Liberal Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge declined to explain the stacked taxpayer-funded CBC advisory panel made up of seven appointees who have previously received funding from the Trudeau Liberals. The panel of seven are all beneficiaries of federal funding including direct payments from St-Onge’s heritage department. It includes two subsidized publishers and a former Trudeau Foundation scholar, per Blacklock’s Reporter. Former Trudeau Foundation scholar Mike Ananny, who is now at the University of Southern California in the US is an appointee, as is Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CEO of TV5 Québec, a media agency that received a $1.6 million grant on January 1. Catalina Briceno, who is a former paid researcher for the National Film Board, is on the committee, joined by Loc Dao, executive director of the Interactive and Digital Media Industry Association of British Columbia that received a $720,000 grant January 12 and Jennifer McGuire, managing director of Pink Triangle Press that received $678,437 in federal subsidies in the past year excluding payroll rebates. The heritage minister also appointed David Skok, editor of The Logic that received $371,294 in federal grants and contracts in the past year excluding payroll rebates, and Jesse Wente, the Trudeau-appointed chair of the Canada Council for the Arts..“It’s not even a partisan issue,” St-Onge claimed speaking to reporters May 7. “It is because Canada deserves to have a public broadcaster that is strong and viable.”St-Onge on Monday appointed a seven-member “expert advisory committee to “provide advice on how to strengthen and renew the public broadcaster.” The minister’s office refused to explain the appointment process. The panel will not be required to issue any report. St-Onge, after raising CBC subsidies by $96.1 million to a record $1.38 billion this year, earlier told reporters she “want(s) to ensure the CBC is well positioned to face the coming decades in a context where media have great difficulty.” “Canadians will have a clear choice in the next election,” said St-Onge. “We think Canada deserves to have a public broadcaster that is strong and viable for decades to come.”Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre has proposed to cut CBC subsidies altogether. “The CBC frankly is a biased propaganda arm of the Liberal Party and frankly negatively affects all media,” he told reporters in 2023. “We need a neutral and free media, not a propaganda arm for the Liberal Party.”
