Two of them (sliced), actually, and three of us took turns carrying them. I know, Watermelon Wednesday wasn't the best way to go on a day as rainy as this, but it looked cool and was way easier (not to mention healthier) than all those cupcakes, plus we planned it before we checked the weather report.

This week's effort was once again coordinated with Winnipeg. If you want to get in on the fun (we've got to do something to entertain ourselves with the CBC off the air) in your city, e-mail us for the next logo-shaped-food theme, and keep those letters coming! Although, who knows, maybe by this time next week there won't be any picket lines to visit—fingers crossed for today's talks.

From: dominic []
To: Frulla.L@parl.gc.ca
Cc: Jane_Chalmers@cbc.ca, Fontana.J@parl.gc.ca, Bagnell.L@parl.gc.ca, Martin.Pd@parl.gc.ca, cbckeydemo@gmail.com, pleasevoteforpedro@gmail.com
Date: Aug 26, 2005 6:02 PM
Subject: In support of the Canadian Media Guild

Winnipeg, Manitoba
August 26, 2005

Dear Minister Frulla,

I am writing to you to express my concerns over the CBC lockout. I am hoping that you and the other members of both government and the CBC will take some action over this sad event.

I am not writing to tell you how good CBC programming is, or which shows I am missing. As a former member of the media, you already know the standards to which CBC employees hold themselves. Instead, I am writing to tell you how important it is for Canada to defend its public broadcaster. While I wish I would hear As It Happens on weeknights and Go on Saturday mornings, I live in downtown Winnipeg and as such I have other options. Rural Canadians, on the whole, do not and through this lockout are being deprived of culture and in danger of being cut off from the rest of the country.

Though I am now in Manitoba, I have lived at various times in my adult life in Calgary, Vancouver, and both Whitehorse and Dawson City, Yukon Territory. I have a good grasp of life in various parts of Canada, and I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the CBC is important everywhere. The best example I can think of is hockey - would private sector broadcasters send NHL hockey for free all over the country, from downtown Toronto to the high arctic? I think not. Use the same analogy and substitute news, movies, comedy, documentaries, or whatever other form of entertainment you prefer on either radio or TV, and you get the same result. The CBC is the only broadcaster committed to providing information to every single Canadian.

CBC brass may argue that the Corporation needs to become more like private sector broadcasters, but I would like to state unequivocally that this is not so. In fact, the CBC needs to not act like others, simply because it performs a different service. If it turns into a carbon copy of Global, CTV, CHUM, or Chorus, what is the point of having it at all?

The CBC must also be allowed to continue nurturing, training, and rewarding its staff. The less job security, the less pride of workmanship there is in any situation. The CBC is a vital institution and must not be sacrificed on this alter of supposed “competitiveness”. Why pay a staff member when you can contract someone to do it for half the price? The answer is that Canadians will get what they pay for, and they will not be happy.

The people we hear and see on CBC are our friends – we spend time with them every day and they bring something to our lives that reminds us we are Canadian. I urge you to intervene and let our friends go back to work. Public broadcasting makes Canada great, and quality staff make Canadian public broadcasting great. Please don’t let the CBC management kill it.

Dominic []

From: Andrea []
To: Martin.P@parl.gc.ca, Frulla.L@parl.gc.ca, arnold_amber@cbc.ca, robert_rabinovitch@cbc.ca
Cc: cbckeydemo@gmail.com
Date: Aug 26, 2005 4:30 PM
Subject: CBC lockout

Dear Prime Minister, Minister Frulla and Messrs. Amber and Rabinovitch,

I am writing to you, as a public stakeholder in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to urge each of your respective offices to do everything possible to remedy the lockout situation at the CBC by ensuring that negotiations resume immediately. I am certain that I need not go into lengthy detail about the cultural and the monetary damage being inflicted upon the CBC and upon Canada as a whole due to the current situation. I feel this situation speaks to the Public Service’s over-reliance on contract and temporary staffing as a whole, which tries to circumvent the Public Service’s own overly-strict hiring policies and the rendering of employee benefits. Initially, this appears to save time and money, but given the reaction of CBC staff on the picket lines, I am guessing that they also see the false savings and the accompanying lack of employment stability. From what I gathered by visiting the Ottawa CBC picket line today, however, staff appear eager to negotiate and to get back to work: I urge each of you to work together to get the CBC back on the air. Please do not allow this dispute to cost Canada such a great institution, such a great Canadian voice.

I look forward to remaining in contact with all of you, with a view to ensuring that an acceptable resolution to the CBC lockout is reached. Please accept my best wishes and my support for your swift and decisive action toward resolving the CBC lockout.

Sincerely,
Andrea []
Ottawa

August 26th, 2005

Joanna []
IA, USA

To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Joanna [], and I am from Calgary, Alberta. I have lived in Iowa for the past two years while attending Chiropractic college. I have been dismayed, as we all are, by the recent labour dispute between the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the Canadian Media Guild (CMG). This dispute is the newest event in a slow devaluing and dismantling of our national public broadcasting service. I understand all labour discussions are inherently complex, and I will not pretend to understand all the intricacies of the dispute. I am writing to share my understanding of the importance of national media, and affirm the necessity of a satisfied and secure workforce for fulfillment of the CBC mandate.

The CBC/Radio-Canada Corporate Plan Summary for 2004-2005 to 2008-2009: Building For the Future states:
"As Canada’s national public broadcaster, the Corporation exists to help Canadians understand and appreciate themselves within both the Canadian and world contexts. In essence, Canadians turn to their national public broadcaster to help them connect to the Canadian experience."

This mandate has been elaborated in various ways to include: deepening regional roots, ensuring pan-Canadian program content, setting the standard for Canadian journalism, reflecting Canadian stories, emphasizing our multicultural and multiracial nature, and reaching Canadians wherever they live. I see CBC as the line of communication that entangles the individual minds and hearts of our citizens. Without this netting, this transmission of words and ideas, we lose track of each other, lose cohesion, lose our national voice.

Whenever a new controversy brings the status of the CBC back to the forefront, there are always those who complain nationalized media has become irrelevant and too expensive. These voices always proclaim how little they use CBC, how poor the programming is, and again, how dearly all this “third-rate” broadcasting hits the taxpayers’ wallet. This always frustrates me, because the existence of national media is not just about personal experience, not just about the audience. Even if I don’t religiously watch or listen to anything on CBC, this does not mean I find it worthless, useless, or unimportant. I find simple security in the fact I can make the choice to participate, profound comfort in the mere presence of the CBC. Anything that makes its existence seem precarious robs me of this comfort, presents a Canada where I might not have the choice, and that insecurity detracts from my Canadian experience, even if I don’t catch Vinyl Café or Tapestry every Sunday. Consider the significance of my opinions, given my membership in the famously desirable 18-35 year old demographic. A visit to cbckeydemo.blogspot.com will demonstrate how many of my fellow constituents likewise believe in the importance of the CBC.

Although the primary role of national media may be user-ship, it plays an important political role, in representing our national framework to the world. Media is the great international equalizer. I agree with Carole Taylor “that Canada has something important to offer the world at this particular moment in history: our values, our ideas, our talent …our experience as a compassionate, bilingual, multicultural country.” CBC does not exist, first, for our pleasure, second. It does not stand abstractly as the creator of Canadian substance for the citizens to consume. We, the people, the citizens, the audience, exist first, for the dissemination of the CBC, second. We provide the substance of Canadian thought and experience out of which CBC programming is fostered. As it holds our national consciousness together, we can then turn around and hold it out to the world.

What does it say about a country when they can’t organize and fund a coherent national media? How can a country claim to have a national spirit, a national identity, if they don’t carry a national voice? Public broadcasting is recognized across the globe as essential for maintaining national identity. Consider the BBC in England, NPR and PBS in the United States, other national voices in Australia, France, and Japan. Our broadcasts are our testament, to the world, about what this country stands for, what this country means. Carole Taylor continues, “You can’t be an independent strong nation in any meaningful way without a vibrant, beating sense of who we are, what our stories are, what our values are, what our history is.” The message is WE ARE; the medium is the Canadian Broadcast.

This lockout means the national voice has been so diminished, so silenced, so devalued, the Corporation refuses to commit to sustained resources for its maintenance. Resources are not only monetary; resources comprise physical space, physical people, and physical funds. The CBC has chosen to dismiss the people, chosen to empty their work-spaces, chosen profit for themselves over profit to the nation. To fulfill its mandate, the CBC must be committed to hiring and keeping quality employees, to providing a stable, functional work-space, and funding the necessary technology and training to fit the changing media environment. In fact, Section IV, D. of the CBC/Radio-Canada Corporate Plan states:

"The Corporation is committed to creating and maintaining a work environment where employees are equipped and motivated to succeed in their work, where they understand how their work fits into the Corporation’s overall direction, and where they have the opportunity to continually improve their skills and pursue a career path that benefits both them and the Corporation."

What motivates a work-force that has been literally expelled from their work environment? How can an employee fit their work into the Corporation’s overall direction without certainty about their own future in the Corporation? Where is the opportunity to train continually in a temporary, fluctuating work team?

Marshall McLuhan once said, “I am not, by temperament or conviction, a revolutionary: I would prefer a stable, changeless environment of modest services and human scale.” I think this is everything I ask of the CBC, a stable Canadian reporting of Canadian humanity. This is everything Canada asks of the CBC, and I believe, everything CMG asks, also. No one in this dispute is trying to revolutionize Canadian media, because the world has already provided us with a background of constant change and flux. We are all looking for policy that ensures stability in the face of that change. I call on the Corporation to re-affirm their own commitment to their staff, the 5500 creative minds that bring cohesion to our 31 million voices. I call on the Ministry of Canadian Heritage and the government to confirm its commitment to the Corporation. I hope for a speedy resolution, and return of the CMG employees to their posts, satisfied and secure on all sides.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,


Joanna []

Resources:
CBC/Radio-Canada Coporate Plan Summary for 2004-2005 to 2008-2009: Building for the Future. June 2004.

“Public Broadcasting: Why Bother? “ Carole Taylor, Chair, CBC/Radio-Canada, CBC/Radio-Canada. The Canadian Club Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario: October 22, 2003.

John Robert Colombo’s Famous Lasting Words: Great Canadian Quotations. Douglas & McIntyre, 2000.

http://cbckeydemo.blogspot.com

Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:00:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: [ ]
Subject: Lock Out
To: Frulla.L@parl.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, robert_rabinovitch@cbc.ca,
Neville.A@parl.gc.ca, Jane_Chalmers@cbc.ca, Fontana.J@parl.gc.ca

Dear Honourable Members of the Government and Members of the CBC Leadership,

Tonight I have spent the evening baking cupcakes to deliver tomorrow morning to the locked out CBC workers who normally keep me aware, educated and entertained. It is an act of solidarity I would like to expand on by taking the time to tell you how important the CBC is to me.

I live in Winnipeg South Centre and have friends living in Ottawa who have spent the evening doing the same as I. We realize that we represent an important demographic, as we are all aged 18-35.

In the morning I wake up to the Manitoba Morning show, and stay tuned for the big voice and the Current as well as Sounds Like Canada. On Saturdays I wake up early just for the House and Go. I watch the CBC National online. And I check the website several times a day. If I had cable I would be a huge fan of the Hour, instead I just watch all the video clips which make it onto the website.

I am afraid to imagine what Canada would be like without the CBC. I think, like many of your listeners, I count on CBC radio to connect me with parts of Country I am separated from. Gzowski was practically off the air when I started tuning in but the lady he interviewed walking around the chicken farm will always seem like my friend. And I have only ever been on a real farm once. Sometimes I listen to the news online in the Yukon because I have never been to Northern Canada and love to hear about that world.

This labour dispute, of course, goes beyond my nostalgia (of which I could write forever) it deals with the kind of work force we are creating in Canada. One which can be replaced at any moment. One that leaves us focusing on what we will do next instead of doing what we are doing now.

I want the Canada I live in to be one where public radio receives the support it needs from our government and creates a secure workforce. Please find a way to resolve this lock out quickly so we can return to the regularly scheduled programming which I love so much.

Thank You,

[ ]

There are people out there who love their job who aren't being allowed to do it, and that's sad. We love their job too, so we decided a baking blitz was our best course of action. Nothing says labour solidarity quite like four dozen cupcakes at 8:15 in the morning!

That's my headline, by the way. From this morning's Globe and Mail article about the Liberal caucus meeting in Regina:

"Outside of the caucus room, Quebec MPs complained about the CBC lockout.
Montreal MP Denis Coderre criticized CBC President Bob Rabinovitch for repeatedly locking-out CBC employees over the past five years."

The Canadian Broadcast Corporation has taken aggressive action by locking out 5,500 of its dedicated employees. While this lockout is intended to intimidate the Canadian Media Guild, it also affects the CBC's radio, tv and web audiences.
The contributors to this blog are part of the highly coveted 18-35 age demographic - one which in general tends to be lacking in CBC audiences - who fully and completely support the union against the Mother Corp. We are unconnected with the CBC, other than being avid listeners, viewers and readers. We call on CBC President Robert Rabinovitch and the CBC management to get back to the bargaining table and ensure that the employees can return to work, providing the balanced, informative and thoughtful programming we expect.

If you want to support the Canadian Media Guild, please do one of the following:

Call Audience Relations: 1-866-306-4636
E-mail CBC President and Acting Board Chair Robert Rabinovitch at robert_rabinovitch@cbc.ca
Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper
Lobby your local federal politician, Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, and Prime Minister Paul Martin (here's an alphabetical listing of MPs - click on a name for the MP's contact information - and here's a place to look up your MP using your postal code)
Hang a sign of support
Head out to the picket line and give the picketers your support. Remember - they are not on strike. They have been locked out from their jobs and from their e-mail, cell phones and other office tools. The corporation is making money by locking out the staff since they will not pay the staff for the duration of the lockout.

Visit the Canadian Media Guild website or the CBC Unplugged website for more information. There are lots of great blogs about this and some interesting discussions in the forum. Just for starters, here's one of the CBC Ottawa blogs. It also has links to other CBC blogs.

There's more to come! Thanks for reading.