On May 1, 2013, the director of Radio Canada International (RCI) Hélène Parent and her boss Hubert Lacroix, the president of Canada’s national radio and television public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada were before a Canadian senate committee to explain the 80% budget cut to RCI.
Lacroix made the opening statement before the Senate Standing Committee [...]
“It pains me to hear that RCI will be leaving SW in June. Over the years I’ve counted on RCI to keep me connected with home, be it during my travels in Europe, Asia, and even the depths of the Amazon. Most of those areas have no access to [...]
In 2002 the Association of North American Radio Clubs (ANARC) awarded the RCI Action Committee with a Certificate of Recognition for our work in defending Radio Canada International. Here’s the text of the certificate:
Certificate of Recognition for the RCI Action Committee
The Association of North American Radio Clubs proudly presents a group Certificate of Recognition to [...]
From the CBC Archives:
Broadcast Date: Feb. 25, 1945
The Second World War is winding down in Europe, but Canada’s new international shortwave radio service is just getting started. From its studios in Montreal and a web of shortwave transmission towers in Sackville, N.B., the service targets both Canadian and [...]
February 2008 – Action Committee spokesperson suspended!
Radio Canada International tries to “muzzle” communications union which represents RCI employees
The Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada (FNC-CSN) is outraged by and condemns the three day suspension without pay of one of its union stewards, Wojtek Gwiazda. For years he has defended the international mandate of Canada’s Voice to [...]
On March 26, 1982 RCI inaugurated its Ottawa bureau. RCI Director Betty Zimmerman (fourth from left) with staff: three English and three French journalists. At the time, they were all kept very busy covering the nation’s capital. In 2010, one of the two (!) journalists of our reduced Ottawa bureau was [...]
Study says RCI should not be integrated into the domestic service, the CBC/Radio-Canada
In October 1996, the Canadian component of KPMG, a accounting, tax and professional firm, released a report on RCI commissioned by the domestic radio and television service, CBC. The report came out at a time when RCI’s financial [...]
An overview of the issues involved in RCI’s international mandate.
November/December, 2007 – Questions about the international mandate of Radio Canada International (RCI) were once again raised at a parliamentary committee as it prepares to issue a report on Canada’s public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada. The public broadcaster is responsible for RCI. And [...]
Ottawa, 11 June 2003 – In a massive report on broadcasting in Canada called “Our Cultural Sovereignty”, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage described RCI as “an essential international service.”
Among its 97 recommendations the Committee called on the “appropriate department [to] review [...]
Below is what our Committee submitted to the Canadian Heritage Committee in 2001 in an attempt to protect the international mandate of Radio Canada International. (You can see the Standing Committee’s response here.)
Radio Canada International and the Broadcasting Act:
The Need to Protect RCI’s International Mandate and its Operational Autonomy
A submission to [...]
The administrators of RCI and our domestic service CBC/Radio-Canada make the decisions, but they are also responsible to Canadians through Parliament and the ruling Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
We need for these administrators, politicians and the media in Canada and in [...]
It’s hard to believe it’s so long: March 22, 1991 when our reality at RCI changed so radically. In December of 1990, our parent company the public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada announced that the international service would be eliminated unless the federal government paid for it (CBC actually had up until then budgeted [...]
On February 2, 2004 we had another “briefing meeting” about what was about to happen at RCI. Here’s a portion of what I wrote back then on the RCI Action Committee web site:
The briefing meeting is over. We’ve been told about the “repositioning”, feels more like shuffling the chairs on the Titanic. A [...]
From the beginning of June till mid October 2001, the RCI newsroom was empty on weekends…….no journalist and no announcer producer was permitted to work at keeping the world up to date on Canadian news on the weekend. All RCI produced newscasts, and all live programming were cut as part [...]
On May 25, 2007, the union representing most of RCI’s employees (Syndicat des communications de Radio-Canada) called on parliament’s Canadian Heritage committee to protect RCI’s mandate saying “there will be nothing preventing the CBC from changing its international service” unless “the Broadcasting Act has been amended to protect RCI’s Mandate.” [...]
En français ici
On December 3, 2020, Canada’s national public radio and television broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada announced “a major transformation” of Radio Canada International (RCI) titled “Modernizing Radio Canada International for the 21st century”. And if you didn’t know anything about the toxic relationship between the two, you would really think this was great news.
After all the [...]
There’s a remarkable document from 1994 few are aware of, which 27 years later highlights some astute observations and pragmatic possible solutions to the problems facing Radio Canada International in 2021.
Its dry title “Report of the Standing Senate Committee on Transport and Communications on the Mandate and Funding of Radio Canada International” barely hints at [...]
On January 25, 2021, the Committee sent a request for explanations from Canada’s broadcasting regulatory body the CRTC concerning the lack of questions by CRTC commissioners when two separate witnesses testified that RCI’s administrator, CBC/Radio-Canada, had violated Article 46 (2) of the Broadcasting Act.
The Committee request for answers also highlighted the CRTC’s decision not [...]
On December 29, 2020, the RCI Action Committee sent a request to Canada’s broadcasting regulatory body the CRTC. It requested that we be able to testify at the licence hearings of CBC/Radio-Canada (which administers RCI) about the public broadcaster’s violation of Article 46 (2) of the Broadcasting Act. The request was refused for deadline reasons. [...]
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La siguiente carta abierta fue enviada, el 15 de febrero de 2021, al Primer Ministro Justin Trudeau, a la Viceprimera Ministra Chrystia Freeland, al Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores Marc Garneau y al Ministro del Patrimonio Canadiense Steven Guilbeault, pidiéndoles que mantengan la integridad de la Voz de Canadá para el Mundo, Radio Canadá Internacional (RCI).
Treinta [...]
Setenta y cinco años es mucho tiempo, así que no es extraño que la mayoría de la gente no sepa lo que ha hecho Radio Canadá Internacional (RCI) desde su inauguración en 1945. Evidentemente, es imposible enumerar todos sus logros y premios, pero vamos a tratar de ver algunos de ellos.
Radio Canadá [...]
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The following open letter was sent February 15, 2021 to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau, and Canadian Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault asking them to maintain the integrity of Canada’s Voice to the World, Radio Canada International (RCI).
Thirty-two signatories, including former Prime Minister Joe Clark, former Canadian [...]
La lettre ouverte suivante a été envoyée le 15 février 2021 au premier ministre Justin Trudeau, à la vice-première ministre Chrystia Freeland, au ministre des Affaires étrangères Marc Garneau, au ministre du Patrimoine canadien Steven Guilbeault leur demandant de maintenir l’intégrité de la Voix du Canada sur le monde, Radio Canada International (RCI).
Trente-deux signataires, dont [...]
Canada’s broadcast regulator is ignoring charges that the CBC/Radio-Canada’s latest policy decision on Radio Canada International (RCI) is in violation of the Broadcasting Act. In a letter to the CRTC, the RCI Action Committee is asking for answers.
Twice last week at the public hearings of Canada’s broadcasting and telecommunications agency the CRTC, investigating commissioners were [...]
En français ici
Does the new “major transformation” of Radio Canada International respect the international mandate of RCI? The short answer is no.
At the moment the obligations of CBC/Radio-Canada in the Broadcasting Act and the Order in Council of 2012 are as follows:
Broadcasting Act of 1991
International service
46 (2) The Corporation shall, within the conditions of any [...]
In English here
La nouvelle «transformation majeure» de Radio Canada International respecte-t-elle le mandat international de RCI? La réponse courte est non.
Pour le moment les obligations de Radio-Canada / CBC dans le Loi sur la radiodiffusion et le décret de 2012 :
Loi sur la radiodiffusion 1991
Service international
46 (2) La Société fournit, dans le cadre [...]
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