CBC

Recent incidents in which a taxpayer-funded co-production between CBC and the Indigenous television station APTN targeted authors, historians and politicians with prank “interviews” are as disturbing as they are bizarre.

A fake production company under the name Forge Media, hired by CBC, contacted several people who have questioned the cancel culture around Sir John A. Macdonald and claims of unmarked graves at residential schools.

I am a big believer in local news. In the face of threats to our culture and digital sovereignty from American Big Tech giants, the CBC has an important role to play in telling Canadian stories. CBC Radio has many excellent programs, like The Current, As it Happens, and Q, which are heard around the world, and Canadians should feel proud about this.

Lately, however, the CBC’s role within the Canadian news ecosystem seems more competitive and conceited than complementary and conciliatory.

The debate over the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has become predictable. One side defends it as a pillar of national identity. The other calls for its outright defunding. Both positions miss the point. The CBC does not need to be preserved in its current form. Nor should it be dismantled entirely. What it requires is structural change rooted in first principles — clarity of purpose, fiscal discipline, and service to Canadians that the private market cannot or will not provide.

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