QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Information Media Panel
May 28, 2019
My question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate, and it has to do with the panel the government appointed to decide which media organizations will receive a share of the $600‑million news media bailout fund.
This panel includes Unifor, which last November called itself “Andrew Scheer’s worst nightmare.” Unifor was a registered third party in the 2015 federal election, spending just under $300,000 on advertising, primarily to campaign against the previous Conservative government. Back in January, the union’s president, Jerry Dias, said that Unifor would be every bit as active in the upcoming federal election as they were in 2015.
Senator Harder, clearly Unifor is a partisan organization, and its involvement in this panel has been widely criticized, including by journalists themselves. Why is Unifor still a member of your government’s panel?
I thank the honourable senator for his question. He will know that this matter has also been significantly raised in the other place, where the minister responsible reiterated the commitment of this government to a strong and independent news media, and that the fundamental principle underlying the measures the government has put in place to support journalism is a determination to ensure that the decisions on the allocation of funds are made independent of government.
The independent group of experts representing news publishers and journalists will be established to ensure that eligibility criteria are defined by experts with thorough knowledge of journalism and print media. The panel of experts has been mandated to provide recommendations that will support a fair, equitable and efficient administration of these fiscal measures. The process will be transparent, and the panel’s recommendations will be made public.
Thank you, leader.
When Minister Rodriguez was here in March, I reminded him that in relation to the SNC-Lavalin scandal, former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould quoted the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, Katie Telford, as saying:
If Jody is nervous, we would, of course, line up all kinds of people to write op-eds saying that what she is doing is proper.
Senator Harder, this quote indicates that your government is not terribly concerned with the independence of the press. When the Prime Minister’s chief of staff talks about lining up friendly op-eds in the media, why should Canadians believe this panel is free from political interference?
I would have thought that a former senior executive at a newspaper would understand the difference between an op-ed, the management of a newspaper and the independent support that Parliament has voted that the Government of Canada administer.
My question for the government leader also concerns the media bailout fund. Last year, Unifor called itself “the resistance” to the Conservative Party. It actively encouraged strategic voting against the Conservative Party in the 2015 federal election.
A press release from Minister Rodriguez last week stated that this panel would “ensure the vitality of democracy.” The inclusion of Unifor shows the government is more concerned about ensuring the vitality of the Liberal Party.
This isn’t the first time we have seen this government take measures to harm the opposition in advance of the fall election. For example, the government has placed spending caps on the amount that opposition parties can spend in the pre-writ period, while putting no such limits on itself.
Senator Harder, how can the government continue to claim this panel is unbiased when the facts show otherwise?
Let me repeat that the government has put in place measures to ensure that these funds are administered at arm’s length. The panel itself consists of representatives of appropriate organizations and backgrounds to support that independence of view. Certainly, having representatives of organized labour is not anathema to their independence or to ensuring there is a broad perspective of views and experiences on any panel.
As I said, it is certainly concerning when they claim to be the resistance to the opposition.
As a supplementary, when Minister Rodriguez attended Senate Question Period in March, I asked him about a sole-source contract, later cancelled, worth $356,000 to pay reporters to attend public meetings of the Senate Banking Committee and the Finance Committee of the other place.
Senator Tkachuk also asked a question on this topic back in December. Neither of us has received an answer from the government as to why this contract was awarded in the first place. Senator, when you consider this contract, plus the quote from Katie Telford on placing op-eds in the media, plus Unifor’s inclusion on the bailout panel, why should Canadians have faith in the integrity of this panel or this process?
Let me repeat, despite the preambles of the question, that the government has put in place measures to ensure that what Parliament has approved with respect to supporting this vital sector is administered at arm’s length from government and free from the direction of any minister.
