XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   From: gregcarrsober@gmail.com   
      
   On 30/05/2014 3:10 PM, "{>_<} Раиса" <"{>_ @nyet.ca> wrote:   
   >   
   > It needs to be one of the issues put to the Liberals and the NDP prior   
   > to the 2015 election. What the Cons have tried to do to our national   
   > broadcaster is nothing short of censorship through crippling with   
   > funding cuts. We need to see that funding restored and increased. CBC is   
   > our only remaining link with finding out what the federal government is   
   > up to.   
   >   
   CBC needs to lose its billion dollar subsidy and sink or swim on its own.   
   _______________________________________________   
   >   
   > THE CANADIAN PRESS — CP — May 29 2014   
   >   
   >   
   > CBC letter to Harper slams Tory attacks   
   >   
   >   
   > OTTAWA - The Conservative party's public attacks on the CBC have been   
   > "wilfully destructive" and undermine its independence, says a newly   
   > uncovered letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper from the broadcaster's   
   > Tory-appointed former chair.   
   >   
   > The sharply worded 2010 letter, released last month under the Access to   
   > Information Act, alleges that unwarranted attacks that year "disparaged   
   > the Crown corporation in order to solicit political donations for the   
   > Conservative party."   
   >   
   > The missive from then-CBC chair Tim Casgrain warns the party and   
   > government MPs against "intruding" on the broadcaster's independence as   
   > they seek "to influence the content of programming."   
   >   
   > "While this may be fair game in partisan politics, the charges are   
   > unfounded in fact and wilfully destructive of an asset of the Crown."   
   >   
   > Casgrain's dyspeptic dispatch was triggered by controversy over remarks   
   > by CBC pollster Frank Graves of Ekos Research to a newspaper columnist,   
   > Lawrence Martin of the Globe and Mail.   
   >   
   > Graves later apologized for telling Martin he had urged the Liberal   
   > party to "invoke a culture war" with the Conservatives and to not fear   
   > polarizing debate over issues such as tolerance.   
   >   
   > Conservative MPs and party officials immediately seized on the remarks,   
   > demanding the CBC fire Graves as its pollster.   
   >   
   > Casgrain, appointed by the Harper government to the CBC board of   
   > directors in April 2007, said Graves' polling work for CBC had integrity   
   > and reliability — and noted the government itself had hired him in the   
   > past.   
   >   
   > "The government comes dangerously close to intruding on the independence   
   > of the broadcaster when it seeks to influence the content of programming   
   > or determine whose views will or will not be represented on its   
   > airwaves," says the letter, a highly unusual direct communication from   
   > the CBC board to a prime minister.   
   >   
   > Casgrain's five-year CBC term ended in June 2012. An executive at a   
   > Toronto flight business, his only comment this week was that "the letter   
   > speaks for itself. I have nothing to add."   
   >   
   > A spokeswoman for the CBC said the Prime Minister's Office never   
   > responded to the letter, which was also copied to then-heritage   
   > minister, James Moore, who also did not respond.   
   >   
   > France Belisle said the chair and board have not sent any further   
   > letters to the prime minister touching on the public broadcaster's   
   > independence.   
   >   
   > Harper's spokesman Jason MacDonald said the Prime Minister's Office has   
   > "no intention of getting into a play-by-play around correspondence that   
   > goes back to 2010."   
   >   
   > "The CBC chair is entitled to his views and to expressing them. The   
   > government respects the CBC's independence, and it continues to receive   
   > significant taxpayer funds."   
   >   
   > A spokesman for the Conservative party took issue with the Casgrain   
   > letter, saying this week that "no media organization, not even the CBC,   
   > gets to dictate how the Conservative party can and cannot fundraise."   
   >   
   > "When the CBC invites partisan guests and treats them like neutral   
   > observers, we're going to point out their bias to Canadians," Cory Hann   
   > said in an email.   
   >   
   > "When the CBC is being biased against our party in their 'news'   
   > coverage, we will never hesitate to inform Canadians."   
   >   
   > An Elections Canada database indicates a Tim Casgrain twice donated   
   > $1,050 to Toronto's Eglinton-Lawrence Conservative Association in 2007   
   > and 2008. The riding was then held by a Liberal but was won by   
   > Conservative Joe Oliver, now finance minister, in the 2011 election.   
   >   
   > A recent fundraising letter from the Conservative party accuses a cartel   
   > of five big media groups in Canada of bias in favour of Liberal Leader   
   > Justin Trudeau, and pointedly asks party supporters whether the CBC   
   > should be privatized.   
   >   
   > "The CBC receives more than $1 billion per year in taxpayer funding —   
   > yet is widely perceived as holding a Liberal bias in their news and   
   > analysis," says the letter from Fred DeLorey, the party's director of   
   > political operations.   
   >   
   > Ian Morrison, spokesman for the pro-CBC lobby group Friends of Canadian   
   > Broadcasting, said from Toronto that the letter was "serious stuff —   
   > it's troubling but not surprising."   
   >   
   > "I'm proud of Mr. Casgrain. ... He wrote to the only guy who was capable   
   > of ending the fundraising attacks."   
   >   
   > The 2012 federal budget chopped the CBC's budget by $115 million over   
   > three years, with the corporation shedding more than 600 jobs this year   
   > alone. The cuts were among a spate of spending reductions across   
   > government to balance the budget by 2015, and leave the CBC with just   
   > over $900 million in annual operations funding.   
      
      
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