(Ottawa) CBC/Radio-Canada president and chief executive Catherine Tait had a bad time Wednesday as parliamentarians from all parties lectured her about the decision to cancel the French adaptation of the podcast show Alone: A Love Story to be entrusted to a French studio to avoid the Quebec accent.
Published yesterday at 9:25 p.m.
Michel Saba The Canadian Press
The tone was set from the first moment. “Is my accent okay?” You don’t have a problem with my accent today? “, said the conservative MP Bernard Généreux at the beginning of his appearance before the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
Between you and me – I’m going to hold back because I could say very bad words – honestly it’s very offensive. It is, in every sense of the word, an insult to the nation of Quebec.
Bernard Généreux, MP for the Conservative Party
The big boss immediately replied that she “agrees 100%” and therefore immediately sent an apology to the president of the artists’ union.
For his part, the Bloc’s spokesman for official languages, Mario Beaulieu, said that what happened showed “a contempt for Quebec, a contempt for the Quebec accent.”
He also criticized the CBC for only reflecting the English-speaking community’s position on Law 21 on state secularism and Law 96 on French. Ms Tait replied that standards apply to journalists and that anyone with complaints against journalistic content can contact the Ombudsman, as the Ombudsman does not interfere in the matter.
Regrettable, hurtful and unacceptable
During her testimony, Ms Tait apologized again. It is not only “an unfortunate incident that Canadian dubbing expertise was not used.” […] a mistake,” but the comment justifying this was downright “unfortunate, […] Injury, […] unacceptable”.
The adaptation of the podcast will be done domestically, she recalled, noting that Radio-Canada, her own organization, will be responsible for it. Production is already underway and the new version will be online at the beginning of the summer, we learned in response to a question from NDP official languages spokesperson Niki Ashton.
Next to him, Marco Dubé, Head of Transformation and Senior Vice President, People and Culture, said that the teams that made the decision have met and understand the magnitude of their mistake.
Measures have been taken to ensure that CBC teams wishing to translate podcasts into French are required to contact companies in Quebec, he assured. The exchange between the Radio-Canada and CBC teams has also been “strengthened”.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Official Languages, Liberal Marc Serré, briefly addressed the podcast. After repeating the CEO’s comments about the unacceptable nature of the decision, he simply stated that “we all agree with it.”
Instead, he sought to discuss how to protect the quality of journalism in regions where French people are a minority and expressed concern about the impact that cuts advocated by conservative leader Pierre Poilievre would have.
Ms Tait suggested he should “fund your public broadcaster better” and said his organization was “a bulwark against disinformation, against polarization in our society”.
” What are you afraid of ? ”
Ms Tait’s troubles were not over when the Conservatives returned to the charge, telling her that we could be much more outraged that she had prevented two officials from giving evidence to the committee even though they had been formally summoned .
“What are you afraid of,” MP Luc Berthold once asked him during a particularly tense exchange over the absence of CBC Podcasts executive producer Cesil Fernandes and the first head of advertising, marketing and radio and audio public relations for CBC/ Radio-Canada, Émilie Brazeau-Béliveau.
Ms. Tait then explained that she was responsible for the mistakes of all of her employees and that it was her job to appear before elected officials.
She then said that the broadcasting law “very clearly” emphasizes that “we are independent not only for journalistic content, but also for program decisions.”
“Do you believe that the CBC is above the legislature and the laws,” Mr. Berthold added. Parliament has the right to summon anyone to give evidence before us. And this authority is above the Broadcasting Act. »
He then explained that he wanted to understand “where this contempt for Mr. Fernandes’ Quebec accent comes from.” And only he can come and explain why […] he thought it was a good idea. […] And you can’t answer that question. »
Interviewed by The Canadian Press at the end of her testimony, Ms. Tait confirmed that she stands by her decision not to allow her two employees to testify.