I have a Christmas confession: there’s something I love about the CBC.
To some National Post readers, this might seem like the equivalent of saying Al-Qaeda had a few good ideas. But hear me out. At this festive time of the year — in the spirit of peace and love — let me make the case for why one specific program that used to air on CBC Radio deserves our affection.
The CBC used to air The Simpsons after school.
One of the best episodes was the Cape Fear homage, in which an FBI agent tries to change Homer’s last name to Thompson.
Earlier this month, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation was summoned to testify to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, regarding its case to defund the CBC.
As CTF Alberta Director and former longtime member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, I showed up. And when I did, accompanied by investigative reporter Ryan Thorpe, I gave three reasons for defunding.
Pierre Poilievre says you can count on him to defund CBC if he is elected prime minister.
… That doesn’t mean shutting down or selling off CBC, it means telling them they will get $1 billion per year less and they can stand on their own two feet. This promise, though, is just for CBC’s English services, it doesn’t apply to CBC’s French service, Radio Canada. Poilievre said there is a common sense reason for that.
h/t Mauser
The CBC, financed to the tune of around $1.4 billion by taxpayers, has imposed potentially “bogus” copyright claims on political content creators.
The Pleb Report, Northern Perspective, This Guys Garage, PortuguesePai, Made Great Canadian Media, and Unacceptable Fringe have been challenged by the national broadcaster, it is said.
A Commons heritage committee report has urged Parliament to increase funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which currently receives $1.4 billion annually.
Blacklock’s Reporter says the CBC is requesting an additional $400 to $500 million per year, according to CEO Catherine Tait’s testimony at a November 25 hearing.
Does Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre have a secret team of intrepid researchers digging away in the backrooms of Parliament Hill?
After all, just look at how relentlessly the Tories have been going after the foibles and follies of Justin Trudeau’s government.
Most recently it was the controversies over Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault’s conflicting claims about his family’s Indigenous background that eventually forced his resignation.
Ex-CBC staffer defends CBC, colour me shocked.
Catherine Tait, CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), told the House of Commons Heritage Committee Monday that she is “entitled” to a performance bonus, despite overseeing a tenure marked by significant challenges at the taxpayer-funded broadcaster.
How many CBC employees make over a half-million per year?
That's how much Trudeau's CBC CEO makes.
Tait just testified that several CBC executives make this kind of money, because of taxpayer-funded bonuses. pic.twitter.com/ileaHTMVFk
— Jamil Jivani (@jamiljivani) November 25, 2024
A few days ago, for the first time in my life, the CBC opened its airwaves to its critics, and I got to complain.
It happened in the unlikeliest of places, on a CBC radio show called Commotion, which the national public broadcaster describes as a place for “vibrant conversations” about “all things pop culture.”
The panel conversation, titled “Three Critics on the Future of the CBC,” was timely. Not only is the Trudeau government’s announcement about a new CBC mandate expected any day now, but an advisory panel is busy furiously studying how to modernize the broadcaster, and a new CEO has just been named.
"I think we [journalists] are the whiniest industry in the world.
We have a preachy tone that is, 'Woe is us. Oh my gosh. We're being so hurt. Oh, we're not safe.'
'It's a calling. It's not a job. We have a calling. I felt this, urge when I was 18 to just be drawn towards this… pic.twitter.com/LZcGmPt8j2
— Harrison Lowman (@harrisonlowman) November 18, 2024
Republican Donald Trump will be the first convicted felon to hold the White House, after beating Democratic candidate Kamala Harris to return to office after leaving in explosive fashion four years ago.
Trump’s U.S. presidential election victory will essentially end the four criminal cases brought against him, at least for the four years he occupies the White House.
Here’s a look at the questions his unprecedented status as a felon raises.
CBC wants you to know they’re very sad that President Trump has survived the partisan lawfare assault waged against him by the corrupt deep state.
JUST IN: The Department of Justice and Jack Smith immediately end their cases against Donald Trump.
The DOJ cited their policy that presidents can't be prosecuted however it was assumed they would work up until the "last day."
"What's interesting here is that the DOJ is moving… pic.twitter.com/TzOKIxSgcF
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 6, 2024
The CBC has always seemed like a novel scam, whereby Ottawa takes our hard-earned money and uses it to sell us on the benefits of more socialism.
But when news broke over the summer that the public broadcaster doled out $18.4 million in bonuses last year, the same year in which it eliminated 141 jobs and went cap-in-hand to the Liberals asking for money to cover its $125-million shortfall, it became apparent that the CBC’s top brass could at best be described as champagne socialists — at worst, grifters who have grown fat gorging at the public trough.
Claiming a Paris vacay as a business expense justified by the ludicrous assertion that she had to be at the Olympics opening ceremonies is a new low in Liberal entitlement.
Marie-Philippe Bouchard, a seasoned executive from a Quebec news channel, has been tapped to lead Canada’s national public broadcaster.
Bouchard’s appointment as the next President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada was announced on Oct. 22. She will begin her five-year term on Jan. 3, 2025.
Bouchard has been President and CEO of TV5 Québec Canada since February 2016, overseeing the TV5 Unis channels and other digital platforms for Francophone audiences in Canada. Before joining TV5 Québec Canada, she held senior executive positions at CBC/Radio-Canada, managing various departments including legal, strategic, and digital services.
Just think, she may not finish her 5 year term if a certain promise is kept.
Thirteen years ago, U.S. President Barack Obama stood in front of the world and announced that, “The United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida and a terrorist who is responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women and children.” The death of the mastermind of 9/11, nearly 10 years after the attacks took place, was generally well received throughout the western world.
OTTAWA — The CEO and president of CBC/Radio-Canada says she believes members of the parliamentary heritage committee have been using her appearances to “vilify and to discredit” her, along with the public broadcaster as a whole, as she defended bonuses paid to executives.
Tait deftly accomplishes her own self-vilification. Just listen to this entitled nonsense justifying the tax payer picking up the tab for her Paris Vacay.
It was absolutely necessary for CBC’s Tait to be at the Olympics opening ceremony for reasons known only to herself. WTF? We used to call this chicanery abuse of expense accounts, a firing offence. https://t.co/ARIwACxHnA
— Fancypants Maloney (@fancypants_s) October 22, 2024
h/t Mauser
OTTAWA – Outgoing CBC President Catherine Tait spent $6,000 — including staying at a $1,000-per-night hotel — for just under five days at the Paris Olympics, an expense observers say is sure to raise eyebrows but is ultimately justifiable.
According to a copy of Tait’s calendar obtained via an access-to-information request, Tait was in Paris from July 25 to 29. She arrived the day before the opening ceremony of the Paris Summer Olympic Games.
She had no reason to be there. It’s not as if she was running around with a Go-Pro live streaming the events back home.
