Trudeau has been paying out billions of taxpayer dollars to the media – both large and small organizations.
CBC/Radio-Canada
The biggest payout is to CBC/Radio-Canada, which receives over a billion dollars each year – 70% of its budget. For fiscal year 2019-2020, CBC received $1.2 billion.
Prime Ministers Mulroney, Chrétien and Harper cut CBC funding by a combined total of $741 million, or 44% of its budget. When he came to power, Justin Trudeau reversed this trend and added $150 million in new funding. His 2021 budget promised another $400 million over four years.
The CBC believes that its role as a public broadcaster is to educate Canadians with left-wing, “progressive” programming. For example, several years ago, the CBC released a documentary called “Drag Kids”, which attempted to sexualize children by portraying drag as a great activity for children to try. CBC’s latest TV show is a series called, “Sort of”, which is the first TV program to star a trans-feminist homosexual. Its purpose is to break down mainstream media barriers to this lifestyle.
When Justin Trudeau is interviewed on CBC, he is treated with reverence, almost as a demi-god, despite the fact that in reality, he is an immature, uninformed ideologue lacking a grasp of issues. He uses his position as Prime Minister only to further his own extremist ideology. The public is never consulted on any of his policies. Citizens’ views are irrelevant to Trudeau.
Canadians are obviously aware of these extreme limitations of the CBC. Its nightly national news enjoys the presence of only 5% of Canadians, falling well behind CTV and Global News. These low ratings have led to a marked decline in advertising revenues for the CBC. Naturally, as a result, the CBC is demanding more funding from the Liberal government to fill the gap. According to CBC President, Catherine Tait, the CBC is a beacon of truth and trust against “fake news”. The CBC lives in a fantasy world. It does not believe that it should cut its expenses, such as its seven Vice-Presidents and five Directors of Finance.
Since the CBC always provides the Liberal government’s leftist spin on issues, there is little chance it will not receive more funding from Trudeau.
Trudeau’s Pre-election Funding of the Media
To ensure that the media treat him with appropriate deference during recent elections and to encourage the media to refrain from reminding the public of his many gaffes, lack of judgement and ethical violations, Trudeau took the precaution of pouring out pre-election money to select media. As a result, the media did not objectively report the election news, since their economic survival depended on these timely hand-outs.
For example:
- 2019 pre-election bailout: Trudeau announced a $595 million media bailout package for five years (2019-2024). The Toronto Star was reportedly taking in $115,000 a week in refundable labour tax credits as its share of this bailout.
- 2021 pre-election bailout: Six weeks before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the 2021 election, his government topped up funding for select Canadian media outlets with $30 million from the newly minted, Recovery Fund (COVID-19). The recipients were not disclosed. Heritage Minister Guilbeault claimed the funding was to provide readers with “timely information they require from the government”.
Other Media Hand-outs
In 2020, Trudeau created a $60 million COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund for over a thousand publications. Heritage Minister Guilbeault refused to divulge the names of recipients. However, a 29-page list was obtained through Access to Information by Rebel News and Canadaland and posted online. Some of the 1,364 media outlets listed also received substantial funding through COVID-19 wage subsidies.
The fund provided grants to an interesting array of publications.
Below are a few of the print publications, many of them “free”, that were sent COVID-19 emergency relief, based on their circulation numbers. Many also received substantive annual funding from the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF).
The publications receiving this COVID-19 money are astounding. They include Canadian Cowboy Country, Canadian Hot Rods, Canadian Pizza, Canadian Poultry, Canadian Running, Elle Magazine, Exploring China, Faith Today, Fashion, Foodism, Helicopters, Humanist Perspective, Manure Manager, Modern Cat, Modern Dog, Peace (Disarmament), Potatoes in Canada, Reader’s Digest, Shameless, The Tyee Online, The Walrus, Wedding Bells, Western Horse Review, Villager Publications (LGBTQ), Vintage Fire Truck and Zoomer (senior). Over 400 small town newspapers across Canada also received funding.
Heritage Department’s Canada Periodical Fund (CPF)
CPF funds about 500 media outlets with its annual $70 million budget. It should be noted that Rabble media, founded by radical Marxist feminist Judy Rebick in 2001, has been a regular recipient of CPF, averaging $41,000 a year. Its special COVID-19 top-up for 2020 was $71,000.
Zoomer magazine, published by the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), has been funded since 2009 and has received close to a million dollars a year from CPF since 2018. In addition, it received $246,000 in COVID-19 relief. The President and CEO of CARP is Moses Znaimer, who is also a founding patron of the euthanasia organization, Dying with Dignity. In 2016, Mr. Znaimer fired the Executive Director of CARP because she wanted the magazine, Zoomer, to take a neutral position on euthanasia. She was replaced by Wanda Morris, the former CEO of Dying with Dignity, who led the campaign for legislative change on the right to die (see REALity March-April 2016, “Beware of CARP: a tool for Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia”).
Chinese Investment in Canadian Publications
Chinese Ming Pao publishing conglomerate received $3.7 million from the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for the fiscal year 2019-2020 according to Public Accounts Canada, plus COVID compensation. According to The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship, by Sarah Cook, “a number of influential newspapers run as family businesses were bought by Chinese tycoons with business interests in China and close ties to mainland officials”, which, as a result can ill afford to offend the ruling regime. Ming Pao Newspapers has two Canadian Chinese language editions, one in Toronto and another in Vancouver. It also owns English language publications in Canada.
2020 CPF funding by Canadian Heritage included the following Ming Pao Newspapers (Canada) Limited:
Saturday Magazine $1,020,000
Healthy Living $878,000
Gourmet $918,000
Exploring China $346,000
Weekly Magazine $1,046,000
Substantial Other Canadian Heritage Subsidies through the CPF
Among the 500 regular Canada Periodical Fund recipients for the fiscal year 2019-2020 are:
Cottage Life $318,000
Post media Network $1.4 million
Reader’s Digest $2.4 million
Ricardo Media $584,000
The Catholic Register $571,000
The Walrus Foundation $303,000
Toronto Life $506,000
TVA Publications $9.1 million
Payments under $100,000 are not listed in Public Accounts. They totalled $12 million, part of the $71.3 million CPF budget.
The Liberal budget for 2021 committed $1.9 billion for Arts, Culture, Heritage, and Sports. This has increased dependence on government, and has contributed to excessive federal deficits and record breaking debt. There should be a thorough review of such handouts.