Several months ago a federal court ruled that the government’s Information Commissioner should be allowed to review documents withheld by the CBC in order to determine whether the CBC is justified in withholding the information. The ruling is currently under appeal, with the CBC citing it’s own Policies and Guidelines, which provide a “specific exclusion for any information that relates to (the CBC’s) journalistic, creative, or programming activities.”
Two days ago, perhaps in response to public pressure from both the media and from Heritage Minister James Moore, the CBC purchased a series of newspaper ads lauding itself for releasing thousands of pages of documents. How much did these ads cost the taxpayers who fund this multi-billion dollar crown corporation?
(CBC Radio-Canada spokesman Marco Dube) said that because the ads were purchased through a third-party agency, the CBC could not immediately disclose the cost incurred for the marketing rollout of its transparency and accountability initiative.
Set your irony meter to Red Alert:
“We’re doing this for Canadians to make sure that Canadians understand that we’re transparent and accountable, and that’s why we bought ads in the papers.”
Yes, Canadians, make sure you understand that the CBC is transparent and accountable:
(Lawyer and access to information specialist Michel Drapeau) once received a 1,562 page reply to one of his requests, yet only 30 pages had any information on them. The rest was either blank or blacked out. Two weeks ago CBC replied to a request on how much was spent to settle harassment complaints by issuing 52 pages of records with all the details stripped out.
“The CBC: you’ll just have to take our word for it”
I wonder if that motto shouldn’t apply also to the “Information” Commissioner. One arm of government “protecting” us against another? The public interest being mediated between two entitled branches of an entitled bureaucracy.
Good luck, Johnny and Jane Canuck!
I got an e-mail from Ian Morrison…Friends of….today….they have a survey…..I did it and I betcha they will hate my response.
FIRE…THEM…ALL!!!
And who was the “Third-Party agency” that purchased the ads?
Inquiring minds want to know.
You would have thought that journalists would have been on top of that.
Oh, nevermind.
Nothing short of a full audit should suffice, they mock the taxpayer with their attempts to deny information via freedom of access requests. Personally I think the RCMP should of been brought in when they did’t comply and charge them for non-compliance.
Felis corpulentis (4:28), the CBC is a crown corporation. Many of the Access to Information requests are from ordinary citizens, and pertain to the CBC’s expenditures (expense accounts of CBC executives, Mansbridge’s salary, etc), so in that sense the Information Commissioner isn’t protecting the CBC from the government but is rather trying to make the CBC accountable to the taxpayers who fund it. I don’t have any problem with that.
If we had a media outlet with an ounce of courage and/or integrity they would publish the CBC’s redacted tripe for all to see. Unfortunately we don’t………..yet.
This,from the Vancouver Sun link,is a great Orwellian answer; Asked what documents won’t be made available at the website, Dube responded: “What we want to do is focus on the documents we’re making available . . . (and) that the public has access to documents of general interest to which they would have access under the act.”
In other words,don’t ask silly questions,enjoy what we have bestowed upon you.
I wonder where they learned that degree of Arrogance?
Read more: http://www.canada.com/Critic+skeptical+touts+transparency+accountability/3885105/story.html#ixzz16WSXdzpP
“Trust is not earned…it is what we say it is, and this is not it.
End of discussion!” CBC
“Nothing short of a full audit should suffice, they mock the taxpayer with their attempts to deny information…”
You’re right on both counts, Louise. Re mocking, the CBC has, in addition to the purchase of newspaper ads, put up a web page releasing whatever documents *they* decide to release, as if that in any way obviates their refusal to release thousands upon thousands of pages of documents pertaining to such straightforward matters as CBC execs expense accounts.
It’s a watch-the-hand exercise:
“Asked what documents won’t be made available at the website, (CBC spokesman) Dube responded: ‘What we want to do is focus on the documents we are making available…”
No kidding.
If a Court has ruled on this why is the CBC not being held in contempt?
If the Information Commissioner was actually using muscle to get the info out to the party making the request it would be done in a more expeditious manor.
It’s all CYA all the time, Liberal judges protecting and Bureaucrat that could one day be their boss, politicians not burning bridges to future juicy appointments and a ‘nothin’ to see here’ media that likes to continue feeding off the gravy train that is the corpse of Canadian Democracy.
CBC’s arrogance and sense of entitlement scares me, they think we the taxpayer should just shut up and let the liberal Media stasi spend our money as if it were their own.
Rob (5:10), the CBC isn’t in contempt because it appealed the ruling, which it is legally entitled to do.
Maybe this sounds simplistic but why doesn’t the government withhold a portion of CBC’s subsidy until the documents are produced?
What are they trying to hide, anyway? Everyone that has dealt with a government agency (whatever its form) knows that they are wasteful and salaries are bloated. Unless the money is being used for illegal purposes, most Canadians will be only mildly shocked.
Would accounting be one of those Arts they were creative with? Don’t want to release the wine bill for a meeting in a resort favoured for it’s wine collection? Extra funding from a Lib. arty gov’t dept. like the old days.
Canada Lives Here (But They Can’t Come In)
Time to privatize the CBC. Show your support – buy a bumper sticker!
http://cgi.ebay.ca/Privatize-CBC-Canada-Vinyl-Bumper-Sticker-10-/170572123787?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item27b6e40e8b
How ANYONE continues to support the CBC is a major mystery to me. Corrupt news, corrupt management, corrupt neutrality – an absolutely hideous organization to the core! đ
sasquatch beat me to it.
Fire.Them.All.
If we, as a nation, want an accountable government, government bureaucrats must be held accountable for their actions. They must not be able to hide behind a union agreement, or behind the “authority” of their respective minister. These bureaucrats are the one constant behind changing governments and they believe they are the government. Make them accountable.
Their days are numbered.
The new CBC website follows the same CBC strategy as their “ombudsman”. The ombudsman position was originally created to ensure CBC became accountable to the taxpayer and it may have worked at the start. Now CBC’s ombudsman is just one more highly paid CBC apologist. The ombudsman and now the new website is just a ruse to take the heat off the CBC now but keep the CBC firmly in control.
We must not fall for it!
My hope is the CBC, this waste of our tax dollars for Marx will be crushed!!!!
There is a fundamental battle going in Canada and elsewhere. The last 40 years of socialist governments have removed governance from elected representatives. The CBC does even listen to its government masters. The CWB needs to be taken to court to follow orders. The judges create and strike down laws. I want my government to represent me again.
As they say in Portuguese: Fode the CBC. SHUT.IT.DOWN. …or … more interstingly, sell the whole organisation to “The Friends Of Public Broadcastin” for ONE dollar. And let them taste reality.
The CBC is as transparent as the contents of a manure pit. Which stands to reason, seeing as they’re both made of the same ingredients. Excluding Rex Murphy, of course.
The arrogance and ignorance displayed by the CBC and it’s gatekeepers is astonishing. The CBC’s contempt for Canadians is staggering. Unaccountable mouthpieces of the “Liberal”/ Separatist/NDP party. Maggots.
The CBC brass are such dillusional assholes.. I try but cannot find any other way to adequately describe them.
Why did the CBC feel the need to buy ads? Why not simply broadcast the joyous news on-air? Is it possible that The People’s Broadcaster has discovered that so many people have quit watching the CBC that its message would have no traction that way?
OMG – How I pray that the CBC’s “policies and guidelines” take prescedence over Canadian law!
BTW, please don’t tell my coffee buddies that I posted this – they think I’m a bit of a red neck.
Note the total lack of interest from wikileaks, too busy dirtying soldiers to help denounce this abuse of taxpayers money by publishing the hidden CBC docs.
I’m listening to Choral Concert on CBC Radio 2 at the moment, and listen, when I can, to the classical music played from 9-2 each day. I brace myself for the newsâer, propagandaâat the top of the hour. Iâve not watched CBC TV for more than a decade: that would altogether negate my blood pressure medication!
I used to have a lively correspondence with various CBC ombudsmen. WHAT a waste of my time and talent: facts, well documented, were swatted away like so many annoying flies. I gave up.
And Radio 2 is a disaster: classical music while people are at work. Tom Allen, who was their brilliant morning anchor on âMusic and Companyâ, sounds quite frustrated these days: on his new show, “Shift”âfrom 1-3âheâs compiling a list of 100 classical âMust Piecesâ, by vote, and I donât think itâs going very well: not enough voters and some outcomes that have really disappointed Tom (and me): e.g., Goreckiâs exquisite âSymphony of Sorrowful Songsâ got booted by a nice, but fairly mundane Haydn piece.
When the CBC âWunderkidsâ made the huge changes to Radio 2, to try and attract a younger, more hip audience, I bumped into one of Tom Allenâs producers, an acquaintance of mine. He confirmed that the changes were being made by immature idiotsâand that he was leaving. In the week the changes took place, there were over 1000 messages at the CBCâs web page: well over 90% absolutely furious about the wilful destruction of fine, well loved, and well listened to classical programming. Now, almost no one posts at the CBC site. We used to listen to CBC Radio 2 24/7; now we only listen to Radio 2 from 9-2. I wonder what their audience share is. It wasnât huge before, but as the CBC basically gave the finger to its dedicated and loyal (older, but not altogether) classical audience, it lost lots of listeners. But, with government funding, do these arrogant jerks care? No way.
The sooner the CBC is defunded, the better.