Source: The Chronicle Herald

The CBC’s funding has been reduced by every government since Brian Mulroney’s — both Conservative and Liberal. All federal governments, it seems, dislike the CBC and have found it an easy target. That means it’s up to ordinary Canadians to speak up for the CBC. We, a non-partisan group of citizens from Antigonish, call for a public review of the CBC and hope other concerned Canadians will do the same.

The real issue isn’t the most recent cuts or the loss of particular programs. It’s the fact that, for many years, the CBC has been undergoing the proverbial death by a thousand cuts. While the Harper budget will require the CBC to lay off 800 employees, it has lost an astonishing 2,300 jobs since 1990. Its budget has declined from $1.6 billion in 1990 to just over $1 billion in 2009. Every government has produced reasons for its cuts. The cumulative impact, though, is that the CBC is steadily becoming a shadow of its former self.

Why does this matter? Because the CBC is the voice of Canadians. It has been part of our identity as a multicultural country, reflecting to ourselves and the world what Canada stands for. By keeping us all in touch with other parts of the country, it has been an instrument of national unity. Its independent reporting on major issues underpins our democracy. And the CBC has been an inclusive forum where debates about political, social and moral issues and opinions of every stripe could be heard, uncensored by government or stifled by dependence on advertisers.

But the CBC’s ability to play these roles has been seriously eroded. You simply can’t cut an organization’s funding by nearly a third and expect it to carry out its mandate effectively. The cuts now being made to the CBC will result in less local programming, more imported American programs, less first-hand reporting of community events and issues, and more repeats.

People have come to love the CBC because it provided high quality programming and reporting, and because it has been accessible to everyone. It has shown us who we are honestly and critically. The CBC was intended to be responsive to Canadians, not to political agendas. In contrast, the mandate of the big commercial broadcasters is to make a profit for their shareholders.

Our community group has heard impassioned laments about the CBC’s decline from farmers, music students, parents and grandparents, store-keepers, professors and truckers. Ottawa would do well to recognize that Canadians from all walks of life are mad as hell about what’s being done to the CBC.

The federal heritage minister has directed the CBC to conduct a strategic review to identify another five per cent of its funding that could be cut. But there’s no way such an internal exercise will produce the fresh thinking the CBC really needs. We need to go back to first principles: Do Canadians want a public broadcaster? If so, what should its roles be?

Or do they agree with the Conservatives’ goal of making the CBC more dependent on advertising, or even privatizing it?

But most of all, the CBC’s stakeholders — Canadian viewers and listeners — need to be directly involved. So we call on all the political parties in Ottawa to support a public review of the CBC. The task is not to examine recent cuts or point fingers. It is to have all Canadians share their thoughts on what the CBC should and could be. The review should help form a renewed vision for the CBC’s future, and generate the political commitment and funding needed to make that vision a reality.

The CBC is bleeding to death. If we want it to survive and return to health, Canadians need to speak up before the patient expires.

John Lamb is a member of Antigonish Citizens in Support of the CBC, a non-partisan grassroots group. In just a few months, the group has collected over 1,500 signatures out of Antigonish’s population of 5,000 in support of a public review of the CBC.

© The Chronicle Herald