Source : National Post

To suggest Italian-Canadians can't make up their own minds is insulting

Italy's state broadcaster has applied to the CRTC for a 24-hour digital TV licence. Debate over the station has turned into a nasty community battle

Italian state broadcaster RAI International's application to the CRTC for a 24-hour per day, seven-day per week digital television channel has generated controversy among members of the Italian community, as well as in the mainstream and Italian-Canadian media.

Currently, a limited amount of RAI programming is available to Italian-Canadians through TeleLatino, a Toronto based broadcaster who offers programming in several languages, including Italian and Spanish. While TeleLatino has done a reasonable job of broadcasting RAI programming, its agreement with RAI International is in question. That, in the minds of many Italian-Canadians, is between the two of them. Of greater importance to Italian-Canadians is the fundamental question of choice, and the freedom to watch (or not watch) the shows from Italy that they choose, rather than have that decision made for them by business interests located in Toronto.

Where this debate has become offensive to Italian-Canadians is the suggestion that RAI International's application to the CRTC is a veiled attempt by the Italian government to influence the political views of the Italian diaspora.

For example, the author, Nino Ricci, has gone as far as to imply that the Prime Minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, who "might not be Mussolini (even if he seems closer than you'd expect in a modern, G-8 democracy)," may somehow now be using RAI as a Trojan horse to Canada. "Having already managed to exert a strangle-hold on the Italian media," Mr. Ricci wrote recently, "could Mr. Berlusconi be setting his sights on squelching dissent among potential voters abroad? ... It's conceivable that the Italians hope to use these fellow citizens as a sort of vanguard to control the whole Italian-Canadian community, keeping their links to Italy strong through groups like comites [bodies elected directly by Italians abroad] and through regular doses of RAI." This, to put it mildly, is nothing short of nonsense.

Following this line of thinking, the presence of the BBC's digital channel in Canada must be an attempt by the British government to influence the politics of British Canadians, and the fact that PBS has been available on basic cable for years is surely an indication that the White House must be seeking not to inform American expatriates but rather to sway them. Canadians living abroad would be denied access to the CBC, therefore, because the network's nightly news show must have the ulterior motive of mind control, rather than information.

Of course, those groups would dismiss such statements out of hand. We watch what we want to watch when we want to watch it, we turn our TVs off when we've had enough, and we make up our own minds about politics, thanks very much, would be the inevitable reply. To suggest anything less of Italian-Canadians is insulting. To suggest that the availability of Italian broadcasting in Canada subjects Canadian citizens of Italian descent to "competing claims of loyalty from other lands" is absurd.

Italian immigrants to Canada have taken up Canadian citizenship in vast numbers, and their participation rate in Canadian federal and provincial elections exceeds the broader Canadian average, notwithstanding the current availability of RAI programming on TeleLatino.

While public interest and scrutiny of a public process is a good thing, some of the commentary, particularly by those who oppose RAI International's application, begs clarification and is, quite frankly, offensive to the approximately one million Canadians of Italian descent.

In order to fully appreciate the breadth of the CRTC controversy, one must first understand the Italian immigrant experience. Whether one considers the earlier wave of Italian immigrants to Canada of about 100 years ago, or the much larger group who chose Canada to be their new home in the 1950s and 1960s, the bonds to Italy and Italian culture are strong. Many Italian-Canadians still have family members in Italy. Some still have property and assets in the "old country." Among those who have neither, many retain a cultural linkage and strong interest in their homeland that of their parents and grandparents. Anyone who doubts this need only check the volume of telephone traffic, travel, and trade between Canada and Italy. The appetite among Italian-Canadians for information and entertainment from Italy is considerable.

This hardly makes Italian-Canadians unique. The proliferation of television, radio and newspapers with offerings in languages in other than French and English over the last 25 years suggests that while Canadians from all over the world have embraced Canada as their new home, and are productive, contributing members of a multicultural Canada, the desire for communications in their native language that reflects their cultural roots remains strong.

The Italian-Canadian community is mature, secure, affluent in many parts and, most importantly, sufficiently sophisticated to make its choices. Over 100,000 Italian-Canadians lent their names to a petition in support of RAI International 's application. A petition of this size is indeed a rare occurrence in Canada. Those who oppose RAI International's application have also failed to answer some very fundamental questions. First, why should Italian-Canadians be denied the same unfettered access to RAI programming enjoyed by Italians who chose to emigrate to Australia, Argentina and the United States, where RAI International programming is readily available? Secondly, why should the state broadcasters from other countries be allowed to send their signals directly into Canadian homes but not Italy's? Why should the availability of RAI programming be limited to that which is selected, and in some cases edited, by private sector business interests located in Toronto?

If those who oppose the RAI International application, and support the status quo, are motivated by business and financial reasons, they should say so. To those who would frame the issue as one of political manipulation by the Italian government on unsuspecting Italian-Canadians who just want to watch the news or catch a soccer game, we say: no, grazie.

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