Readers of CBC's website are being served advertisements prominently featuring terms including “cisgender,” “pansexual” and “Two-Spirit,” prompting criticism from Canadians who say the country's taxpayer-funded public broadcaster has become saturated with identity politics.The advertisements have appeared alongside stories on CBC's website and present readers with terminology associated with sexual orientation and gender identity.The CBC receives $1.6 billion a year in taxpayer's money."I've seen these everywhere including on The Score app and LinkedIn. Can't imagine how much of our money they're spending to tell us what a pansexual is," tweeted Mike Campbell@Skeptical_Mike."It's everywhere right now. I publish articles for companies on LinkedIn & every feed is filled with the same thing. Our radio stations parrot the same messages over and over again as well. Unlimited funds to cater to every emotion, but nothing practical or helpful for Canadians," said Jamie Chirps @Jamiee_Chirps"PMMC has a 'trans daughter' [or son, or whatever] and is all-in to support that. Just because he doesn't have green and purple hair, a tie-dyed t-shirt and pound of facial piercing doesn't mean that he isn't a lefty-lib freak supporting all kinds of freakish lefty-lib causes," said Tokenn @Tokenn·CBC itself has previously published explanatory material introducing Canadians to much of the same terminology. A 2022 CBC article billed as an sexual minority vocabulary primer defined terms ranging from “cisgender” and “non-binary” to “pansexual” and “2-spirit.” The article described pansexual people as those attracted to people regardless of gender.Two-Spirit is a specifically Indigenous term rather than simply another synonym for "LGBT." Canadian academic and institutional sources generally describe it as an umbrella identity used by some Indigenous people encompassing aspects of gender, sexuality, spirituality and traditional cultural roles.The federal government has also incorporated increasingly expansive sexual- and gender-identity terminology into programs and communications. Immigration and Refugee Board material, for example, lists identities including “intersex, asexual, demisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, gender neutral, gender queer” and others under the broader sexual minority+ umbrella.Federal public-health programming has gone beyond terminology. The Public Health Agency of Canada's 2024 dementia-strategy report says Ottawa-funded organization Egale delivered a national advertising and awareness campaign aimed specifically at people with dementia who are members of “Two-Spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex” and other sexually and gender-diverse communities.The latest advertisements appearing on CBC pages therefore land in an already politically charged environment surrounding Canada's public broadcaster.
