Dear members,

Last week, I appeared before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage as part of its study on the State of the Journalism and Media Sectors. It was an important opportunity to put your realities on the record, and I want to share what we asked for.

Your voice was heard. 

Thank you to everyone who participated in our union-wide survey between February 13 and March 2, 2026. With 690 participants and a margin of error of ±3.4 percentage points (19 times out of 20), the results give a statistically meaningful picture of where our membership stands.  The numbers tell a clear story: media workers are proud of their work and committed to public service, but they are being failed by the conditions around them.

• 90% are proud to work in Canadian media
• 87% believe their work is valuable
• 88% are concerned about job security and describe the industry as unstable
• 99% say wages must keep pace with the cost of living — not to get rich, but to survive in this industry
• 90% want protections as AI and technology reshape their work
• 89% say they need supports for health, safety, and mental wellbeing
• 95% believe government action is essential to support the sector

This is a story the heritage committee needed to hear, and we could not have told it without your input – thank you. 

What we asked the Committee to do with this information:

Drawing on your responses, I put four concrete asks before the Committee:

1. Strengthen the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit with a human content standard. AI is reshaping our sector in fundamental ways. Media workers are deeply concerned about AI systems being trained on their work without consent or compensation and about the erosion of audience trust when AI replaces human judgment. 

We called on the government to add a minimum human content standard to the tax credit; a requirement that funded journalism be produced by human journalists, not bots. 

2. Provide stable, legislated funding for CBC/Radio-Canada. Our public broadcaster is irreplaceable. It delivers local journalism where private media has withdrawn, reflects communities across the country, and provides trusted information. Yet repeated layoffs and financial uncertainty are hollowing it out. 92% of our members support increasing CBC/Radio-Canada funding to levels comparable with other G7 public broadcasters, and 85% support multi-year legislated funding. 

We urged the Committee to follow through on the 2025 government paper The Future of CBC/Radio-Canada.

3. Protect journalists through the Online Harms Act. For many journalists, especially women, minorities, and 2SLGBTQ+ members, online and in-person harassment is overwhelming. Exposure to traumatic content is driving burnout across the sector. 

We called for journalist safety and mental health to be named as explicit priorities in the upcoming Online Harms Act, with a balanced approach that removes harmful content without silencing press freedom.

4. Defend Bill C-18 and Bill C-11 in trade negotiations. Finally, we urged the Committee to resist pressure from US trade negotiations that seek to water down the Online News Act and the Online Streaming Act. These laws exist to protect Canadian media workers and cultural sovereignty and should not be bargaining chips.

The work you put into our member survey was invaluable in shaping this crucial policy conversation. But of course, the work doesn’t stop there. We’ll continue to advocate on your behalf so that, strong, trusted, Canadian journalism can thrive now and for years to come.

In solidarity,

Jane Robertson President, Canadian Media Guild

A clip of my opening remarks is available here: [English Link]

You can watch the full committee appearance here: [English link] | [French link]