Is Justin Trudeau hinting at another CBC bailout？
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Summary
A memo leaked by a Blacklock reporter raises the question: Is Justin Trudeau hinting at yet another government bailout for the CBC? Plus, a new section on the CBC's website dedicated entirely to stories about Black people in Canada.
Transcript
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Is Justin Trudeau hinting at yet another CBC bailout?
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I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
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So according to a memo which was unearthed by Blacklock's reporter,
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which is an investigative journalism outlet over in Ottawa, they do great work.
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Well, according to their report, this memo was written by the Trudeau government's
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Department of Canadian Heritage and it stated that the CBC is under immense financial pressure.
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This despite receiving $1.2 billion each and every year from the Trudeau government.
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Do these government journalists really need even more taxpayer cash?
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Well, the Trudeau government memo seems to make that case.
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It says this, the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of covering it put immense pressure
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on CBC's workforce, operations, finances, and systems.
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But wait a minute, why would COVID affect the CBC?
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It isn't like they're a small business who were forced to shut their doors because of
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They're not a mom and pop shop who lost their clientele because of the lockdowns or their
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It's hard to think of any real way that the CBC would have been affected.
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They don't really even rely on advertisers to stay afloat.
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It's hard to think of any way that COVID or the resulting lockdowns would have really
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Perhaps that's why the memo did emphasize this one point.
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It says the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics put additional pressures on its cash
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So poor CBC, they had to wait an entire year for that big media event.
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But get this, because of COVID, because of the pandemic, the Trudeau government already
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Yes, they pledged an additional $21 million for this very reason in the most recent budget.
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It says, budget 2021 proposes to provide $21 million in 2021-22 as immediate operational
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The funding will ensure its stability during the pandemic and enable it to continue providing
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news and entertainment programming that keeps Canadians informed.
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Have you spent much time on the CBC's website lately?
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I make a point of not going and visiting it because the news over there is truly preposterous.
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But for this report, I spent a bit of time perusing through the website.
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And let me tell you, I can barely even describe it as a news site.
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It's really a propaganda site that sort of pretends to be a news site.
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Every progressive left-wing cultural trend that's been exported from the American left
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So first we have this large banner at the top of the page and there's ads plastered all
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over the site called Being Black in Canada with a bunch of Marxist revolution fists up
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in the air and it says this, find more stories about the black experience in Canada.
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And sometimes when you're scrolling through a different news site, you'll see an ad bar.
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So it's a bar on the side of the screen that is an advertisement, but it looks like the
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And this is the feed that's dedicated entirely to that series that the CBC does.
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It's like they have their own segregated news right here.
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There's an entire section devoted just to telling stories about black people in Canada.
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So I guess this is all in response to the U.S. Black Lives Matter movement, which is an
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American movement directly in response to the disproportionate crime and police shootings
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But we don't really have that problem in Canada, do we?
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We don't have the same school systems in the U.S.
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We don't have the same criminal justice systems.
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So it's a little odd to take this American cultural phenomenon and try to apply it into Canada,
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The experience of black people in Canada is just different.
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In fact, black people in Canada only make up about 3% of the population, so a little
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But get this, a majority of black people in Canada, 52%, are immigrants.
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So they were born somewhere else and they moved to Canada.
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Most likely they chose to come to Canada or their parents brought them when they were children.
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So again, the experience of black people is just different.
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It's a little weird that we would have this whole section of the government-funded broadcasting
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news station devoted to the experience of 3% of the population.
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And it's interesting to note that in Canada, the black population has doubled in the last
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20 years, meaning that more and more black people want to come to Canada because it's
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So they come here just like it's a great place for everyone to live.
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Our story couldn't be more different than our American neighbors, and yet our state
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broadcaster insists on importing this cultural narrative from another country and then awkwardly
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So do black Canadians, most of whom are immigrants, and most of whom are probably pretty grateful
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and happy to be here, do they really need their own news section, their own separate
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Let's look at some of the top stories today just for fun.
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Again, I don't usually go on the CBC website, but I just decided to cruise around today and
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I was pretty surprised by what is considered news over at the CBC.
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It says, Health Canada dragging feet on approving magic mushrooms for therapeutic use, patients
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So right here, one of the top stories on the website is the CBC pushing for the approval of
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It says, Ontario's hair school standards still ignore black hair four years after work began
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So in this story, we hear all about how difficult it is for some black women to find hair salons
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And of course, the response here is so typical of the big government mindset over at the CBC.
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So instead of letting the free market do its thing, which is a sort of problem like this,
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lots of people have different hairstyles, different hair textures, different hair types.
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And you therefore have lots of different people who kind of specialize in different hairstyles,
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different hair textures, different techniques, different things that they do to someone's
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Instead of letting the consumers sort of try to seek out someone who specializes in the
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hairstyle that they are looking for, the CBC instead is pushing for this blanket approach
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where the government regulates it to make sure that all hairdressers in the province of
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Ontario have the ability to work on all hair types and all hair textures.
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Now, of course, this would require all hairdressers in Ontario to have more training, more time,
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more specialization, and ultimately it will just make everybody's haircut in Ontario more expensive.
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But the social justice warriors over at the CBC, they don't care about that.
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All they care about is advocating for social justice.
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And that is clearly what this piece is all about.
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It's funny, when you have an entire section on your website dedicated to being black in Canada,
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you have to have reporters just kind of out there making up the news, inventing stories
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that aren't really that newsworthy, aren't really that big of a deal.
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But, you know, you have all this money and you have these dedicated reporters.
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And so they're going to come up with news one way or another.
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I think this story is a pretty good example of that.
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Sort of like how the federal government, they have dedicated funds that newspapers and media
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And the government gives out millions of dollars for reporters to cover climate change.
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And that's why you see all these news outlets that have a climate change reporter.
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It's their job to report on climate change because they're getting paid by the federal government
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And that's why you see so much news about climate change.
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If your job is a dedicated climate change reporter, you're going to look at every weather event.
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You're going to look at every event and see it through the lens of climate change
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and make it about climate change because that's what your job is.
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And that's what the government is paying you to do.
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Okay, let's keep scrolling, see what else the CBC has to offer today.
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And I really, this story really just takes the cake for me.
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I'm going to read a little bit from it because it is just a little silly, just like the other
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It says, transgender woman says getting gender affirming ID in Ontario is an impossible struggle.
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So this story is about a trans woman, so a biological male, who wants to get a new ID in Ontario listing
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We're told that is an impossible struggle and the CBC explains just how.
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It says, first the subheading says, trans people required to get doctor's letter when changing
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Ever since Diana Bosco transitioned to female four years ago, she's been attempting to get
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identification that accurately reflects her gender, a process she describes as invasive
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and stymied by systemic discrimination against transgender people.
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She's currently trying to get an Ontario photo card, government issued ID for those without a
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But, she says, she has only been met with barriers.
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It feels like all the old hate just lingers around in the system and everywhere.
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I just want to live my life, but I'm struggling here.
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Okay, so the CBC goes on to explain this struggle and how the system is just so filled with hate.
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It says earlier this month, Diana and her social worker went to Service Ontario location in
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West Toronto, so Diana could apply for the card.
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We're told that when she was there, the Service Ontario worker asked some uncomfortable questions
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And that is what she's saying that she is upset about.
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And then she basically learned that it was required that the doctor's note had to be there.
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So, according to the CBC piece, it says here that Diana said the requirement is a huge obstacle
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for trans people facing systemic discrimination in the healthcare system as they may not have
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It goes on to say that the people who work in Ontario in healthcare and Service Ontario need
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more education about trans people and that they shouldn't be so mean in asking all these
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I mean, look, I won't discount this one person's experience.
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But sort of from an objective standpoint, we know that it is incredibly easy in the province
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Remember when the rebel sent a news personality to go and do this exact same thing, this very
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I'm going to play a bit of this clip because, again, it just sort of walks you through the
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process and it shows you just how easy it is to get your gender changed in Ontario.
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She decided that she was going to go do this stunt.
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I mean, you can see here she still very much looks like a woman.
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But she dressed like this and she walked into a doctor's office.
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She told the doctor that she had been identifying as a man, that her friends called her by male
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pronouns and that she wanted to validate this through the system in Ontario.
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You might not get this question often and I don't mean to waste your time at all, but
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I've been a gender non-binary person for about a year now.
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I use male pronouns and among my friends groups, as Oliver can tell you, I've been identified
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I don't always present as male, but gender is a spectrum.
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I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt.
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I mean, it's not like I can prove anything, right?
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Do you want me to say that you should be identified as a male?
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Now, you can see the doctor is, you know, perfectly fine.
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Barely even skeptical, just sort of like, okay, whatever you want, whatever you need, here
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you go, provides the note that is required, really just goes along with it.
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No one wants to be accused of being offensive or being hateful towards trans people, and
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most people will just kind of go along with it.
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Now, next, Lauren heads on over to Service Ontario, which is a service provider in Ontario
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And so she, you can see, she's no longer dressed like a dude.
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She's wearing lots of makeup, and she even has a low-cut shirt.
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So she's looking a lot more like a woman in this clip.
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And she originally doesn't mention anything about her gender being a man to the clerk.
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And then, kind of, at the very end, as an afterthought, she just mentions, oh, and by the way, I'm
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For purposes of this identification, I would like to be identified as male.
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I think my favorite part of that clip is when the clerk calls Lauren, sir.
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Again, you know, people are just trying to be polite.
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And you can see here, you know, the clerk makes a phone call, explains the situation.
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Lauren walked away from the Service Ontario office with the piece of paper documenting
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So the very fact that someone like Lauren, who is a social media personality, a provocateur,
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could just so easily and so quickly get her gender changed legally in Ontario makes me
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a little bit skeptical of the claim being made here by the CBC, which is that it's
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This probably met their quota that they have some kind of a weekly quota of telling trans
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But all this is just to say, it's no wonder that Canadians are tuning out from the CBC.
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And in October 2020, they had to cut 130 employees from English television.
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And that was despite getting that $21 million cash infusion from the Trudeau government.
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But in the five years before 2020, from 2015 to 2019, ad revenue also fell by 53%.
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That is part of a long trend of declining viewership of the CBC.
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Ad revenue also fell by 12% between 2010 and 2015.
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And of course, the declining ad revenue reflects the declining viewerships because Canadians, by
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and large, are no longer getting their news from the CBC.
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The CBC News' flagship program, The National, has seen some of the sharpest declines in viewership.
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So since Peter Mansbridge's departure as host in 2017, The National has seen a 24% decline
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This report from The Globe and Mail is from 2019.
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So I can only imagine the numbers are even lower today.
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But this is what the report from The Globe and Mail says.
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The public broadcaster's flagship, National Newscast, has attracted an average of 401,000 viewers
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aged two years old plus, nightly on the main CBC TV network over the 2018-19 television
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series, down sharply from the 525,000 average number of viewers who tuned in for Mansbridge's
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Okay, so let me just make this point because it's really silly.
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If you're watching this video right now on YouTube or Facebook, you see the total number
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But if you live in the network television world, they use Statistics Canada data to determine
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And if you're over two years old, you're included so long as one person in that household has
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So my two-year-old son, who is not awake during the evening news, and even if he was awake,
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he wouldn't be sitting over my shoulder consuming the news and listening and soaking it all in.
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Well, it doesn't matter because he counts as a viewer, and still, and still, even with
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that silly metric of counting people, including children and other people who aren't even
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watching the television, they can only master 400,000 viewers from a country of 38 million
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I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.