Twenty years ago today on March 25, 1991, hosts and staff, in English, French and seven other language services said goodbye to listeners as they signed off, after a massive cut was announced on March 22, 1991.
Cut were numerous employees from the French and English services, as well as the entire staff of the Czech, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese (to Brazil), and Slovak sections.
It could have been worse – on December 5, 1990, Gerard Veilleux, the president of our national public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada announced that as part of cuts across the network, he had decided to cut Radio Canada International, unless the government of Canada would pay for the service.
Protests by employees, listeners and supporters convinced the government to bring together some financing. But half the budget of RCI was cut, half the employees were let go, and three quarters of original RCI programming was eliminated.
Wojtek Gwiazda has been the spokesperson for the RCI Action Committee since 1991. The Committee is supported and funded by the union that represents almost all RCI employees: the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs de Radio-Canada (STTRC formerly SCRC).
E-mail: wojtekrciaction@gmail.com
