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 []