TO THE EDITOR

CRTC and the Council of Canadians
Monday, April 17, 2000 7:45 AM
Full page article in Voice of Pelham on behalf of socialist "Council of Canadians"
From: Robert A. Jason
Letter to the Editor

It was amazing to see a full page article in the April 5 issue of Voice of Pelham, our beloved community paper, that was nothing but a blast of left-wing propanganda from the socialist organization known with the usual nice-sounding and harmless name of "Council on Canadians".

Now, let us see where do I begin to rebut the many unsubstantiated claims and misrepresentations of  that long article? One of the many outlandish claims and demands made in that piece was for even more state control of our television and radio with the long-suffering Canadian taxpayer funding more and more state-subsidized media like the CBC. I stopped watching CBC long time ago because I could no longer stomach its relentless left-wing anti-faith anti-family agenda. Currently in Canada, publically- funded CBC-TV broadcasts movies containing bestiality and incest and anti-Catholic movies like "The Priest". Besides the CBC, there are radio stations in Toronto and Montreal that broadcast the lewd and vulgar Howard Stern Show, and cable systems carry the fully pornographic Playboy channel.

Undoubtedly, the "Council on Canadians" would condone such assaults on our traditional values. The Council advocates even more control by that powerful governmental regulatory body, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC). Goodness gracious, we are already an over-regulated country with Big Brother telling us dumb plebians exactly what to think and what to do. The CRTC has actively permitted and/or approved of broadcasting that assaults our family values. At the same time, however, the CRTC has effectively banned single-faith religious channels from operating in Canada until now. In the words of some of the Commissioners this is because they believe single-faith views "may prove to be a destructive force in Canadian society". Wow! As a history teacher, history documents tell me that Canada (and indeed Western civilization) was based on Judeo-Christian principles, and we have done allright. It is only in the last 30 years we have gone astray because we have turned our back on our Christian heritage.

The CRTC has a long record of intolerance towards religious broadcasters. At least 15 Christian licence applicants have been turned down since 1993. The most recent rejections included three multi-denominational stations and a Catholic service called Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). EWTN is the world's largest religious television service with an estimated viewing audience of over 55 million households in at least 38 nations. But in Canada EWTN is outlawed because it may be a "destructive force" to the delicate Canadian psyche while the Playboy channel is not!

It was only after an enormous demand by thousands of concerned people of faith and thousands of signatures on petitions submitted by such pro-family organizations as "Canada Family Action Coalition" that CRTC finally yielded and granted very reluctantly a single-faith station to operate in our free country. The most prominent such station is the Burlington-based "Crossroads Television Systems" (CTS). Now, our family can finally relax and enjoy wholesome uplifting programming without the constantly destructive assaults on everything we cherish and hold dear. Already, in a remarkably short time, the Michael Coren Show on CTS (10-11:30 PM) has skyrocketted to the very top of the most-watched TV shows of its genre in Canada. My favourite show - it discusses issues that most politically-correct shows won't.

There is a desperate need for religious broadcasting in Canada, especially to serve the ill, the elderly and those in isolated locations to comfort their souls. Thousands of Canadians have again and again expressed their desire to receive such programming. In 1992 the CRTC conducted hearings on the demand for religion on TV and admitted that it had heard "eloquent and convincing testimony: in favour of such programming.

Yet, the CRTC has such ingrained bias against religion that it has used all sorts of excuses to deny the heartfelt desires of many Canadians of faith. One of the excuses is something called "balance requirement". Of course, this "balance requirement" by CRTC applies only to religious broadcasters. For example, a Christian station must carry non-Christian religious programming whose content may be the complete opposite to the Christian belief. It would be like requiring a country music channel to carry classical and rock music. Unreal. These CRTC types and other cultural elites live in some Alice In Wonderland world with no sense of the realities of life. The CRTC has in effect brought about unbalanced programming: immorality has been given licence while positive wholesome uplifting faith and family building programming has been largely excluded in Canada. If there is a "destructive force" in Canadian society, then the CRTC has probably been a promoter of it.

Canada is one of the very few democracies in the world that has banned single-faith TV and radio. This flies in the face of long standing democratic principles. Our Charter of Rights states: EVERYONE HAS THE FOLLOWING FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS: (a) FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION; (b) FREEDOM OF THOUGHT, BELIEF, OPINION AND EXPRESSION, INCLUDING FREEDOM OF THE PRESS AND OTHER MEDIA OF COMMUNICATIONS. The CRTC policy clearly violates the rights of all Canadians.

Who is the CRTC? It is a group of 13 non-elected and unaccountable commissioners who decide what they believe to be "good" and "bad" for Canadians to watch on TV. After the atrocious decision to licence Playboy TV while denying religious broadcasters, the official CRTC spokesman (incredibly) had this to say: "Religion is something close to people's hearts so we have to be careful what influences we permit into the country". In light of what the CRTC approved and disapproved of on that day, this "official comment" was clearly an insult to all Canadians of faith and commonsense.   The left-wing "Council on Canadians", besides advocating more regulation of Canadian life by state outfits like the CRTC, is dead set against anything that is conservative or "Right-wing". Its main devil, the Great Satan, in its leftist mythology is Conrad Black, the epitome of capitalism and evil corporate culture. For millions of Canadians, Conrad Black was a Godsend when he started publishing the National Post, which in a short period of one year has become perhaps the most popular national newspaper in Canada. Now it is the National Post and other Southam papers under Black that has brought back true balance in Canadian newspaper reading. Before the Post, we had The Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail as the main national papers. They were bastions of liberalism. The Star was founded by five families whose sole object was to preach left-wing liberalism to their captive readership, not to provide objective unbiased news coverage. The Globe And Mail had degenerated into a propaganda sheet for the homosexual agenda and other social liberal issues. Even the Toronto Sun was conservative only on fiscal issues but socially liberal (except for the Great Michael Coren's  incredibly incisive and bold columns). And now comes along the National Post like a refreshing breeze, so soothing and welcome and satisfying. Just read the highly thoughtful and truthful columns by, say, Ian Hunter (who dares to speak out for Judeo-Christian morality - can you imagine that in Canada! ) or Mark Steyn (with his brilliant wit) or Ezra Levant (who boldly castigated the faith-robbing liberalism of his fellow Jews) or Susan Martinuk (and her family issues) or David Frum (with his razor-sharp mind on political and social issues) or David's wife Danielle Crittenden (who dares to speak glowingly of the simple joys of being a housewife). Compare that to the shrill feminist rantings of Michelle Landsberg of the Toronto Star.

For my money, The National Post is a winner and a much-needed antidote to the suffocatingly oppressive liberalism of the established papers. I recommend it to you. And God bless Conrad Black!

Yours sincerely,

Robert A. Jason