Juno News - January 03, 2020CBC giving away Cuban holiday in contest sponsored by communist Cuba
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Summary
The weather is getting cold in Cuba, but fear not Canadians, CBC might send you on a lovely warm tropical getaway to a communist dictatorship. Yes, Cuba is the choice of CBC s latest contest, the Holiday Escape to Cuba contest, which is sponsored not only by Sunwing Vacations and the Cuban Government, but also by the Cuban government.
Transcript
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the weather is getting cold but fear not Canadians CBC might send you on a lovely
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warm tropical getaway to a communist dictatorship yes Cuba is the choice of
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CBC's latest contest the holiday escape to Cuba contest which as you can see
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from the CBC's website is sponsored not only by Sunwing vacations but also by
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the Cuban government now we know that Cuba is a popular destination for a lot
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of Canadians it's very inexpensive and the reason Canadian tourism makes up
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such a significant chunk of Cuban tourism overall is because Americans are
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not able to go as tourists leisure travel is still even with the easing of
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restrictions not a viable option for Americans but we have now CBC saying to
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Canadians we'll send you there and we're going to take the Cuban government's
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money to promote it as a travel destination now there are a number of
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issues here one of them is an optical issue should we have any Canadian crown
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corporation which CBC as the state broadcaster is promoting tourism to a
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country with such an abysmal human rights record a country that is still a
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communist dictatorship that doesn't have free speech that doesn't have free
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press and that doesn't treat minority communities all that well I would say
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the answer to that is a resounding no now I'm one of these people that lets
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people do what they want I'm a bit of a libertarian in this sense if you want to
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go to Cuba and you want to spend your money there that is your choice as a
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consumer but for the government to get into bed with Cuba in this way is a
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different question altogether there are also ethical considerations here given
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that CBC News is covering Cuban affairs CBC has to cover Cuba how can it do that
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effectively if it's taking money from that same country CBC Public Affairs
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spokesperson Carrie Kelly told me this contest is a partnership between Sunwing
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Vacations and CBC Media Solutions sales department which has normal ongoing
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business relations with many companies and organizations as part of its work it is
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entirely independent from CBC News and the contest has no connection with how
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CBC News might cover issues relating to Cuba now I also reached out for comment
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from the Minister of Canadian Heritage Stephen Gilbo his spokesperson
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responded to say as you are aware the CBC is an autonomous crown corporation
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responsible for managing its own operations now my question was not about the
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business relationship between CBC and the federal government but rather
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whether the Minister of Canadian Heritage who's ultimately responsible for CBC
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had any issues with CBC accepting money from a communist dictatorship which
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despite how nice the beaches of Cuba might be the country still is there's also a
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bigger problem here which is that CBC gets 1.3 billion dollars a year it's
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supposed to be subsidized by the government so that it doesn't have to be
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driven by the same market realities of other private sector media why does it need
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to be running cheap travel promotions when the government is giving its money so
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it can be a truly independent broadcaster and not be holden to other things now
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the conflict of interest guidelines are pretty clear no reporter would be allowed
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to take a free trip to Cuba from the Cuban government and then write about Cuba for
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CBC yet CBC itself can cash a Cuban peso check and then still send all of its
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supporters to Cuba and apparently write about Cuba impartially this is just a
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violation of what CBC should be and more importantly the fact that the
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government refuses to say anything apart from they can deal with their own
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affairs suggests it is okay with this arrangement true north is not sending
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you on a Cuban vacation but we are speaking truth about issues that matter to
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Canadians if you can support our efforts as an independent media organization
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please do head on over to tnc.news slash donate and we greatly appreciate your