NDP, Bloc accuse Poilievre of threatening French, Quebec culture with stance on CBC
By Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press on April 17, 2023.
OTTAWA – Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says Pierre Poilievre’s criticisms of the CBC amount to an attack on Canadian culture by the Conservative leader – and Quebec and francophone culture, in particular. Singh addressed the issue, speaking in French, after Twitter added a label to CBC’s main account on Sunday indicating the broadcaster was “government-funded media.” That move prompted the corporation to announce today it was hitting pause on its use of the socia-media platform, which described the BBC in the same way before changing its own label to “publicly funded media.” CBC receives roughly $1 billion in taxpayer money annually but it says the label is inaccurate because it maintains editorial independence and receives its funding through a vote in Parliament. Poilievre regularly promises to slash that funding and sent a letter to Twitter last week requesting that the label be applied to accounts associated with CBC News, but did not mention Radio-Canada, the French-language wing of the broadcaster. Poilievre has suggested in media interviews that while he believes in defunding the CBC, he sees the value in its French-language programming – but along with the NDP, the Bloc Québécois is raising concerns about that approach. Leader Yves-François Blanchet said on Twitter that Poilievre is playing a risky ideological game, and that he’s openly threatening French and access to information and the arts. This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2023. 9-8
