Defunding CBC would be ‘devastating’ to news in rural Canada: Catherine Tait

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Catherine Tait was called to testify at the heritage committee, where she faced questions from Conservative MPs about CBC’s reporting on the Israel-Hamas war

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Published Nov 02, 2023  •  Last updated 20 minutes ago  •  4 minute read

CBC President Catherine Tait waits to appear before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage in Ottawa, on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. Photo by Spencer Colby /The Canadian Press

OTTAWA — CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait said she is “disturbed” by attempts from the Conservatives to direct the public broadcaster on how to cover the Israel-Hamas war and that defunding the CBC would amount to erasing news from remote communities in Canada.

Tait was already scheduled to appear at the parliamentary committee on Canadian Heritage on Thursday to speak about her renewed mandate but most questions revolved around recent inflammatory comments from Conservatives about CBC’s journalistic guidelines.

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Conservative MP Rachael Thomas notably accused the public broadcaster of taking the side of “terrorists” because it refuses to directly use the term to describe Hamas and of peddling disinformation because initial coverage of an explosion of a Gaza hospital blamed Israel.

In her initial statement, Tait said it was important for her to clarify that she does not receive her mandate from the government of the day and reiterated that the Broadcasting Act protects CBC/Radio-Canada’s journalistic independence in law to prevent political interference.

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“That independence is essential to our existence,” she said. “It marks the fundamental difference between a public broadcaster that serves citizens and a state broadcaster that serves the government.”

In her line of questioning, deputy Conservative leader Melissa Lantsman accused the CBC of publishing “a false headline based on dangerous disinformation” when an article reporting on the explosion of a Gaza hospital on Oct. 17 blamed Israel for the attack.

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Tait said the first CBC article on the explosion was based on reports by the Associated Press, an international news agency, but it was subsequently updated to reflect the correct information. The same report on RCI was only corrected on Oct. 27 because of a “procedural issue”.

“In conflicts and in war, news comes at a very fast rate,” said Tait.

Tait was asked by Lantsman to apologize to Canadians, and especially to Jewish Canadians, for this report, and to publish a retraction but Tait refused, arguing that CBC journalists should operate “in an independent fashion” of all political influence.

“If you have a concern, (if) anyone has a concern with our journalism, I invite you to address it to the independent ombudsman,” she said.

Tait also addressed an internal leaked memo sent by CBC’s director of journalistic standards telling journalists to avoid the use of the word “terrorist” when referring to Hamas fighters, and to add context when quoting officials using that term to add that it is based on opinion.

She said that the public broadcaster has had this policy in place for “several decades”, and is mirrored by a number of other “reputable news organizations” such as the Globe and Mail, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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Tait added that the CBC uses those words, but in context. “We use the words ‘terrorist’ and ‘terrorism’, and acknowledge that Canada, the UK and the US consider Hamas a terrorist organization, but we, as journalists, do not make that attribution,” she said.

Liberal MP Lisa Hepfner asked Tait how she felt when she heard that Conservative members of the committee were attempting to direct CBC on which words to use when covering the war.

“Very honestly, I’m disturbed. I’m disturbed by political interference,” said Tait.

NDP House leader Peter Julian blasted Thomas once more for insinuating “in the most irresponsible and incendiary way possible (that) CBC journalists were on the side of terrorists” and for not apologizing for those comments despite repeated attempts to get her to do so.

Tait said that CBC has teams on the ground in Israel “who are putting their lives in danger” to report the news to Canadians and that any suggestion that they are taking one side or another in this war would only undermine their safety even more.

She added that journalists working in Canada are not immune to those threats either.

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CBC/Radio-Canada has had to remove logos from its trucks to prevent harassment, protect journalists during demonstrations and reporters have been undertaking domestic war zone training to cover events amid the increasing polarization in the country towards the media.

Tait also defended the public broadcaster’s federal funding of $1.4 billion per year, comparing it to France’s public broadcasting corporations that receive $4 billion per year for a population of approximately 67 million people in one time zone and one single language.

“We are providing services in two official languages, eight indigenous languages, across six time zones with a funding of $33 per capita per year. That’s less than a dime a day,” said Tait.

Thomas asked her if the CBC would continue to provide Canadians with news if it was “given the opportunity to be truly independent, and set free from the shackles of government money”, as the Conservative party has been promising to do if they form government.

Tait said it would be “extremely difficult” to provide news to many of the underserved communities across Canada, such as rural and northern communities as well as francophones living in minority communities, which do not benefit from commercial private news.

“Should we be defunded, we would no longer be reaching all those Canadians,” she said.

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