A former CRTC Vice Chair of Telecommunications says a Liberal government review on how to improve the CBC is full of grant-receiving central Canadians unlikely to offer novel suggestions.Peter Menzies, an expert affiliated with the MacDonald-Laurier Institute, bashed the review in a Substack post Tuesday. Menzies, a former editor and publisher of the Calgary Herald, said the massive subsidies the CBC receives present an unlevel playing field that threatens the survival of Canadian journalism."No other industry could survive let alone thrive if one of its largest players received a massive annual $1.4 billion subsidy and was left free to compete with everyone else for talent, audiences and advertisers while giving away for free the commodity — news — that so many others are trying to sell via subscriptions," Menzies wrote."It’s insanity. And it has to stop."Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge has appointed a panel of experts to advise on how to make the CBC better:Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CEO, TV5 Québec CanadaJesse Wente, Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, founding Executive Director of the Indigenous Screen OfficeJennifer McGuire, Managing Director, Pink Triangle Press (and former head of CBC News)David Skok, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, The Logic (independent media startup)Mike Ananny, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California AnnenbergLoc Dao, Executive Director of DigiBCCatalina Briceno, Professor, Université du Québec à MontréalAs St-Onge put it, “This advisory committee, with its diverse perspectives and experiences, will help me fulfil my mandate to modernize CBC/Radio-Canada. It will be able to better promote our culture, our stories, our languages, our artists, and our creators, while adapting to our rapidly changing broadcast and digital landscape.”Menzies said nothing in this frame of reference deals with what makes the CBC "controversial" or the English news content that makes Conservatives want to "kill it.""I have made the acquaintance of some of the panelists and they are certainly pleasant and well-informed individuals. But Oh My Goodness — the overall composition of this group just reeks of everything that’s wrong with how the CBC and Heritage Canada view the nation," he wrote."Two from Lower Canada (Quebec), three from Upper Canada (Ontario), one from B.C. and one from the USA — with a soupcon of LGBTetc and indigenous influences added for flavouring. No one from North of 49.2 degrees, no one from east of Montreal and just one from west of Niagara Falls (not counting the guy in SoCal who was previously attached to the Trudeau Foundation)."On that scorecard, the panel fails at "diversity", Menzies said."Sorry panelists, please don’t take it personally but all I see coming is more blah, blah, frickin’ blah. Prove me wrong."According to Blacklock's Reporter, companies for which four of the panelists work have received federal grants with totals as low as $371,294 and as high as $1.6 million. Others have past and current connections to federal funding and payrolls."Fair to say that within the group there’s little evidence of any inherent opposition - at least on principle - to the idea that what will cure the CBC’s problems is just more money," Menzies concludes.
