with industry knowledge and experience make practical decisions based on rationale criteria and get rid of as much of the half baked nanny state wishful thinking as they can, and cut middle management by half.
That the Conservatives talk about defunding the CBC but not getting rid of the CRTC entirely is in my top three reasons for not voting for them last spring.
Conservatives would love to get rid of all the government-funded news and media, media subsidies, CanCon rules, and prevent all the censorship and Liberal-defined "hate speech" laws coming down the pipe. Unfortunately the media ecosystem in Canada has a very strong immune system when it senses a threat, as seen by just about all the coverage during the last three elections.
Explicitly threatening the CRTC (rather than just implicitly leaving it with nothing to do) also would just give more ammunition to the TV screens screaming how the CPC "hates Canadian culture". What fucking culture, if it has to be rammed down our throats?
Im not certain if there's even a handful of Canadians left out there who would even notice if the CRTC just suddenly disappeared one day. The CBC however, should be exclusively Canadian and telling stories about average Canadians. I miss SCTV and the Kids in the Hall and want them back. At whatever cost.
I think the state of for-profit media in the US has made it crystal clear how important independent media really is. Yes, they need to do a lot better on news coverage, but that comes with a cost. Remember the days when they had a reporter based in half the national capitals of Europe and the Far East?
I'm not sure how you can have "independent media" without a profit motive. We are seeing the problems with state funding right now - can't criticize the sitting government too much or too effectively or you might elect the always-terrible-nasty-can-do-nothing-right opposition who will immediately end your media career.
At least in the US they have idiotic rage bait profit-motivated news on both the left and right rather than a false consensus which is really just pro-government propaganda. (And PostMedia preaching to the choir and persuading nobody else, while also tainted by subsidies.)
And the days of lavishly funded news bureaus with a thoughtful highly paid and highly educated correspondent set up in every major capital are unfortunately long over. Honestly I think that if we had the news media environment from 1990 (or even 2010) our society and the world would have far fewer problems but I'm not sure how we get back to that...
Perhaps CBC News should be split off from the rest of the CBC and be treated like Elections Canada. It needs to be very well funded and completely isolated from the government of the day. The media should be able to slam the government when it screws up. It should have one goal...deliver facts as they are known at the time; a fatal flaw of the 24-hour news cycle where getting the story out first matters more than getting it out right.
The US media are either complicit with Trump's destruction of the country, and that gets worse as billionaires buy it up, or click-bait nonsense. Both are pure fertiliser with over-the-top headlines backed by hot air.
I'm not sure either, but what we are doing, and social media is a catalyst, is purely self-destructive.
Is it possible for a government funded program to be entirely independent from the government? Wasn't the CBC already trying to do that?
Have you contacted them? Talked to them?
I can imagine they get so much blowback from saying they are going to defund the CBC they don’t dare openly want to slaughter two sacred cows.