In September 2014, a group of citizens and former CBC/Radio-Canada employees from the Ottawa-Gatineau area came together to create awareness about the consequences of severe cuts at CBC/Radio-Canada. The group is called CBC, I care! / Radio-Canada, j’y tiens!
The committee has two co-chairs who are well known in the Ottawa-Gatineau region: Louise Poirier, who was an advisor at the CRTC for five years and a city councillor in Hull/Gatineau for eight years, as well as Clive Doucet, who was an Ottawa city councillor for 13 years.
The committee was launched at a press conference in November 2014. In addition to asking citizens to « Like » the group’s Facebook page, the co-chairs asked them to write their federal MP with three requests:
-to demand an end to the current budget cuts and to support increased and secure multi-year funding to CBC/Radio-Canada in the 2015 budget
-to demand that Parliament find a solution to guarantee stable funding, and
-to make a public commitment to our public broadcaster for increased funding to CBC/Radio-Canada, a part of your election platform.
On November 16, 2014, the committee brought 40 people to the huge demonstration in Montreal which was organized by the group Tous Amis de Radio-Canada with 25,000 participants.
The group is currently working on an important bilingual event called Happening, “For the Love of CBC” which will take place on March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa!
The event is a tribute to recognize the importance of CBC/Radio-Canada as an institution for Canadians both in Ottawa-Gatineau and across the country, from a cultural, social, political point of view, and as a news organization. The concert will also be broadcast online.
This will be a unique evening, with artists and speakers, Francophones and Anglophones, from across the country gathered on stage to show their support for a strong public broadcaster. Songs, poems, slams, speeches and video testimonies will be part of what promises to be a great evening.
Preparations are underway and the final list of performers will be announced at the end of February. Admission will be free but tickets must be reserved.
Check our Facebook page and the Committee’s page regularly for details as soon as they become available.
If you care about the survival of CBC, join us on March 9!