The CBC continues to operate in a wasteful, bias manner serving the socialist left wing mandate only while continuing to lose viewers and advertising revenues. Scandals continue. An unsettling, ugly anti Semitic movement has grown in the CBC News operation, history experts will know that this troubling bias can have devastating results for our country. Act now- contact your MP, the PMO and the CBC to stop this frightening socialist anti Semitic driven bias now.

Disgruntled CBC workers continue to confidentially share their stories with us, reports of management snooping, waste, huge salaries for select senior management, content bias, low employee morale continue in 2021 and we will expose these activities in our blog while protecting our whistleblower contacts. We take joy in knowing that the CBC-HQ visits us daily to spy on us, read our stories and to find out who owns our for the Canadian people blog.

One of our most popular posts continues to be the epic Dr. Leenen case against the Fifth Estate (the largest libel legal case ever awarded against the media in Canadian history) yet where no one at CBC was fired and taxpayers paid the huge award and legal costs for this blatant CBC Libel action. Writers and filmmakers -this is a Perfect story for an award winning Documentary -ok - who would fund it and where would it air since the CBC owns the Documentary channel! Can you help? Please contact us.

cbcExposed continues to enjoy substantial visitors coming from Universities and Colleges across Canada who use us for research in debates, exams, etc.

We ask students to please join with us in this mission; you have the power to make a difference! And so can private broadcasters who we know are hurting from the dwindling Advertising revenue pool and the CBC taking money from that pool while also unfairly getting massive Tax subsidies money. It's time to stop being silent and start speaking up Bell-CTV, Shaw-Global, Rogers, etc.

Our cbcExposed Twitter followers and visitors to cbcExposed continue to motivate us to expose CBC’s abuse and waste of tax money as well as exposing their ongoing left wing bully-like anti-sematic news bias. Polls meanwhile show that Canadians favour selling the wasteful government owned media giant and to put our tax money to better use for all Canadians. The Liberals privatized Petro Canada and Air Canada; it’s time for the Trudeau Liberals to privatize the CBC- certainly not give them more of our tax money-enough is enough!

The CBC network’s ratings continue to plummet while their costs and our taxpayer bailout subsidies continue to go up! In 2021 what case can be made for the Government to be in the broadcasting business, competing unfairly with the private sector? The CBC receives advertising and cable/satellite fees-fees greater than CTV and Global but this is not enough for the greedy CBC who also receive more than a billion dollars of your tax money every year. That’s about $100,000,000 (yes, $100 MILLION) of our taxes taken from your pay cheques every 30 days and with no CBC accountability to taxpayers.

Wake up! What does it take for real change at the CBC? YOU! Our blog contains a link to the Politicians contact info for you to make your voice heard. Act now and contact your MP, the Cabinet and Prime Minister ... tell them to stop wasting your money on a biased, failing media service, and ... sell the CBC.

CBC Exposed named best political book of the year ...

Brian Lilley's explosive new book, CBC Exposed, has been named best political book of the year in the Hill Times’ 16th Annual Most valuable Politician & all politics poll conducted by Forum Research Inc.

CBC Exposed takes on the holy grail of the Canadian media landscape and lays bare the truth about CBC. Reckless reporting at the state broadcaster has ruined lives and cost taxpayers millions upon millions in settlement costs yet no one has ever been held to account. This book does what the consensus media cowards are afraid to do, tell the truth about CBC.

Read the story here.

CBC smear campaign on Canadian Forces no laughing matter ...

CBC got its hands on an amateur video produced by some of our soldiers for a comedy night at a military base in Nova Scotia back in 2010.

It was a short, four-minute spoof making fun of Osama Bin Laden’s older brother, “Eugene.”

The CBC says it got this video last month. But it sat on it for weeks, in order to release it as a big, breathless exclusive right before Remembrance Day.

It’s obvious why. It was the CBC’s way of showing what it thinks of our Canadian Forces: That they’re a bunch of racist pigs.

Read the full story.

CBC Friends mock Hulk Hogan ...

The CBC's booster club is mocking Hulk Hogan on Twitter.

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, using their fake-wrestling-promoter persona, tweeted at the world's most famous wrestler Thursday, mimicking his inspirational gusto but making it sound stupid.

This recent jab comes weeks after launching their campaign to "save the CBC" by warning of their worst-case scenario - the state broadcaster being sold to an American wrestling promoter and staffed by wrestlers and ring girls, all of whom are portrayed as having sub-par intelligence.

Read the full story.

CBC losses $36M in 2010 ...

Canada's national public broadcaster lost nearly $36 million last year, according to recently published figures from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation posted a pre-tax loss of $35.4 million for the year ending Aug. 31, 2010, mainly due to rising costs. In 2009, it lost $22 million.

 The CBC gets a $1.1-billion annual subsidy from the federal government and operates in many less profitable and remote regions of the country.

 "It all seems like a losing proposition," said Stephen Taylor, director of the National Citizens Coalition, a taxpayer advocacy group.

 The NCC wants to see the CBC privatized to ensure an equal playing field in Canada's TV industry.

 Taylor said the CBC is taking ad dollars that would otherwise go to private players.

Read the full story.

The CBC must take us all for fools ...

The CBC must take us all for fools and given that we keep paying their bills, we just might be.

Last week the state broadcaster trumpeted that it was a finalist for an award given to government bodies that show openness and transparency.

“We take transparency and accountability very seriously,” CBC president Hubert Lacroix said in a statement.

Then this week I opened my mail. I shouldn’t have been surprised really, it was par for the course for CBC: It sent me more files with all the relevant information stripped out.

See, back in 2007 when CBC came under the Access to Information Act, my employer Quebecor submitted an access request asking how much revenue CBC generated from Hockey Night in Canada.

They didn’t ask how much each ad cost or what special deal certain companies received. It was a request as to how much money CBC generated from hockey.

Given that CBC is owned by the government and paid for by all of us, this is the type of information it should readily turn over. After all, CBC regularly submits requests asking other government departments for information on files far more sensitive than hockey broadcasts and receives that information which it then turns into news stories.

Read the full story.

When it comes to access to info, is the CBC a star, or NOT?

An improvement in how the CBC responds to Access to Information requests has bumped up its grade from an F to an A, and all it took was for senior leadership to get on board says Suzanne Legault, Information Commissioner of Canada. But at least one other major media company believes Legault is giving the CBC too much credit for just showing up.

But Quebecor Media questioned how the Commissioner assessed the CBC’s performance saying the grade was based on “self-defined, vague, subjective criteria” instead of determining the CBC`s ability to provide “expeditiously and in full, the information requested by Canadians.”

"It’s as if a teacher gave a dunce an A for showing up in class more often, even though he was still flunking his exams," said J. Serge Sasseville, Senior Vice President, Corporate and Institutional Affairs, Quebecor Media.

Quebecor responded that the Commissioner herself still found numerous shortcomings at the CBC, including 71 new complaints against CBC/Radio-Canada in 2011-2012, including 55 complaints concerning refusal to disclose information; 234 complaints about CBC/Radio-Canada have yet to be resolved; and the 36 days to process is still 6 more than the requirement under the Access to Information Act.

Read the full story.

Former CBC boss expensed over $1,500 with no receipts ...

The former head of the CBC expensed more than $1,500 without providing receipts during a trip to the Turin winter Olympics in 2006.

Robert Rabinovitch, who was president of CBC between 1999 and 2007, specifically noted he had no receipts when he asked to be refunded for $315.36 for meals and $147.17 for taxis during a nine-day trip to Turin.

According to travel claims released under Access to Information, Rabinovitch also expensed an additional $798.13 for five meals without providing supporting paperwork. 

"Receipts are required for any travel-related expenses in excess of $10," said CBC spokesman Angus McKinnon.

The former CBC president notes on his travel claim that he spent "personal time from February 11 to the 17."

Read the full story.

PS - it's not a lot of money in the big picture but showcases the "culture of the CBC" ... a sense of entitlement and it's all taxpayer money.

The verdict is in - Time for the CBC to leave the nest ...

The verdict is in: after 75 years of government handouts to the CBC, Canadians want to take the training wheels off, and let the state broadcaster fend for itself without its $1.1-billion annual cheque from taxpayers.

That's the word from a major new public opinion survey conducted by Abacus Data Inc. Funny enough, the hundreds of polls paid for by the CBC never asked those questions - or if they did, the results were never made public.

Read the full story.

CBC Exposed named best political book of the year ...

Brian Lilley's explosive new book, CBC Exposed, has been named best political book of the year in the Hill Times’ 16th Annual Most valuable Politician & all politics poll conducted by Forum Research Inc.

CBC Exposed takes on the holy grail of the Canadian media landscape and lays bare the truth about CBC. Reckless reporting at the state broadcaster has ruined lives and cost taxpayers millions upon millions in settlement costs yet no one has ever been held to account. This book does what the consensus media cowards are afraid to do, tell the truth about CBC.

Read the story here.

CUPW shoots letter of complaint to CBC ...

The president of one of Canada's largest unions is urging the CBC to "take immediate steps" to address what it calls "offensive anti-union remarks" made by Kevin O'Leary on a past episode of The Lang and O'Leary Exchange.

In a strongly worded letter sent to Kirk LaPointe, CBC's ombudsman, on Friday, Denis Lemelin, the national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), says that O'Leary "used gratuitously offensive language and charged imagery to convey his opinion about unions" on the Sept. 19, 2011, episode of the show.

CUPW is also alleging that O'Leary's comments "compromise CBC's goal of achieving balance in its programming and violates the broadcaster's Journalistic Standards and Practices."

Read the full story.

A complaint has been filed with the broadcast regulator over a new CBC music venture ...

A complaint has been filed with the broadcast regulator over a new CBC music venture private media companies say abuses the public purse and inhibits competition.

Montreal-based Stingray Digital Group has asked the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to force the state broadcaster to live up to its mandate and pull the plug on free music downloads if need be.

They argue the CBC is violating the Broadcast Act by using public funds to poach on their turf by investing heavily in platform technologies and offering free tunes when they charge a fee,

They also say they pay more in royalties than the CBC.

Read the full story.

Still no answers yet on CBC absenteeism ...

The head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cannot explain why his employees are absent almost twice as often than private sector workers.

Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada: "We think that's a high number, we are constantly going to work on it, and it's one way, surely, of trying to see how we can improve the cost piece of CBC."

Sun News Network's Brian Lilley reported that while private sector workers are away from work about 8.9 days per year and public sector employees are gone 12.6 days annually, the average hooky tally for CBC workers is 16.5 days per year.

Those missed days cost taxpayers $17.7 million in 2010-11. The state broadcaster gets more than $1 billion per year from federal government coffers.

Read the full story.

CBC Exposed Book Signing Tonight in Toronto ...

CBC Exposed Book Signing with Brian Lilley (author of CBC Exposed and host of Byline on the Sun News Network)

Ben McNally BookStore
366 Bay Street, Toronto, ON
6 - 8 pm Tuesday, Dec 11
Space is limited

RVSP at order@freedompress.ca

CBC was the subject of 71 new complaints over the last year ...

CBC may not be adhering to the law and is still handing out blank pages on a frequent basis but that was good enough for the state broadcaster to get an A in a report card from federal information commissioner Suzanne Legault.

 In her report two years ago, Legault gave CBC an F for their refusal to respond to requests in a timely manner. The Access to Information Act allows Canadians to pay $5 to find out details about government business. The law requires a response in 30 days, while CBC's average response time is 36 days.

CBC was the subject of 71 new complaints over the last year including 55 for refusal to disclose information. A recent request for information on a contract with Microsoft saw most information stripped out with CBC claiming it was against the economic interests of Canada to release it.

"It's as if a teacher gave a dunce an A for showing up in class more often, even though he was still flunking his exams," said J. Serge Sasseville, Quebecor's senior vice-president of corporate and institutional affairs.

Read the full story.

CBC explores ‘loyalty’ program as NHL revenues disappear ...

The CBC is considering creating a customer “loyalty” program as it bleeds revenues from the NHL lockout and struggles with deep federal budget cuts. 

The Crown corporation has formally asked qualified private-sector firms for information about how such a program might work to grab more viewers and listeners — and bring in more cash.

The notice suggests the CBC is considering adding game-like challenges on its websites, offering reward points to keep people engaged with the broadcaster’s programming, an approach known in the retail business as “gamification.”

The prolonged NHL labour dispute has cut into the corporation’s TV advertising revenues, and it continues to struggle with a 10 per cent cut in its $1-billion parliamentary subsidy over three years.

Read the full story.

CBC defends losing millions of dollars ...

CBC's music service bleeding taxpayer cash ...

CBC defends losing millions of dollars to set up a free music service even as it cancelled other programming and laid off staff.

Last February the state broadcaster launched CBC Music, an online music service that gives away for free what other existing private music services charge money for. While CBC doesn't charge users to listen to the latest Rihanna, Katy Perry or Aerosmith, the artists must be paid.

Now it is reported that CBC is expected to lose close to $6 million in its first year of operation and there is no break even point on the horizon.

"We have a very different business model than a for-profit company focused on the shareholder bottom line," CBC executive Chris Boyce told a Toronto newspaper.

Read the full story.

CBC Exposed: New book details soft-left, anti-biz, spendthrift network’s wasted spending ...

It’s time to have a real discussion about CBC.

Most discussions about the future of Canada’s state broadcaster turn quickly to emotional arguments about the role CBC has supposedly played in building this country.

According to supporters, without CBC there would be no Canada, or at least a diminished Canada.

I don’t buy that.

For the last two years I have been documenting the waste at CBC and their refusal to comply with the letter and spirit of the law that allows any Canadian to see exactly how our tax dollars are spent.

Read the full story.

The CBC's contingency plan - to run yesteryear's sports news today ...

While Canadian football fans get jacked up in anticipation of Sunday's 100th-anniversary Grey Cup tilt between the Calgary Stampeders and the Toronto Argonauts, tonight hockey-starved fans will be served leftovers when the CBC rebroadcasts a "classic." This is the CBC's contingency plan - to run yesteryear's sports news today, and in the same prime-time slot. 

 Perhaps we should mention that if such a plan was keeping fans at the edge of their seats, we have a stack of newspapers from the 1980s that we are willing to sell at today's prices.

Any takers? Didn't think so.

It will be interesting, therefore, to see how much the CBC squirms as CRTC hearings continue Monday on the state broadcaster's licence renewal, and the public gets their chance to weigh in.

Read the full story.

Toronto Book Signing: Brian Lilley Author Of CBC Exposed

Book Signing: Brian Lilley Author Of CBC Exposed

Tuesday December 11
6-8 PM
Ben McNally Bookstore
366 Bay Street,
Toronto ON

RSVP to order@freedompress.ca

Taxpayers pay big for CBC to pimp their ride ...

Canadians are paying out a pretty penny to have CBC executives and top talent drive around in cushy cars. 

According to a partial list released by CBC through access to information, taxpayers shelled out $291,337.74 in 2010 for yearly car allowances for 35 vehicles, some costing nearly $20,000 per year. 

While most of those on the list are for what the state broadcaster deems executives, five of the car allowances are paid out under the collective agreement, likely meaning those payments go to top on-air talent or technical operations staff. One was for $15,675 annually.

CBC President Hubert Lacroix is not one of the executives with a personal car allowance, Lacroix has a car and driver provided to him.

Read the full story.

Fifth Estate Follies - Episode 2

CBC urged to show greater transparency ...

CBC needs to show greater transparency in the way it spends taxpayer money, Sun Media and its owner, Quebecor, told the CRTC at the public broadcaster’s licence renewal hearings Monday.

Michel Drapeau, an access to information expert with Sun Media, complained that most of the 880 information requests over the past five years from journalists asking how its more than $1 billion in annual government funding is being spent, were ignored.

Read the full story.

Customer Reviews - new CBC Exposed book ...

As a former National Reporter for CBC Television News, I can confirm Brian Lilley's book is right on the mark. We used to call the executive building on Jarvis St. 'the Kremlin' for a good reason; the place was full of leftists. Worst of all was the public affairs department which was completely out of control even 40 years ago.

Read the full review at Amazon here.

CBC recently renewed an agreement to sell its news stories to Microsoft ...

CBC may be willing to take $1 billion from taxpayers each year to produce its news content, but the state broadcaster is tight-lipped about what it earns selling that same material to some of the biggest companies in the world.

In a move that continues to pit the government-subsidized CBC against other privately owned media companies, CBC recently renewed an agreement to sell its news stories to Microsoft. Microsoft then posts CBC news stories on its website.

An access to information request for details of the contract included several pages that were close to blank with all pertinent material removed.

Read the full story.

The CBC said the Jewish Defence League (JDL) is a terrorist group ...

During its coverage of the mass murder in Norway, CBC television was interviewing their “security expert,” Bill Gillespie.

There was a lot for Gillespie to talk about that day — whether the confessed killer, Anders Breivik, was part of a larger organization, or why a Muslim terrorist group had claimed responsibility, etc.

But Gillespie also seems to have had other things on his mind that day — Jews.

So when he was asked about extremist groups he said this: “The Jewish Defence League is a banned terrorist organization in Canada.”

That’s not an opinion; it’s a statement of fact.

The CBC said the Jewish Defence League (JDL) is a terrorist group. 

Except it’s not true.

Read the full story.

'Major challenge' for CBC / Radio-Canada ...

Canada's broadcast regulator plans to scrap a fund financed by cable companies and used by television stations to support local programming, a move that some say will take a toll on smaller markets.

The CRTC plans to phase out the Local Programming Improvement Fund by the end of August 2014. 

President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada Hubert T. Lacroix said the elimination of the fund will pose a major challenge for the public broadcaster.

Read the full story.

CBC Perks - the top payment for an executive car at CBC was $19,700 ...

Canadians are paying out a pretty penny to have CBC executives and top talent drive around in cushy cars. 

According to a partial list released by CBC through access to information, taxpayers shelled out $291,337.74 in 2010 for yearly car allowances for 35 vehicles, some costing nearly $20,000 per year. 

Canada's best-selling car, the Honda Civic can be purchased for just $14,580, according to the Honda Canada website.

Meanwhile, the top payment for an executive car at CBC was $19,700 - far in excess of what would be needed to lease and gas up a high-end Mercedes each year. Mercedes is marketing its E-Class sports coupe - a $61,000 car - as available for lease from $778 per month, far less than the $1,641 a month paid out to CBC's top executive.

Read the full story.

CBC hides hockey dough as vital to national interest ...

With the NHL lockout dragging into its third month it's no secret that CBC's revenue from live games is zero, but the state broadcaster has also released documents claiming zero revenue for the entire 2006-07 season when there was no lockout.

Hmmmmmmmmm ....

Read the full story.

CBC Plans to Go More Commercial ...

The introduction of unlimited ads on two CBC radio services, Espace musique and Radio Two, would signal the end of commercial-free CBC radio. We believe the next step would be the introduction of ads on Radio One and La Premiere Chaine -- a direct result of cuts to CBC's parliamentary grant ...

The CBC is already over-exposed commercially because of its reliance on Hockey Night in Canada to make ends meet. Both Bell and Rogers have expressed an interest in bidding on HNIC, in negotiations with the NHL next year.

The move towards more commercialization will turn CBC into a private broadcaster which loses one billion dollars a year ...

Read the full story.

CBC struggles go under the microscope ...

The CRTC will begin 10 days of hearings on the CBC licence renewal, the first such set of hearings in 13 years.

Although the CBC’s licence is not in question, the public broadcaster’s future and its ability to deliver on its mandate with depleted resources is very much in play.

Thousands lined up for their chance to air their grievances before the commission.

The hearing will deal with the CBC’s overall strategy in a fractured media landscape, its regional and northern services, its compliance with access to information requests, and its desire to begin advertising on Radio 2 and Espace musique.

No matter what the CBC argues, a large percentage of Canadians will oppose its goals. It’s in our DNA.

The CBC already has iconic status as the country’s favourite whipping boy. Even after exacting its pound of flesh with a 10 per cent funding cut announced in last spring’s budget, Conservative MPs can’t help themselves.

In the last week alone, Alberta MP Peter Goldring, a Conservative who now sits as an independent, questioned whether the CBC was for or against Canada and said its corporate headquarters was the heart of evil in this country.

Read the full story.

PM Harper: No tears for CBC revenue problems ...

The CBC shouldn't come crying to him for more money, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says, even if a continuing NHL lockout reduces ad revenue from Saturday night hockey broadcasts.

"CBC has its funding voted annually by Parliament," Harper said Friday from Quebec City. "That is the amount we are giving it for the year."

The last federal budget trimmed taxpayer support for the state broadcaster by about $55 million and ended a special $60-million subsidy for Canadian content production.

That means the state broadcaster will have to make do with about $1 billion from taxpayers, plus almost $370 million in ad revenue.

The loss of NHL hockey for a whole season could knock $130 million off CBC English TV ad revenue, according to the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting — a figure the CBC wouldn't confirm.

New Democrats are now circulating a petition calling on the Conservatives to reverse CBC budget cuts and provide "adequate and stable funding."

Read the full story.

Poll blasts CBC use of tax dollars in court ...

A majority of Canadians - 64% - believe the CBC should not spend tax dollars to fight its legal battle with Canada's independent ombudsman, who investigates transparency complaints, according to a poll by the research firm Abacus Data.

"Sixty-four percent of Canadians say it is wrong, only 10% say it is right. I think on this issue, the CBC is clearly on the wrong side of public opinion," Dr. David Coletto, who leads Abacus Data's team of consultants and strategists, said.

Read the full story.

CBC's attack on Canadian Forces no laughing matter ...

Last week the CBC got its hands on an amateur video produced by some of our soldiers for a comedy night at a military base in Nova Scotia back in 2010.

It was a short, four-minute spoof making fun of Osama Bin Laden’s older brother, “Eugene.”

The CBC has more than a dozen comedians and comedy writers on staff, but it asked its one visible minority, Shaun Majumder — the same guy who usually plays bin Laden on the CBC — to explain why he can do it but soldiers can’t.

Majumder was pitiful. He said he can do it because he’s a professional and the soldiers weren’t. He said he’s culturally sensitive and the soldiers weren’t.

And he said that in the anti-Muslim “backlash” in the West, it’s never OK to mock Islam. Except when he does it.

Majumder should stick to comedy — not being a snitch on The National, ratting out other comedians as hate criminals.

And the CBC should stop its smear campaign against our Canadian Forces.

Read the full story.

In short, CBC destroyed the life the Leenens had known ...

Ruining the Good Doctor's Name - from CBC Exposed ...

In short, CBC destroyed the life the Leenens had known.

When the case went to trial the evidence overwhelmingly showed that CBC left out key information, distorted the views offered up by Dr. Frans Leenen and had generally worked at making the interviews fit the story they had decided on before the project even began.

The court also had access to outtakes from the filming process.

"We have set up the idea that this committee is tainted with these kind of company-bought people." host Trish Wood is heard saying to producer Nicholas Regush.

At another point Regush encourages Wood to use her famous sneer.

The evidence taken together resulted in condemnation from the bench through a strongly worded judgment from Justice Cunningham.

Read the full story.


CBC Exposed – If You Value Truth, This Book Will Make You Mad As Hell ...

Brian Lilley, host of Byline on the Sun News Network and senior correspondent for Sun Media’s Parliamentary Bureau has unveiled his new book — CBC Exposed.

And exposed it is. For anyone who’s had it up to here with the Ceeb’s left-wing whining, this book definitely rocks.

Lilley signed copies of his latest work at a downtown Ottawa hotel on November 7 2012, and several Conservative M.P.s, cabinet ministers and staffers lined up to offer congratulations and purchase a copy. Some bought multiple copies to give as Christmas presents. Lilley cites chapter and verse where the CBC has seriously strayed from its mandate as an unbiased bastion of factual reporting.

Read the full story.

The CBC should stop its smear campaign against our Canadian Forces ...

Last week the CBC got its hands on an amateur video produced by some of our soldiers for a comedy night at a military base in Nova Scotia back in 2010.

It was a short, four-minute spoof making fun of Osama Bin Laden’s older brother, “Eugene.”

The CBC says it got this video last month. But it sat on it for weeks, in order to release it as a big, breathless exclusive right before Remembrance Day.

It’s obvious why. It was the CBC’s way of showing what it thinks of our Canadian Forces: That they’re a bunch of racist pigs.

The CBC said the video was an exclusive. But it actually wasn’t. Because the CBC called the military police to come watch the video at the CBC offices.

The CBC isn’t just reporting on this “scandal.” It is pitching it to the police, with the implication that the police should lay charges.

 The CBC isn’t even pretending to be reporters. It is an anti-military activist.

The problem is that the video that it breathlessly “revealed” wasn’t controversial at all. It was a soldier pretending to be bin Laden’s brother, hiding out in Vancouver.

So how did the CBC square the fact that it has comedians speaking in accents and beards mocking bin Laden, with its scandalous “exclusive” that our Canadian Forces did it, but they were “offensive?” The CBC has more than a dozen comedians and comedy writers on staff, but it asked its one visible minority, Shaun Majumder — the same guy who usually plays bin Laden on the CBC — to explain why he can do it but soldiers can’t.

Majumder was pitiful. He said he can do it because he’s a professional and the soldiers weren’t. He said he’s culturally sensitive and the soldiers weren’t.

And he said that in the anti-Muslim “backlash” in the West, it’s never OK to mock Islam. Except when he does it.

Majumder should stick to comedy — not being a snitch on The National, ratting out other comedians as hate criminals.

And the CBC should stop its smear campaign against our Canadian Forces.

Read the full story.

Former CBC National reporter endorses CBC Exposed ...

By Franklin Hilliard

As a former National Reporter for CBC Television News, I can confirm Brian Lilley’s book is right on the mark. We used to call the executive building on Jarvis St. ‘the Kremlin’ for a good reason; the place was full of leftists. Worst of all was the public affairs department which was completely out of control even 40 years ago. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the truth about this bloated, biased organization.

See the full story.

Ruining the Good Doctor's Name - from CBC Exposed ...

In short, CBC destroyed the life the Leenens had known.

When the case went to trial the evidence overwhelmingly showed that CBC left out key information, distorted the views offered up by Dr. Frans Leenen and had generally worked at making the interviews fit the story they had decided on before the project even began.

The court also had access to outtakes from the filming process.

"We have set up the idea that this committee is tainted with these kind of company-bought people." host Trish Wood is heard saying to producer Nicholas Regush.

At another point Regush encourages Wood to use her famous sneer.

The evidence taken together resulted in condemnation from the bench through a strongly worded judgment from Justice Cunningham.

Read the full story.

The book "CBC Exposed" official launch today ...

CBC Exposed is a book like no other. This book takes on the holy grail of the Canadian media landscape and lays bare the truth about CBC. Reckless reporting at the state broadcaster has ruined lives and cost taxpayers millions upon millions in settlement costs yet no one has ever been held to account.

This book does what the consensus media cowards are afraid to do, tell the truth about CBC.

Get your copy here today!

Brian Lilley highlights CBC wrongdoing ...

Lilley describes how the CBC, in the name of “freedom of expression” and “public interest,” destroyed the reputation and living of a respected cardiologist and researcher, Dr. Frans Leenen, by (as Lilley says) “making the interviews fit the story they had decided on before the project even began.”

The accusations against Dr Leenen aren’t the point — they occurred prior to 2000. Suffice to note that in court, Justice Cunningham said the CBC program characterized him “dishonestly and misrepresented his views” ... portrayed him as “a devious, dishonest, bumbling fool” when all the time they knew he was “a person of high integrity and reputation.”

Even when the court found in favour of Dr. Leenen and awarded him $950,000, the CBC appealed (incurring more legal costs that the public paid), and even then refused to apologize or admit error.

Read the full story.

Edmonton area MP takes aim at CBC access requests ...

An Edmonton MP is aiming to open up the CBC to more access to information requests in a new private member’s bill.

Edmonton – St. Albert MP Brent Rathgeber couldn’t disclose all of the details of his private member’s bill Sunday because it won’t go to the House of Commons until Monday afternoon.

He said generally he is trying to correct a problem with how the CBC has used an exemption for the journalistic and creative activities in dealing with access to information requests.

“The act as currently written allows the CBC to take sort of a blanket exemption approach that if any [access] requests deal with their journalistic programming or creative activities they just refuse to disclose.” 

CBC spokesperson Angus McKinnon said the broadcaster would wait to see the bill before commenting on it.

Read the full story.

CBC contributor Andrew Coyne argued the state broadcaster is no longer necessary ...


The Canadian War Museum was a fitting venue Thursday to debate whether the taxpayer-funded CBC is as outdated as the vintage army vehicles housed in the memorial bunker.

Post Media columnist and CBC contributor Andrew Coyne argued the state broadcaster is no longer necessary in a multi-channel, digital universe and that all taxpayers are paying for something the majority don't watch or listen to.

Coyne told an overwhelmingly CBC-friendly crowd that today's viewers and listeners have a menu of pay-as-you-go options "to suit every taste, high or low, broad or narrow" that don't rely on scarce public funds.

"At a bare minimum, then, I would put the CBC on pay. It could still be a public broadcaster, but one funded by its audience, rather than taxpayers. If its viewers are as devoted as claimed, they should be happy to pay."

Read the full story.

Exposing the CBC ...

Watch this video to see Brian Lilley as he joins Ezra Levant to discuss his new book exposing the CBC. Can you believe some mainstream media folks criticized it before reading?

Click here to see the video.


Reserve Your Advance Copy of the Book "cbcExposed" today!

Billions of Canadian taxpayer money wasted ... over $100 million every month!

This is SCARY!

Reserve your advance copy today!  Click above!


39% believe the CBC should be sold off...

Most Canadians would like to see the CBC reformed to operate as a non-for-profit broadcaster like PBS, according to a new poll completed for QMI Agency.

Research firm Abacus Data conducted an online survey and found that 53% of participants want to see CBC's operating costs cut and for the broadcaster to operate through advertising and viewer contributions. PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, is an American non-profit television network which operates under this model.

Abacus asked 1,003 people questions online between Aug. 12-15 about the broadcaster. A small group of Canadians surveyed - 27% - believed funding for the broadcaster should be increased, while 39% believed the broadcaster should be sold off.

Read the full story.

"Another" lawsuit filed against the CBC ...

Whoever coined the phrase “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” has obviously never been to one of Union Gospel Mission’s annual barbeques in Oppenheimer Park. Five thousand hamburger patties, bags of chips and cans of iced tea plus 900 pounds each of coleslaw and fruit salad are on the menu for the upcoming weekend’s picnic, and it’s worth noting the burgers aren’t of the cheap frozen variety commonly found at many outdoor summer cookouts.

Instead, volunteer chefs from the high-end Glowbal Restaurant Group (which includes Sanafir, Trattoria, Black+Blue, Society, Coast, Glowbal Grill and Italian Kitchen) are the ones taking care of the cooking at the newly renovated park in the Downtown Eastside.

The event might also help offset some of the negative publicity Glowbal has attracted after a recent CBC TV report claimed its managers force servers to pay them a percentage of their tips. Yacoub has since filed a lawsuit against the CBC and Go Public reporter Kathy Tomlinson for defamation.

Read the full story.

CBC lost the lawsuit and drove the total cost well over $1 million ...

Despite having 22 lawyers on staff, CBC spent close to $900,000 on top-flight lawyers from an outside firm to fight a lawsuit that could have been settled with an apology. As has previously been reported, CBC's legal costs to defend a lawsuit brought by filmmakers Claude Fournier and Marie-Jose Raymond topped $1 million. But new documents released by the state broadcaster show the legal firm Borden, Ladner, Gervais billed $871,769.03 for its services.

Fournier and Raymond sued the state broadcaster in 2005 for $4.3 million after one of its executives told journalists he thought the co-produced miniseries about Quebec singer-songwriter Felix Leclerc was "the worst he'd ever seen on TV," among other remarks.

CBC eventually lost the lawsuit and paid the filmmakers $200,000 in damages, which drove the total cost well over $1 million.

Read the full story.

Minister slams CBC's sex show ...

"This programming cannot be defended," Minister Moore said after viewing the show Hard, which runs on the CBC French radio wing's special website platform called tou.tv. "Having now seen the show in question, it raises serious concerns about some programming decisions being made with taxpayers' dollars by CBC/Radio-Canada."

"Today I contacted the CBC and asked them to review all of their online content to ensure offensive programming such as this is not repeated." Moore said in a statement.

The prime minister's office also issued a statement.

"This content is clearly adult in nature and should not be available to children," a PMO spokesman wrote in an e-mail. "While the government doesn't control CBC's content, we are confused by their decision to purchase sexually explicit content and make it available to children.

Read the full story.

CBC would suffer a "devastating financial loss of as much as $200 million annually if it loses the rights to Hockey Night in Canada in 2014 ...

Earlier this week, broadcast watchdog Friends of Canadian Broadcasting released a statement claiming the CBC would suffer a "devastating financial loss of as much as $200 million annually if it loses the rights to Hockey Night in Canada in 2014 when its agreement with the NHL expires."

 "The CBC is hooked on hockey and the lockout could be just a bitter foretaste of the future for the CBC," Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the group said in the statement. "All told, the loss of hockey would be much worse than the most recent round of cuts from the federal budget. It would be a game changer for our national public broadcaster."

 While CBC TV would save about a $115 million on broadcast rights, they would lose more than 50 per cent of their ad revenue and almost one-third of its audience.

 "If the CBC were to lose hockey, it would need to replace some 400 hours of hockey programming with a similar quantity of the very best, most attractive — and expensive ­ Canadian shows. Any other replacement strategy designed to minimize costs, such as American movies or repeats of Canadian shows, would prevent the CBC from meeting its Canadian content requirements and lower audiences," Morrison said.

 In other words, look for the CBC to overpay for the rights and squeeze-out our enterprising private broadcasters.

Our tax dollars hard at work.

Read the full story.

Jason Kenny says CBC lying "all the time."

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is in hot water again over controversial comments.

This time it's for accusing the French-language CBC of lying "all the time."

Kenney was asked by a reporter with The Canadian Press whether it was acceptable for a cabinet minister to lie and change a document — referring to the controversy surrounding International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda.

Kenney responded: "Radio-Canada, they lie all the time. Which media are you with?"

Read the full story.

CBC being sued for $125,000, plus legal expenses and interest ....

A safety inspector is suing the national broadcaster for publishing what he says is a personally insulting and professionally damaging attack on its web comment board.

Robert Scott’s weight, his competence and his credibility all come under fire in the post, which he says clearly breaks the CBC’s own comment guidelines.

He says his “ability to work in this community has been severely affected by these libelous statements,” and he is suing the broadcaster for $125,000, plus legal expenses and interest.

Read the full story.

Quebec's upstart sovereigntist party is taking the CBC to court ...

Option Nationale wants an injunction forcing CBC's French-language service Radio-Canada as well as Télé-Québec and TVA to include party leader Jean-Martin Aussant in the election debates.

Aussant said in a statement in French that his exclusion from the debates "makes me doubt the health of our democracy."

Read the full story.

CBC Music is poised to lose about $5 million this year ...

Surprise surprise! The CBC is losing money on yet another venture.

The Globe and Mail is reporting that CBC Music — a web-based digital music portal launched in February — is poised to lose about $5 million this year. Moreover, according to the Globe, they don't expect to be in the black for the foreseeable future.

Read the full story.

Local cop suing CBC for $100,000 ...

Edmonton police officer Mike Wasylyshen has filed a $100,000 defamation lawsuit against the CBC regarding a TV broadcast about him repeatedly Tasering a city teen.

According to a statement of claim filed in Court of Queen’s Bench on April 28, Wasylyshen alleges the 2009 broadcast falsely stated he had admitted to committing a number of violent and potentially criminal acts.

In particular, Wasylyshen claims the CBC story stated he is a city police officer with a criminal record for assault who is “admitting to once again crossing the line,” which he says implies he has admitted to having committed an assault or other criminal offence.

Read the full story.

Feds fund CBC who then gives that taxpayer money back to Feds for exclusive rights ...

The federal government denied Tuesday it sold exclusive broadcast rights to Canada Day festivities on Parliament Hill to – wait for it – itself.

Heritage Canada inked a deal with the taxpayer-funded CBC worth an estimated $600,000 to air a star-studded line-up of Canadian greats, including Sam Roberts, Great Big Sea, indie rocker Dan Mangan, pop star Pierre Lapointe and salsa princess Florence K.

In essence, CBC, which receives about $1 billion annually from Heritage Canada, is forking over the money to the federal department responsible for a major portion of its $1.7 billion funding. Private broadcasters rely on advertising to pay the bills, and not government handouts.

Moore said Sun News could have bid for the broadcast rights, but chose not to. But what he didn’t say is that CBC has an unfair advantage because it receives federal funding and can afford commercial-free broadcasts, unlike private networks which rely on advertising dollars.

Read the full story.

CBC wins one-horse Olympic race ...

If you're the only runner in a race, is it still a victory when you cross the finish line?

CBC thinks so, and thus the public broadcaster is a-hootin' and a-hollerin' over securing the broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The win comes after earlier bids, including one by a CBC/CTV consortium, were rejected by the International Olympic Committee. CBC's solo offer was the only one left on the table, and the IOC perhaps wisely took it rather than face the prospect of having no Canadian broadcaster for the next two games.

Read the full story.

CBC contributor Andrew Coyne argued the state broadcaster is no longer necessary ...

The Canadian War Museum was a fitting venue Thursday to debate whether the taxpayer-funded CBC is as outdated as the vintage army vehicles housed in the memorial bunker.

Post Media columnist and CBC contributor Andrew Coyne argued the state broadcaster is no longer necessary in a multi-channel, digital universe and that all taxpayers are paying for something the majority don't watch or listen to.

Coyne told an overwhelmingly CBC-friendly crowd that today's viewers and listeners have a menu of pay-as-you-go options "to suit every taste, high or low, broad or narrow" that don't rely on scarce public funds. 

"At a bare minimum, then, I would put the CBC on pay. It could still be a public broadcaster, but one funded by its audience, rather than taxpayers. If its viewers are as devoted as claimed, they should be happy to pay."

Read the full story.

Legal firm Borden, Ladner, Gervais billed CBC $871,769.03 for its services ...

As has previously been reported, CBC's legal costs to defend a lawsuit brought by filmmakers Claude Fournier and Marie-Jose Raymond topped $1 million. But new documents released by the state broadcaster show the legal firm Borden, Ladner, Gervais billed $871,769.03 for its services.

Fournier and Raymond sued the state broadcaster in 2005 for $4.3 million after one of its executives told journalists he thought the co-produced miniseries about Quebec singer-songwriter Felix Leclerc was "the worst he'd ever seen on TV," among other remarks. CBC eventually lost the lawsuit and paid the filmmakers $200,000 in damages, which drove the total cost well over $1 million.

The three-year legal ordeal could have been wrapped up if CBC executives had uttered a simple phrase: We're sorry.

"If you imagine a public apology would have been enough, you realize the public purse could have saved over a million," Fournier told QMI Agency in May when word of the total cost leaked out.

In addition to having 22 lawyers on staff, CBC also has three paralegals. Rather than using lawyers already on the payroll, CBC dinged taxpayers more by securing the services of Guy Pratte, one of the top lawyers in Canada.

Read the full story.

CBC bosses embarrassed by their own staff ...


The story was on the state broadcaster’s expenses for their coverage of the Queen’s Jubilee concert is false. The story quoted from CBC staff emails inviting the prime minister to visit a private box taxpayers had paid for at the concert. Calls made by Sun News gave the indication that such a box would cost between $50k and $75k.

CBC got caught wasting taxpayer’s money and now they are trying to hide it. If that’s not the case then I invite the state broadcaster to be as open as they demand every other government department, agency and board to be. Release all the documents.

Read the full story.

CBC absenteeism cost taxpayers $17.7 million in 2010-11 ...

No answers yet on CBC absenteeism 

The head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation cannot explain why his employees are absent almost twice as often than private sector workers.

Sun News Network's Brian Lilley reported that while private sector workers are away from work about 8.9 days per year and public sector employees are gone 12.6 days annually, the average hooky tally for CBC workers is 16.5 days per year.

Those missed days cost taxpayers $17.7 million in 2010-11. The state broadcaster gets more than $1 billion per year from federal government coffers.

Read the full story.

CBC execs to fight info commissioner ...

A Conservative MP thinks it's wrong for the state broadcaster to use taxpayers' money to fight Parliament's information commissioner in court, especially when the government is asking all departments to tighten their belts.

Dean Del Mastro is calling CBC executives and others to testify at Parliament's access-to-information, privacy and ethics committee to discuss the broadcaster's poor record of complying with access-to-information legislation. He's also urging the committee to review the sections of the act the state broadcaster uses to shield its expenses from public view.

"We're talking about millions of dollars being spent -- all by the taxpayer -- over one department literally fighting the other," Del Mastro said. "We're tightening our fiscal belts and spending money fighting ourselves."

Read the full story.

CBC opposes Bell's plan to buy Astral ...

The CBC - both its English and French departments - opposes Bell's plan to create a French-language TV news service, according to a letter the state broadcaster sent to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

The CBC wrote that all Bell wants to do is undermine competition and asked the CRTC to reject Bell's French-language news service proposal.

Read the full story.

CBC bills taxpayers for ‘opinion leader’ survey ...

It cost taxpayers more than $56,000 for the CBC to survey its own employees and so-called opinion leaders last winter to measure their feelings about the state broadcaster.

Documents obtained through an access to information request show the CBC signed a sole-sourced contract with Phoenix Strategic Partners to conduct the online surveys between November and December 2011.

The CBC asked Phoenix to assemble a panel of 2,000 “stakeholders” from across Canada, but to include more francophone panellists than the pollster used in a similar survey a year earlier.

Only 410 opinion elites actually completed the survey. They overwhelmingly supported the CBC.

Read the full story.

Taxpayers dinged in (CBC) Radio-Canada lawsuit ...

A simple apology would have saved taxpayers more than $1 million in legal fees and damages after Radio-Canada lost a defamation suit against a Quebec filmmaker in 2008.

But instead of a public mea culpa, Radio-Canada racked up $1,074,515 in legal fees and $200,000 in moral damages fighting and losing the lawsuit, according to figures obtained by Montreal's La Presse newspaper.

Read the full story.

CBC PENSION PLAN - 2011 HIGHLIGHTS

CBC Receives $1 BILLION per year of Taxpayer Money ... here are some more facts:

CBC PENSION PLAN - 2011 HIGHLIGHTS 

  • Net Assets now exceed $5 billion, reaching $5,067 million at year-end (2010 - $4,561 million)
  • Fund administrative costs were $23 million 
  • Overall member service satisfaction levels of the Pension Benefits Administration Centre remain high with 92% (2010 – 92%) of the members surveyed rating services as excellent or good.

Read the full document.

CBC failed to properly distribute pension plan surplus ...

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation violated collective agreements when it distributed only a portion of a pension plan surplus earmarked for employees and retirees, an arbitrator has found.

In a 131-page ruling, arbitrator Denis Nadeau states that the CBC erred by not following the recommendation of the Consultative Committee on Staff Benefits (CCSB), which had made a proposal to distribute the money equitably. The CCSB had determined that $336 million of the $1.1-billion pension plan surplus should be available to employees and retirees. The CBC distributed only $134 million.

Read the full story.

Many CBC television shows are painfully boring to watch ...

Forget Ambien, I’ve discovered a 100%-effective, all-natural cure for insomnia: CBC’s primetime programming schedule.

Don’t worry, it’s been extensively tested – by me – and I can guarantee you it works. Between the bland, insipid comedies recycling jokes that would have been stale in 1982 and the endless rotation of mind-numbingly boring reality shows, it’s safe to say that CBC’s primetime shows couldn’t be any less exciting even if they were actively trying.

Read the full story.

CBC's budget cut by $115-million - license renewal will begin Nov. 19

Hearings on CBC/Radio-Canada's license renewal will begin Nov. 19 in Gatineau, Que. The deadline to submit interventions/answers is Oct. 5 and the broadcaster must respond to them by Oct. 15.

CBC's license renewal hearings were originally scheduled for Sept. 2011, but were postponed in order to give the broadcaster sufficient time to gather data the CRTC needed as well as figure out its future operating budget. The hearings were then scheduled to take place in June 2012, but were once again postponed as the federal budget loomed and CBC faced uncertainty as to its funding moving forward.

The federal government slashed CBC's budget by $115-million over three years in its budget released in March.

Read the full story.

CBC, with 22 lawyers, spent almost $900Gs on outside help to fight lawsuit ...

Despite having 22 lawyers on staff, CBC spent close to $900,000 on top-flight lawyers from an outside firm to fight a lawsuit that could have been settled with an apology.

As has previously been reported, CBC's legal costs to defend a lawsuit brought by filmmakers Claude Fournier and Marie-Jose Raymond topped $1 million. But new documents released by the state broadcaster show the legal firm Borden, Ladner, Gervais billed $871,769.03 for its services.

Read the full story.

Proof of CBC waste keeps piling up ...

If you didn’t already think the CBC should be sold off, then news this week should have you thinking twice about whether Canada actually needs a state broadcaster.

 Newly released documents show that taxpayers spent a fortune last year for CBC workers not to show up for work, another small fortune was paid to high-priced lawyers, while another set of documents showed them continuing their secret ways.

 CBC spent more than a million dollars defending a lawsuit that could have been settled with an apology. Most of that money we discovered this week went to outside contract lawyers. CBC enriched the law firm of Borden, Ladner, Gervais with almost $900,000 of taxpayers money when they could have settled the lawsuit with filmmakers Claude Fournier and Marie-Jose Raymond just by saying “I’m sorry.”

Oh, and of course, I forgot to add they hired the outside legal firm despite having 22 lawyers on staff. They do this all the time.

Read the full story.

CBC workers absent twice as often as private sector workers ...

Canadians paid nearly $18 million in one year for CBC employees who failed to show up to work.

A report prepared for CBC's board of directors — which QMI Agency obtained through Access to Information — shows CBC workers were absent almost twice as often as private sector workers in fiscal year 2010-2011.

According to the document, CBC employees were absent from work an average of 16.5 days. Statistics Canada figures in the report show public sector workers took an average of 12.6 days off while private sector workers took 8.9 days.

The total cost to taxpayers for absenteeism at the state broadcaster was $17.7 million for the year.

The report cites mental disorders as the leading cause of absenteeism (31% of all short-term absences and 44.6% of all long-term absences). The second leading cause was listed as "musculoskeletal problems."

Read the full story.

CBC has taken private-sector-like risks that haven’t panned out ...

Private broadcasters are in the business of making money. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, profits help these broadcasters to invest more in quality programs while keeping their shareholders happy.

One week after this announcement, CBC announced its intention to place ads on Radio Two — nine minutes every hour. If the CRTC allows this to happen, it will only be a matter of time before we start hearing ads on Radio One, interrupting shows such as As It Happens and World Report.

But funding cuts are not the only reason CBC is in financial hot water.

In recent years, the CBC has taken private-sector-like risks that haven’t panned out, over-paying for the right to broadcast foreign shows and Hockey Night in Canada that have not produced the hoped-for payback.

Read the full story.

CBC recently renewed an agreement to sell its news stories to Microsoft ...

CBC may be willing to take $1 billion from taxpayers each year to produce its news content, but the state broadcaster is tight-lipped about what it earns selling that same material to some of the biggest companies in the world.

In a move that continues to pit the government-subsidized CBC against other privately owned media companies, CBC recently renewed an agreement to sell its news stories to Microsoft. Microsoft then posts CBC news stories on its website.

An access to information request for details of the contract included several pages that were close to blank with all pertinent material removed.

Read the full story.

Why is the CBC afraid of Harper?

“Is this still Canada?” I wondered. “Is this the same CBC that we’re supposed to trust with reporting the news and casting a critical eye to our government?”

It seems speech is no longer free when it comes to Stephen Harper.

Do we now have both a state broadcaster that restricts messages critical of the government and a police force that silences and intimidates critics? We already have a prime minister who’s rebranded the government as “The Harper Government.” Is the CBC now trying to turn the whole of the federal infrastructure, from museums to our airspace, into Harper’s personal possessions?

Read the full story.

Curling rocked by CBC/Grand Slam debacle ...

Trivia: who remembers the televised curling debacle of 2005-06?

Sure, you do. The major events had been on The Sports Network (round robin and early playoffs) and then CBC (championship finals) for what seemed like forever, when suddenly CBC had grabbed an exclusive broadcast contract with the Canadian Curling Association, shutting TSN out.

Within months, Canadians were screaming bloody murder: they missed TSN terribly but their prime fury was directed at CBC for off-loading coverage onto their obscure Country Canada channel (now called Bold), which no one could find nor wanted to pay for.

Read the full story.

CBC boss bills taxpayers for private lunches and fancy hotels ...

The head of Canada's state broadcaster has a taste for fine hotel rooms and pricey lunches, according to a set of expense claims released to QMI Agency under the access to information system.

Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of the CBC, prefers the comfort of the tony Chataeu Laurier hotel when travelling to Ottawa on business. The Chateau, located next to the Parliament buildings, is a place to see and be seen for Ottawa's power brokers.

The hotel bills itself as "a magnificent limestone edifice with turrets and masonry reminiscent of a French chateau. This luxury hotel in Ottawa enchants guests with its charm and stateliness."

Lacroix billed taxpayers for $24,505.29 worth of travel and hospitality expenses in the first six months of this year. That's compared to $17,292.13 in the first six months of 2010.

Read the full story.

The CBC is a money-losing state broadcaster ...

The CBC is a money-losing state broadcaster that should be stripped of $1.16 billion in public handouts, says a new report.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Studies argues the broadcaster fails to deliver true dollar value to taxpayers, and it lacks neutrality in its news reporting and accountability.

The right-wing think-tank says, despite its annual handout from Heritage Canada and other revenue streams that total $1.8 billion in net revenue, the CBC still managed to report a loss of $24.7 million in the last fiscal year.

“The curse of such funding lies in the fact that with it, there is no reason for the CBC to display the sort of discipline private sector companies must adhere to in order to survive, or the sort of innovation they require to grow and prosper.”

Read the full story.

CBC's Fifth Estate film found at fault for unfounded facts ...

Simon Chester is a partner at the Toronto law firm of McMillan Binch and a member of the firm’s KNOWlaw Group. This article was prepared with the assistance of Marlo Kravetsky

If you thought that headline was a mouthful, try swallowing a damages award of $950,000 and a costs award over $800,000 as the CBC had to in the libel lawsuit brought by Dr. Frans Leenan.

After winning his case in Ontario’s Superior Court, Dr. Leenen said, ‘Four years ago we proposed to settle this law suit for $10,000 and an on-air apology. It was refused…The Fifth Estate persisted and took me through 10 weeks of trial.’ The trial judge awarded very high damages for libel against The Fifth Estate and the CBC as well as individual reporters and producers.

The CBC appealed. Ontario’s Court of Appeal disagreed with the CBC, and ruled that Dr. Leenen had been libelled. Finally, the CBC tried to take the case to Canada’s highest court, the Supreme Court of Canada.

The Supreme Court ruled against the CBC in February, with yet another costs award. Dr. Leenen’s long legal journey is over. The case should be a lesson for documentary producers and journalists everywhere.

What went wrong?

Read the full story.

Executives at CBC took bonuses while workers were laid off ...

QMI Agency reported top executives at CBC took bonuses, some as high as $165,090, while workers were laid off to deal with a shortfall of revenue. While the state broadcaster sought government help for bridge financing to make up the shortfall and workers were laid off, access to information documents show top executives split a bonus kitty worth $888,699.

Individual bonus amounts were not released but QMI Agency can report one senior team member could qualify for a bonus worth 25% of their salary, six team members could qualify for a 40% bonus, and two a 50% bonus.

CBC Executive perks are a monthly car allowance, club memberships, security system/maintenance, child/elder care, health care spending account, registered education savings plan, flexible component of the CBC pension, financial planning and parking.

According to documents released by CBC, executives at the vice-president level earn between $173,000 and $375,000. There are eight vice-presidents.

Read the full story.

Funding cuts expose CBC pension Ponzi Scheme ...

The Federal Government recently announced budget cuts to the CBC of $27.8 million this year increasing to $115 million by 2014-15. The CBC budget for 2011 was $1.1 billion.

Teeth are being gnashed over the loss of staff and programming, but these cuts pale in comparison to the costs of propping up the CBC’s pension ponzi scheme. How will it fund its current pension solvency deficit of $801 million (2010), which is more than double the $382 million deficit the previous year?

In 2010 employees contributed $26.9 million while $51.2 million was added by taxpayers. The split is supposed to be 50/50, but CBC has chosen to ask taxpayers to fund the deficit without asking employees to contribute more. To properly fund the pension solvency shortfall, the CBC, under normal accounting rules, would be required to fund an extra $160 million each year over the next five years.

Stay tuned to your radio to see how CBC will solve its financial problems.

Read the full story here!

CBC Fifth Estate spoke to the wrong people ...

Newfoundland and Labrador's representative in the Harper cabinet says a recent Fifth Estate story did not accurately portray the federal response in the search for Labrador teen Burton Winters, claiming the CBC spoke to the wrong people.

See the full story.

Adbusters Media Foundation has won an important appeal in its case against the CBC ...

Adbusters Media Foundation
April 06, 2009

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - April 6, 2009) - Adbusters Media Foundation, the publisher of Adbusters magazine (www.adbusters.org), has won an important appeal in its case against the CBC and Global Television Network. Adbusters initiated a landmark legal action against the media companies for refusing to sell airtime to Adbusters for its social marketing television campaigns.

In a unanimous decision (http://adbusters.org/files/pdf/adbusters_courtappeal_20090403.pdf) released on Friday, April 3, the BC Court of Appeal overturned a previous BC Supreme Court ruling. Adbusters can now take its case against the media conglomerates to the BC Supreme Court.

Since 1989 Adbusters has attempted to purchase airtime from major commercial broadcasters in order to air its socially-minded public service spots. Routinely denied by network executives in Canada and the US, Adbusters is often left with little to no explanation as to why these citizen-produced messages are being censored. The case against the CBC and Global Television Network Inc. was brought about because Adbusters believes that the Canadian Charter grants every Canadian the right to access the public airwaves; to walk into their local TV stations and purchase 30-seconds of airtime under the same rules and conditions as advertising agencies do.

At issue in this groundbreaking case is the right of Canadian citizens to have (as stipulated by the Canadian Broadcasting Act) "a reasonable opportunity ... to be exposed to the expression of differing views on matters of public concern."

"This is a great day for Adbusters," says Kalle Lasn, editor and co-founder of the magazine. "After 20 years of legal struggle, the courts have finally given us permission to take on the media corporations and hold them up to public scrutiny."

For more information or to schedule an interview with Kalle Lasn or Adbusters' attorney, Mark Underhill, please see contact information below.

EDITOR'S NOTES

(1) To view a digital copy of the judgment, visit: http://adbusters.org/files/pdf/adbusters_courtappeal_20090403.pdf

(2) Canadian Media facts:

- Four corporations (CanWest, Quebecor, Torstar and Gesca) control almost three-quarters of the country's daily newspaper circulation: www.parl.gc.ca/37/3/parlbus/commbus/senate/com-e/tran-e/rep-e/rep04apr04-e.htm

(3) Facts about Media Democracy:

- More than 30,000 people have signed the Media Carta (www.mediacarta.org) to voice their concerns about the way information is distributed in our society.

- In the past few years a growing number of grassroots media activist groups have formed to express their dissatisfaction with the continued consolidation of Canada's media: www.democraticmedia.ca

Bull****, bull**** and more bull**** actions from CBC ...

Why, has the CBC steadily erased just about all - CBC English local programming in Montreal and Quebec: when in fact their 'supposed mandate', is to grow English Quebecers programming in Quebec ... because, we are the OFFICIAL Minority population in Quebec, and recognized as such by Canada.

And - given, CBC's responsibility is, to concentrate on growing - French local programming -OUTSIDE- Quebec, NOT inside Quebec, because Francophones are Officially a Minority group, as we all know - in the rest of Canada, and the MAJORITY in Quebec; why has CBC spent so much of its budget, over the past few decades, on French programming IN Quebec - and yet NOTHING on English programming IN Quebec?

Read the full story here.

Ottawa MD makes legal history with huge libel award against CBC ...

Dr. Frans Leenen thought his professional reputation had been left in tatters when the CBC broadcast a public affairs program on the use of calcium-channel blockers in 1996. Four years later, the CBC knows exactly how he felt.

In the end, the hour-long broadcast may cost the CBC up to $5 million because of the Leenen ruling and an earlier judgement in favour of Toronto cardiologist Martin Myers, who was awarded $200 000 for defamation last November.  The CBC must also pay his costs.

Read the full story here.

Music Industry Wants More Royalties from CBC ...

Competitors suggest CBC is undercutting them using taxpayer money.

Listeners of the CBC site have streamed 1.6 million hours of music. At three minutes a song, that’s some 32 million tunes. If it were forced to pay per song like other online services, the service could become very expensive to operate.

“What concerns private industry is that in the face of massive cutbacks CBC sees fit to launch a new service that won’t generate meaningful revenue,” said Rob Braide, vice-president of regulatory affairs at Stingray, which charges users $4.99 a month to use its Galaxie music app. “I’m not sure how that makes any sense.”

Read the full story here.

The Ultimate CBC Insider Exposes the CBC ...

From 2004 to 2010, Richard Stursberg headed up the CBC amid controversy, lock-outs, massive ratings successes and some serious flops. There was no lack of drama during his reign, but now he sets the record straight. In The Tower of Babble, the ultimate CBC insider exposes those controversies, successes and dead ends of his time at the top.




Read more here.

The CBC is built on the myth government can do TV better than the private sector ...

The CBC’s licence is up for renewal at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the government regulator for TV and radio.

The CRTC and CBC rely on each other and they both rely on the myth we need government intervention in the industry in order to get the shows we want.

The CBC is built on the myth government can do TV better than the private sector.

Just like it can deliver the mail better too, right? And the CRTC is built on the myth the government can regulate the industry better than ordinary Canadians, using their remote controls or radio dials. Both are a throwback, a curiosity, a relic from an earlier age.

Read the full story.

CBC keeps public in dark about over-budget computer system ...

The CBC has once again refused to release hundreds of pages of documents related to an over-budget computer system it picked up on the taxpayers' dime.

An access-to-information request for details on the implementation and running of Project Vision resulted in 80% of the requested documents being withheld.

Project Vision is the code name the state broadcaster gave to an internal computer system built to replace dozens of older systems. The original price tag had been $33 million, but the final cost was near double that.

A request for details on the running of the $63 million system resulted in the release of 449 pages, of which 356 were completely blank.

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CBC got it wrong on cigarette labels story ...

CBC's ombudsman says a TV broadcast last December on CBC's flagship newscast The National, that accused the Harper government of bending to pressure by the tobacco lobby, missed its mark.

The item, reported by Diana Swain, concluded that the government had "shelved" plans for tough new labels on cigarette packages because tobacco company lobbyists pressured the government.

In fact, the new anti-smoking labels weren't shelved at all but were unveiled by the government a few weeks after the broadcast was aired.

... some MPs were hopping mad after they saw Swain's report. They believed it was unfair because it mischaracterized the government's position on the labelling issue and failed to present the government's view.

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CBC owns a fleet of 728 vehicles ...

The CBC has released a list of how many vehicles it owns - years after telling taxpayers the information was secret.

The broadcaster controls a fleet of 728 vehicles, documents show.

That's a far cry from the lone Ford sedan it said it owned in redacted documents released two years ago that hid behind Section 68.1 of federal access laws.

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CBC prez wants another go at the trough ...

CBC president and CEO Hubert Lacroix has launched a campaign for a second term at the top of the state broadcaster, QMI Agency has learned.

The job comes with a salary of between $358,000 and $421,000 per year plus perks and bonuses. CBC executives can receive bonuses of up to 50% of their base salary.

Lacroix has run CBC at a time when the broadcaster has come under increasing scrutiny.

Just prior to Lacroix's appointment, the Harper government subjected CBC to the Access to Information Act, a law that allows average citizens to find out how government money is spent.

In fact, CBC spent huge sums of taxpayers' dollars fighting the information commissioner in court to keep much of their spending secret.

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CBC executive bonuses rile union ...

CBC executives will still receive half their yearly bonuses in the next fiscal year, and that's not sitting well with the union that represents the thousands of employees bracing for layoffs.

At the same time, some members of the Canadian Media Guild, which represents 5,500 CBC employees, have already been told they will lose 100 per cent of supplementary payouts next year and the question of wage rollbacks is still up in the air

The public broadcaster is bracing for layoffs of 600 to 1,200 employees due to a more than $100 million budgetary shortfall.

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CBC uses its huge public subsidy to compete unfairly ...

The CBC supposedly exists to tell Canadians their story in ways for-profit networks would not. But the state broadcaster is anything but an old-style, non-commercial public radio and television company. Its tentacles now extend everywhere in the media universe except perhaps print, and it uses its huge public subsidy to compete unfairly in countless areas where the government has no excuse for intruding.

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CBC Boss Lacroix billed taxpayers for $24,505.29 worth of travel and hospitality expenses ... in first 6 months!

The head of Canada's state broadcaster has a taste for fine hotel rooms and pricey lunches, according to a set of expense claims released to QMI Agency under the access to information system.

Hubert Lacroix, president and CEO of the CBC, prefers the comfort of the tony Chataeu Laurier hotel when travelling to Ottawa on business. The Chateau, located next to the Parliament buildings, is a place to see and be seen for Ottawa's power brokers. It also charges rates at least $100 per night higher than many hotels in the same area that cater to business travellers.

Lacroix billed taxpayers for $24,505.29 worth of travel and hospitality expenses in the first six months of this year. That's compared to $17,292.13 in the first six months of 2010.

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"Another" lawsuit filed against the CBC ...

Fancy restaurant hosts picnic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Five thousand hamburger patties, bags of chips and cans of iced tea plus 900 pounds each of coleslaw and fruit salad are on the menu for the upcoming weekend’s picnic, and it’s worth noting the burgers aren’t of the cheap frozen variety commonly found at many outdoor summer cookouts.

Instead, volunteer chefs from the high-end Glowbal Restaurant Group (which includes Sanafir, Trattoria, Black+Blue, Society, Coast, Glowbal Grill and Italian Kitchen) are the ones taking care of the cooking at the newly renovated park in the Downtown Eastside.

"This will be our third year partnering with UGM and every year we have hundreds of restaurant staff, business colleagues and friends volunteer their time," said Glowbal CEO Emad Yacoub in a press release. 

The event might also help offset some of the negative publicity Glowbal has attracted after a recent CBC TV report claimed its managers force servers to pay them a percentage of their tips. Yacoub has since filed a lawsuit against the CBC and Go Public reporter Kathy Tomlinson for defamation.

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Premier Jean Charest considering suing CBC ...

Jean Charest reacted angrily Thursday to an incendiary CBC report that claimed police stopped tailing a target after the man — a construction-union official — had a chat with the Quebec premier.

On the campaign trail Thursday, Charest said he has never interfered with police work and that he’s considering suing over the French-language report, which he called a smear by association.

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CBC destroyed notes on openness ...

CBC's commitment to openness and transparency met with a shredding machine or recycling bin in late November.

CBC executives were sending memos back and forth on how to best answer claims that they were not being fully open when it came to access to information requests.

A request to see those notes was turned down - not because they couldn't be released, but because the CBC said it cannot find them. It appears Dube destroyed the notes deeming them a "transitory record."

It was earlier reported that CBC spent nearly $60,000 shredding documents to prepare for the government agency coming under the access to information system in 2007.

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CBC keeping $73M Olympic secret ...

CBC/Radio Canada has paid more than $73 million for the rights to broadcast the Sochi 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics.

International Olympic Committee marketing and broadcast director Timo Lumme wouldn’t reveal the precise figure on Tuesday, but he said it was more than what was paid for the Beijing 2008 quadrennium, which included the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics. CBC announced the deal Aug. 1, after a joint bid with CTV-owner Bell was rejected by the IOC.

CBC announced a $225 million budget shortfall in April.

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CBC Smackdown angers former wrestler ...

The CBC's booster club is launching a new campaign to get the state broadcaster more money.

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting produced two spoof spots -- dubbed Stop the CBC Smackdown -- portraying the worst case scenario for CBC connoisseurs: The corporation sold to a professional wrestling promoter. And, he's American.

In this imagined hell, the broadcaster is staffed with beauties and burly men: The wrestlers voice radio ads whilst the ring girls help deliver the weather.

All of the wrestlers in the videos are portrayed more than stupid, and that's not sitting well with a Canadian legend.

"They are always portrayed imbeciles, dimwits with no brains at all, and that's a disappointment, because a lot of us out there like Jesse Ventura, Mick Foley, Shawn Michaels and myself who are quite well-read, intelligent people," Bret 'The Hitman' Hart told QMI Agency. "We are some of the hardest working actors and athletes in the world. Nobody has a schedule like wrestlers, and with CBC, someone like Vince McMahon might be the answer to their prayers, they might start making some money."

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CBC expected to 'break even' in broadcast of 2014, 2016 Olympics ...

Despite the fierce competition for the rights to broadcast the Olympic Games, it turns out the spectacular event is not a guaranteed money-maker.

As Mark Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Sports Group which carries the American broadcast rights, told reporters Thursday the network hopes only to break even, observers here in Canada have begun making similar predictions for the CBC. The state broadcaster announced Wednesday it was awarded the broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 games.

"I expect the CBC will break even," said sports-marketing expert Howard Bloom.

While neither the CBC nor the International Olympic Committee have disclosed the price tag for those broadcast rights, some estimates have put it between $95 and $110 million, significantly less than Bell Media paid, $153 million, for the rights to broadcast the Vancouver and London Games.

Coverage will also mean huge production costs for the CBC.

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CBC an Olympian at spending ...

Here we go again — or is this time different?

 News that the CBC has won the radio and TV broadcasting rights for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, raises the question why a state broadcaster is bidding against private companies.

 So far, CBC brass won’t say how much they paid for the Olympic rights, but whatever the amount is, it comes from the taxpayer, not private enterprise.

 Perhaps Rogers and Bell who won the rights for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and Beijing Games (for $150 million) didn’t want the rights, since they lost money.

 But the word is that their $70-million bid for 2014 and 2016 was lower than IOC extortionists wanted, so the CBC stepped in with a higher bid — maybe as high as $150 million, but we don’t know.

 That raises another point. This is public money — money the rest of us pay the government in taxes, $1.1 billion of which goes for the CBC to waste. It is in the public interest to know the costs.

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CBC says its Queen's Jubilee private box was a joke ...

A day after attacking a Sun News Network personality for reporting information the CBC released that the state broadcaster had a private box at the Queen's Jubilee concert in June, the network switched gears Wednesday and said the whole thing was a joke on the Prime Minister's Office.

The CBC now says there was never a $75,000 box - just an $18,000 position for a gaggle of staffers - to film and watch a parade of stars and other luminaries fete the Queen in London, England.

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CBC's Sirius Satellite Radio a huge financial risk ...

CBC spent millions of public dollars on a radio project with questionable results, documents reveal. 

Documents obtained by QMI Agency under access to information and an examination of annual reports show CBC took significant risks by investing $12 million in 2005 in Sirius Satellite Radio.

According to a financial report, the accumulated deficit of Sirius Canada — in which CBC owned a 25.5% stake in until its fusion with XM Satellite Radio in May 2011 — sat at $100.7 million at the time of the merger.

The loss incurred for investors was $71.3 million, including $36 million poured into the company in 2005 by its three founding partners. CBC's financial state reflected those investment losses until the merger.

A SiriusXM annual report published in January said the company's “cumulative spending and losses were significant.” Its debt sat at $146 million and the accumulated deficit was $107 million.

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CBC won't reveal of cost of private box for Queen's Jubilee ...

The CBC is once again spending taxpayers' money frivolously and refusing to disclose key information.

Back in June when the state broadcaster travelled to London, England, to cover the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, they went so far as to pay for a private box for a special concert.

The CBC did not deny that they had a private box, but in an access to information request on the cost of the box the state broadcaster refused to release the amount.

CBC officials claim that the cost of a swanky private box at a public event to celebrate the Queen is protected information because it touches on their creative, programming or journalistic endeavours.

Sources with knowledge of the event have pegged the cost of a private box for the concert at between $50,000 and $75,000.

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I have also filed a lawsuit against CBC reporter Terry Milewski ...

I have today, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Dosanjh for the comments he made and a flyer he distributed during the election. I have also filed a lawsuit against CBC reporter Terry Milewski.

I will accept a public written apology from Mr. Dosanjh and/or Mr. Milewski to settle the lawsuits filed against them.

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CBC demands removal of Mac radio app made by Vancouver developer ...

A Vancouver developer is upset that a CBC copyright complaint means he will have to remove his software from the Mac App Store.

Cory Alder of Davander Mobile went public about his fight with Canada’s public broadcaster, detailing his side of the story on his blog.

On his blog, Alder argues his app is being falsely characterized, as it is “essentially a radio receiver”.

Alder says he will soon be forced to withdraw his product from the app store. But he’s hoping that the publicity his case receives will result in the CBC reconsidering its Internet-streaming policies and allowing “listeners decide how they want to listen”.

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MP's denounce CBC for wasting tax-payers money ...

As Conservative MPs denounce the CBC for wasting taxpayers' money by fighting the information commissioner in Federal Court, two federal government departments are quietly conducting their own legal battles against her.

Tory MPs on the House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee are conducting a study of what one on Tuesday described as an "outrageous" waste of money in CBC's litigation against Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault.

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CBC spending almost as much for private counsel as they are on their own contingent of 20 lawyers ...

Despite having a team of 20 in-house lawyers on their payroll, the CBC has been spending more than $3.3 million each year for legal services from private law firms.

Documents obtained through Access to Information laws — to which the CBC has been subject to for just two years — revealed that the public broadcaster spent more than $23 million in legal contracts with private firms between 2000-01 and 2006-07. That averages out to $3.3 million annually, with a peak of $4.7 million in 2003-04.

In fact, the company is spending almost as much for private counsel as they are on their own contingent of 20 lawyers, run by the CBC's Vice-President of Legal Services, Maryse Bertrand.

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CBC target of surging information complaints ...

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is behind an unprecedented flood of complaints to Canada's information watchdog.

The latest annual report from Information Commissioner Robert Marleau says his office received 536 complaints about the public broadcaster in 2007-2008, more than any other department or agency of government.

And more than 90 per cent of the CBC complaints that Mr. Marleau has finished investigating were found to be valid.

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Canadians have no idea of CBC cost ...

The day Lisa LaFlamme debuted as Lloyd Robertson's successor anchoring the CTV National News, CBC bought full-page newspaper advertisements promoting its flagship newscast and anchor Peter Mansbridge. 

Judging from a new poll, the public broadcaster might better have used the ad space to show Canadians how its money was being spent.

According to the poll, more than 80 per cent of the 1,003 people sampled in the online poll conducted in English Aug. 12-15 did not know the CBC will get $1.1 billion from Ottawa this year. About 25 per cent believe it gets only one-tenth of its actual grant and 21 per cent thought it was only $10 million.

"It seems like the CBC has built an empire unto itself within the expenditures of the federal government," said Stephen Taylor, a spokesman for the National Citizens Coalition, the conservative advocacy group once headed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Who are they accountable to? They're ultimately accountable to us, but they're not showing it."

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CBC/Radio-Canada president Hubert Lacroix said he was “astonished” by the decision ...

Canada’s broadcast regulator is doing away with a controversial fee charged by many cable and satellite companies to help improve local TV programming — and forcing them to stop passing the cost on to their customers.

CBC/Radio-Canada president Hubert Lacroix said he was “astonished” by the decision.

He warned that the decision could reverse many of the local programming improvements that the fund achieved.

The CRTC said it’s confident that small and mid-sized local stations will be able to maintain quality programming without the fund.

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Dissenting commissioners slam CBC ...

"Newsnet is not a threat to CBC Newsworld."

"If Newsworld feels threatened by Newsnet, its problems are internal and far more fundamental than can be cured by any Commission ruling that limits the flexibility of a perceived competitor."

"The investment of time and effort made by the CBC to monitor Newsnet and record each and every alleged transgression made by it over the past four years must have been considerable. When a publicly funded institution, one that constantly reminds Canadians that it is not publicly funded enough, invests so much time and effort in exposing the transgressions of a perceived competitor, it may be time to recommend that the CBC revisit its own sense of mission and purpose rather than concentrating scarce resources on Newsnet's alleged shortcomings."

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