Mr. Robert Rabinovitch
President CBC

Dear Mr. Rabinovitch:

Re: lockout of journalists by CBC management

I would like to express my deep frustration and disappointment regarding your decision to lock out your journalists. Your claim that CBC management simply wants to have parity with other private broadcasters, adds insult to injury.

I wonder if you have tried to apply the uncertainty of a casual contract, to your own personal life. How would you feel if you had to work supplementary hours without remuneration? How would you feel if you could not get married, have children or buy a house/mortgage, because you were not sure if your contract would be renewed or not? How about living without benefits in case you got sick or had an emergency that prevented you from working? How would you feel if you discovered that at the end of your career, you had no access to a pension?

Will such a precarious state of affairs make for better, dedicated journalists? Just because private broadcasters have fallen prey to the lowest common denominator, do we have to follow suit? You forget that the CBC is the “raison dâe(TM)être” of Canadians. It is our only source of unbiased, truthful information that is not tainted by the commercialism of the private sector. It is a real pillar of democracy and is essential to a well-informed voter. It is the envy of some of our enlightened American neighbours to the South, who yearn for unbiased information, not the mouthpiece of the establishment or the government in place.

Not too long ago, a CBC public affairs program, such as the fifth estate could unseat a Cabinet Minister — John Fraser — as a result of the investigation of the tuna affair!

We Canadians boast about our CBC, just as we boast about our public health care system. You want to take all that away from us by subjecting your professional journalists to the vagaries of temporary contracts?

Please have some common sense and rescind these archaic ideas once and for all. Canadians are quite happy to sustain the cost of an excellent source of news through their tax dollars. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Nadia Alexan