Source : National Post

When Peter Newman resigned from the board of the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, he triggered public scrutiny of the controversial lobby group

by Matthew Fraser

Ian Morrison is a controversial figure in the Byzantine world of Ottawa cultural lobbying. The scrappy spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting clearly basks in public attention and never shrinks from a fight. Without his notoriety, Mr. Morrison's lobby group – which depends entirely on donations from individual Canadians – would have fizzled into oblivion a decade ago.

Mr. Morrison's grandstanding crusade in favour of public broadcasting – and against private media tycoons – has paid off handsomely for the non-profit organization he helped launch in 1985. Last year, Friends claims to have received some 37,000 cheques totalling $1.7-million. And there can be little doubt those funds pour into Friends' coffers thanks largely to Mr. Morrison's talents as an organizer, public speaker and spin doctor who tirelessly keeps Friends in the public eye.

For the first time, however, Mr. Morrison is embroiled in a potentially embarrassing public brawl he doubtless would have wished to avoid. Last week, author Peter C. Newman resigned from the Friends board, and Mr. Morrison is suddenly facing the same probing scrutiny he has persistently argued should apply to Canadian broadcasters. Some tough questions, many of which have been posed quietly for years, are now being asked openly about Friends and other organizations under Mr. Morrison's steerage. For the past week, Mr. Morrison has been in damage-control mode after Mr. Newman – a longtime Friends supporter – expressed his "horror" at the organization's transformation from noble defender of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation into a fundraising machine that seems divorced from its founding principles.

To be sure, the Friends lobby continues to benefit from vociferous support in certain quarters – notably the media elite and cultural-nationalist circles in Toronto. But even among the high-profile Canadians who have lent their distinguished names to the Friends cause, there have been long-simmering doubts about the way this seemingly well-meaning organization operates in isolation from public scrutiny.

Like Mr. Newman, many wonder how Friends funds are spent. Mr. Morrison has never publicly opened his books and provided a detailed account of Friends finances – particularly his own emoluments. Another reason Mr. Newman offered for his resignation is the presence of Pauline Couture, Mr. Morrison's wife, on the Friends board. Ms. Couture has been a paid consultant to CTV, the private television network whose operations are the subject of frequent public statements by Friends.

Friends, it would seem, has exempted itself from the rigorous standards of transparency and public accountability to which Mr. Morrison argues Canadian broadcasters should be held. Indeed, when you scratch the surface of Mr. Morrison's polished pronouncements, a picture emerges of personal ambition and nepotism that drive a number of non-profit organizations intimately connected to the Morrison-Couture tandem.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Morrison was in Ottawa exhorting regulators to impose strict codes of editorial separation on media groups, such as CanWest Global, that own both television stations and newspapers. And yet Mr. Morrison does not appear to apply the same code to himself. Both Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and the Canadian Journalism Foundation – two non-profit groups that deal with broadcasting and newspapers – are effectively run under the same roof of the Morrison-Couture household in a smart Toronto neighbourhood.

Mr. Morrison and Ms. Couture have become experts in the business of non-profit "voluntary" organizations. And they have deployed impressive networking skills to attract high-profile names from Canada's media, political and corporate elites to give these organizations a sense of purpose and respectability.

Mr. Morrison got his start in the non-profit sector in the mid-1970s when, after working in the "adult education" movement, he became head of the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations. By the early 1980s, he was heading a number of "Friends" groups, including one for Canadian prison inmates. He subsequently ran groups with names such as "Friends of Ontario Universities" and "Friends of International Development." Mr. Morrison often appears to have been not so much an advocate of anything in particular as a professional lobbyist who understood the legal and fiscal rules governing non-profit organizations.

In 1985, he parlayed his backroom skills into public notoriety when Peter Newman, Pierre Berton, Peter Herrndorf and other cultural nationalists asked him to run the newly hatched "Friends of Public Broadcasting." Mr. Morrison jumped aboard as the founding spokesman for the non-profit organization established to promote the CBC and values associated with public broadcasting.

But Mr. Morrison soon rebaptized the lobby group as "Friends of Canadian Broadcasting" to expand its mandate beyond CBC-related issues. One of Mr. Morrison's obsessions was – and remains – the performance of Izzy Asper's Global TV. His unceasing accusation that Global spends too little on Canadian programs provoked Mr. Asper into hiring a private investigator to look into the Friends operations. Undaunted, Mr. Morrison enjoys taunting Mr. Asper, and proudly bears the flamboyant media mogul's sharp rebuttals like duelling scars.

At CanWest Global, the alleged linkages between Mr. Morrison's attacks on Mr. Asper and Ms. Couture's paid employment at Global's main competitor, CTV, have not gone unnoticed. It was Ms. Couture, after all, who – working as a speechwriter for movie producer Robert Lantos – authored a highly publicized address by Mr. Lantos that triggered a defamation suit by Mr. Asper.

Ms. Couture is a controversial figure in her own right. Among her many hats, she is vice-chair of the Canadian Journalism Foundation. Like Friends, the CJF has attracted many high-profile names from media, politics and business. Unlike the grassroots Friends, however, the CJF targets big Canadian corporations for donations. Created in 1990 with funding from the Jackman Foundation, the CJF claims to support "excellence in journalism" with awards, tributes and gala events. But like Friends, the CJF has drifted from its original mandate and lost its sense of purpose. As one CJF board member from Toronto put it: "We have meetings at the University Club that are rather like one of those old Peter Sellers movies. No one really knows why they are there, but we're happy to be drinking and gorging ourselves at somebody else's expense."

Through the CJF Ms. Couture has built fundraising networks into Bay Street boardrooms, major media companies and prestigious universities. Thanks to Ms. Couture's influence, the foundation is a member of the new Canadian Media Research Consortium which will receive $3.5-million from BCE as one of the "benefits" BCE was forced to pay in return for the permission to takeover the CTV television network. What is more, the CJF's operational director is her stepson Patrick Morrison, son of Ian Morrison. The family ties between Mr. Morrison, his son Patrick and Ms. Couture place operational control of both Friends and the CJF squarely in the Morrison-Couture household.

Ironically, a past recipient of a CJF "lifetime achievement" award is Peter C. Newman. Other high-profile media figures hovering around the Friends-CJF nexus have been similarly honoured by the CJF, sat on its committees or received lucrative "research" contracts – Knowlton Nash, Peter Desbarats, Elly Alboim, Allan Gregg, to name just a few.

Another powerful irony is that the CJF has sought funding from Mr. Asper, whom both Mr. Morrison and Ms. Couture have publicly attacked, either directly or indirectly. Even more surprising, on June 6 the CJF will hold yet another gala awards ceremony in Toronto, where the event's co-hosts will be Ms. Couture and Kevin Newman – the anchorman on Mr. Asper's Global Television Network.

Mr. Morrison's Friends operation sometimes seems paradoxical. Many contributors send money to Friends in the belief Mr. Morrison is committed to defending the CBC. But top CBC executives are openly dismissive of Mr. Morrison and his organization. Their hostility is due mainly to the fact Mr. Morrison supports the positions of CBC unions and regulators in attacks on senior management at the public broadcaster.

Mr. Morrison's anti-CBC crusade has proved unfortunate for the career of his wife as a CTV communications consultant. When a raft of CBC executives, led by Trina McQueen, recently took the controls at CTV, they had not forgotten the anti-CBC antics of Friends. Consequently, Ms. Couture has not prospered at CTV since Ms. McQueen became president of the private network.

Mr. Morrison, meanwhile, is rallying his supporters in the media. The Toronto Star and Globe and Mail recently attacked Mr. Newman over his public resignation from Friends.

In the wake of Mr. Newman's resignation, Mr. Morrison posted the Friends annual report on the organization's Web site (friendscb.ca). The financial statements, while audited, are vague and opaque. No figures are given, for example, for the remuneration and expenses of Mr. Morrison. We learn, for example, that Friends spent $555,179 last year to "brief supporters," $416,169 communicating to the general public and $274,333 on media relations. Many of these are duties performed by Mr. Morrison himself.

The Friends financial statements have, in fact, only prompted more questions about Mr. Morrison and his organization – and, indeed, about the joint activities of him and his wife. So the tables are now turned. It appears Mr. Morrison, long accustomed to asking pointed questions about the performance of media tycoons, will be forced to answer inquiries about his own activities. 

© The National Post

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See also: FRIENDS' Letter to the Editor of the National Post