An Open Letter to the Board of Directors at the CBC from Lister Sinclair:

I have spent almost my entire professional life � more more than sixty years � in various aspects of broadcasting at the CBC, working in radio and television, and in French and English. I have been responsible for broadcasting within Canada and also to the rest of the world.

I have been lucky enough to know personally many of the people now in middle and senior management at the CBC and also, of course, many of my talented colleagues in radio and television production.

I have also been lucky enough to know personally many Board members over many years, including some of you who are now serving on the CBC Board. It seems to me that the CBC is now in the midst of a calamity which nobody wishes to see continuing in its present destructive form.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as a legal entity, consists of the Board of Directors and, of course, those people to whom the Board delegates power and authority. This being so, it places a special responsibility on the Board to move immediately and directly to resolve this increasingly destructive situation.

I am sure that this Board will find a decent and honourable way to exercise its legal obligations on behalf of all Canadians, as so many previous Boards have done over the years.

Everybody eagerly awaits your decisions.

Yours sincerely,

Lister Sinclair O.C., MA, Ll.D. etc.

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BBC benefits on the backs of CBC employees

While thousands of CBC workers are locked out, Britain�s public broadcaster is keeping CBC management afloat.

The BBC World service has been filling the void in news programming on CBC Newsworld and the CBC main network during the lockout, including the flagship TV news program, The National.

Linden MacIntyre, veteran CBC journalist with the award-winning current affairs program, The Fifth Estate, is one of the locked-out CBC employees walking the picket line who finds the BBC action deeply disappointing.

�I think it�s disgusting for two of the only public service broadcasters of any significance left in the English-speaking world to be working at cross-purposes when both are under attack by the same political forces and private sector interests.�

The unions representing the BBC employees, the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) and BECTU (Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union) warn that the respected British public broadcaster risks tarnishing its journalistic reputation if it is seen to be taking sides during the lock-out.

�It is increasingly clear that BBC material is being used to fill CBC news slots. The NUJ and BECTU will not tolerate their members� work being used against colleagues in Canada,� said the joint union statement issued by Tony Lennon, president of BECTU.

According to the broadcast schedule posted on the CBC website, the main network has replaced the morning news, supper-hour and the prime-time newscast, The National, with BBC World News. Newsworld is also using BBC material to fill key news slots throughout the day.

Unions representing employees at the BBC are �urging the Corporation to cut the lifeline that has allowed CBC to avoid blank screens while its staff stand on picket lines.� The unions have requested meetings with management and are prepared to step up protests if the BBC does not act. Already the BBC unions report that a number of workers are refusing to do sign-offs for the CBC and are asking to keep their stories from airing on the CBC while management has locked out its employees.

Building the BBC brand with Canadian taxpayer dollars leaves a bad taste in the mouth of the CMG�s national president, Lise Lareau. There is also a more pressing issue: CBC's conditions of licence that specify Canadian-content requirements. �One has to wonder whether the CBC is fulfilling its mandate under its terms of licence or the Broadcasting Act. It would be silly to even pretend that using BBC broadcasts comes anywhere close to the basic principle of �reflecting Canada to Canadians�.�

No further talks between the CBC and the union are scheduled at this time.

For more on the BBC unions� support of the CBC�s locked-out employees:

http://www.bectu.org.uk/news/gen/ng0226.html

http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=3316&Language=EN

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Canada Games closing ceremonies to be broadcast on APTN

Due to the CBC lockout, the closing ceremonies of the 2005 Canada Games will be covered from Regina using camera crews from the local CTV affiliate and the Saskatchewan Communications Network. The signal will then be fed to the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network in Winnipeg, who will then broadcast it on their national network.

The Canadian Media Guild was surprised, to say the least, when APTN management made the public announcement of this arrangement. The majority of employees at APTN are Guild members, and broadcasting an event which was originally to have been broadcast on CBC would be considered �struck work�. The collective agreement between APTN and the Guild stipulates that Guild members will not be required to handle any struck work in the course of their duties.

After meeting with management, the Guild is allowing the broadcast to go forward.

�We would have preferred it if management had come to us to discuss the matter before making the announcement. We would have been within our rights to block the telecast�, says CMG staff representative Dan Zeidler. �In the end, we were able to make our point that our dispute is with the CBC and not with APTN. We are certainly supportive of the Canada Games and of amateur sport in Canada�.

It�s worth noting that the Guild proposed an extension of the CBC lockout deadline in order to ensure full coverage of the Games, as well as the Rogers Cup of tennis. CBC management refused the Guild�s offer and imposed a lockout; the result was that CBC crews left Regina several days before the end of the Games they had contracted to cover.

We encourage all our members to watch the closing ceremonies on APTN this Saturday, August 20.

For more information contact Dan Zeidler at zeidler@cmg.ca or call the Canadian Media Guild office at 1-800-465-4149 or 416-591-5333.

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