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 number of people are dazed, feeling betrayed. One colleague from the Ukrainian service is crying. It was a bit surreal, watching a slide show of which sections continued, which would get programming chopped. When RCI Director Jean Larin and CBC/Radio-Canada Vice President Sylvain Lafrance ask for questions there’s a stunned silence. Finally a journalist steps up to the microphone, and starts questioning the wisdom of cutting one of the Chinese broadcasts. Only a few people go up to the microphone. It’s not easy. Particularly, when Lafrance calls one questioner, paranoid.

Later people privately compare notes, as management meets employees sector by sector. What’s becoming clear, is that a lot of things have not been worked out, and a lot of questions are being left unanswered. One colleague bitterly concludes we’re being “repositioned” out of existence.

For more of an idea of what it felt like as these changes were happening in 2004, have a look at a few excerpts of a short weblog at that time here.