Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said the CBC blew $400,000 on its lawsuit against the Conservatives. “The CBC mouthpieces and executives who put their names on this outrageous legal action should be forced to pay for it out of their own pockets,” tweeted Poilievre on Thursday. “Sign here to defund the CBC: https://www.conservative.ca/cpc/defund-the-cbc/.”.The CBC lost its lawsuit against the Conservatives in 2021 over using its material in ads during the 2019 Canadian election.READ MORE: BREAKING: CBC loses lawsuit against CPC for using clips in adsIn 2019, the CBC served notice it wanted the Conservatives and its executive director Dustin Van Vugt to acknowledge they “engaged in the unauthorized use of copyright-protected material.”The CBC alleged its clips used in Conservative ads were “taken out of context and were edited and relied on to make partisan points for the benefit of the party.”The Conservatives started off the petition by calling for the CBC to be defunded. “Whereas the CBC undercuts private sector and independent media and competes for advertising space while receiving more than $1 billion in direct taxpayer subsidies,” it said. “And whereas the CBC mostly provides opinions and coverage that are widely available in a free and competitive media marketplace.” Therefore, the Conservatives said the Canadian government should “defund the CBC to save taxpayer dollars and ensure a free and competitive press in the Canadian media landscape.”
