The facade of the CBC-Radio Canada building in Montreal.
The facade of the CBC-Radio Canada building in Montreal. Credit: abdallahh / Wikimedia Commons Credit: abdallahh / Wikimedia Commons

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) president Catherine Tait will answer questions from the members of the House of Commons Canadian Heritage Committee tomorrow, and she can expect a rough ride.

The Conservatives despise the public broadcaster on ideological grounds. One of their leader, Pierre Poilievre’s favourite slogans is “defund the CBC.” 

Poilievre is vague when it comes to how he would carry out his plan. 

CBC’s French language services (branded, in French, as Radio-Canada) are very popular and get excellent ratings, mostly in Quebec. It would be political suicide in Quebec to mess with Radio-Canada. 

And so, Poilievre has sometimes suggested a Conservative government would maintain funding for the public broadcaster in French, but slash its English component to near zero. 

The Conservatives have no doubt figured out how they would explain that loony idea to taxpayers across the country – how they’d get Albertans, say, to accept paying taxes to support a public service available only in French.

When Tait meets the Committee on Thursday morning, however, she will not be hearing much about future plans to cripple the CBC. 

Terrorists or militants?

Right now, the Conservatives’ beef is with the CBC news service. 

They are in high dudgeon over the way CBC News is covering the Israel-Hamas war. In particular, they object to CBC’s use of the word “militants” rather than “terrorists” to describe Hamas attackers and fighters.

Many other broadcasters use the word militants, although, in the wake of Hamas’ vicious and wanton murder of 1,400 people on October 7, some are reconsidering their choice. 

CBC tries to be fair and balanced in its Middle East coverage. 

When referring to Israel’s West Bank settlements, for instance, it does not routinely characterize them as “illegal”, although international law does deem them to be so.

An occupying power which seizes territory in war, even in self-defence, does not have the legal right to colonize that territory – as Israel has done on the West Bank. 

Occupiers are legally obliged to treat the inhabitants of seized territory humanely and respectfully, based on the understanding that the occupation is not supposed to be a permanent situation. The land still belongs, legally, to the occupied people, not the occupiers.

CBC News knows this, but still gives Israel the benefit of the doubt, and does not characterize Israeli setters as “illegal interlopers” or some other emotive term. 

Nor does the CBC ever use epithets such as “Zionist” or “Zionist imperialists” to describe Israelis – as do other broadcasters in other parts of the world. 

And the CBC certainly never conflates Jews, in general, with Israelis. That, again, is something others do. It is a practice that feeds antisemitism, as opposed to legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s policies and practices.

During the current Middle East crisis CBC has provided exemplary service for Canadians who want to know and understand what is going on. 

Canada’s public broadcaster has invested considerable resources into original coverage, with its own journalists and crews, and provides viewers, readers and listeners with a wide range of perspectives from all sides.

Unlike some US news outlets, CBC does not see itself as a cheerleader for one side. CNN, for instance, brands its own coverage of this crisis as “Israel at War”, not War in the Middle East or some other more balanced term. 

To be fair, even CNN sometimes gives air time to the experience of civilian Palestinian victims and to the Palestinian point of view. 

The other day, CNN’s Erin Burnett had an excellent report, for instance, on the fears Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are currently experiencing. Those people are terrified of arbitrary arrest for almost any reason at all, even for slogans or statements Israeli police might find on their cell phones. 

Stay calm, be friendly and reasonable

When Catherine Tait engages with the Conservatives on the Heritage Committee, she might want to point out the public broadcaster’s great efforts to be neutral and fair, and not a transmitter of any side’s propaganda.

She will also have to walk a fine line. She should answer all questions respectfully, but remind MPs that politicians have no right to interfere in the day-to-day operations of the public broadcaster. In doing so, now, in such a blatant way, the Conservatives are setting a bad precedent. 

The word “public” is key here. 

CBC is not a state broadcaster, a mouthpiece for the government of the day. In fact, arguably, the governing Liberals should have more ground to distrust the CBC than the Conservatives. 

Since the Trudeau team came to power in 2015, CBC has been merciless in rooting out and broadcasting stories and scandals that are embarrassing to the current government. 

Happily, unlike some Liberals of the past, the current crop of Liberals has shown admirable forbearance. They appear to understand the importance of CBC’s arm’s-length-away-from-government role.

In the past, especially during the time of the current PM’s father, Pierre Trudeau, many Liberals grew apoplectic about what they took to be CBC French network journalists’ and commentators’ sympathy for the Quebec separatist cause. 

Catherine Tait would also be well-advised to emphasize for the MPs on the Committee how important CBC is, today, for the practice of professional journalism in Canada.

At a time when corporate (sometimes foreign-owned) news organizations are shutting down local publications and firing truckloads of paid, professional journalists, CBC is keeping the lights on for the profession. 

Our public broadcaster continues to provide excellent local coverage throughout the country – in French and English and in multiple Indigenous languages, on radio, on television, and on the internet.

In fact, CBC is probably the only major media organization to have expanded its local coverage of late. CBC News recently added bureaus in Kingston Ontario and Lethbridge Alberta. 

One of the CBC’s fiercest Conservative critics on the Committee, Rachael Thomas (formerly Harder), represents Lethbridge in Parliament.

Mostly, the CBC president must not lose her cool or get defensive when dealing with the corporation’s Conservative detractors. 

Today’s Canadian Conservatives tend to personalize their political attacks, somewhat in the Donald Trump style and following their leader’s example. But Catherine Tait must never forget that what is happening is not about her, personally, it is about a key institution in Canadian life. 

So, here are some final words of free advice to Catherine Tait – counsel that is, maybe, worth nothing more than she is paying for it:

Keep your cool. 

Stay calm, reasonable and even cheerful. 

Be strategic and deft, not combative. 

Speak always on behalf of the institution, never yourself. 

And good luck. Canada needs its public broadcaster more than ever.

Karl Nerenberg

Karl Nerenberg joined rabble in 2011 to cover Canadian politics. He has worked as a journalist and filmmaker for many decades, including two and a half decades at CBC/Radio-Canada. Among his career highlights...