Carney, Singh pledge support for CBC to defend sovereignty, fight misinformation
By Canadian Press on April 4, 2025.
OTTAWA — Liberal Leader Mark Carney and the NDP’s Jagmeet Singh expressed support Friday for federal spending to ensure a strong national public broadcaster, a notion Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre dismissed as something Canada simply can’t afford.
On the federal election trail, Carney and Singh each said a healthy CBC/Radio-Canada is crucial to protecting the country’s sovereignty in the face of attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump and the general rise of misinformation.
Poilievre has repeatedly spoken of his desire to “defund” the CBC while preserving its French-language services.
During a campaign visit to Montreal, Carney pledged to boost CBC/Radio-Canada’s funding by an initial $150 million and enshrine its funding structure in law so that Parliament would have to approve any changes, while directing the corporation to develop a new strategic plan.
“We will modernize the mandate of our public broadcaster, we will give it the resources it needs to fulfil its renewed mission and ensure that its future is guided by all Canadians and not subject to the whims of a small group of people led by ideology,” Carney said.
“Our plan will safeguard a reliable Canadian public square in a sea of misinformation and disinformation, so we can stay informed and tell our own stories in our own languages.”
Singh, who was also campaigning in Montreal, said it’s more important to “invest significantly” in a reliable public broadcaster given the threats from misinformation and disinformation that endanger democracy, as well as Trump’s assaults on Canadian sovereignty.
“CBC, as a public broadcaster, has been a fundamental part of celebrating Canadian culture, celebrating Quebec culture,” Singh said.
Asked about the issue Friday in Trois-Rivières, Que., Poilievre said his approach to the public broadcaster “won’t have an impact on Radio-Canada.”
He then took aim at Carney.
“We can’t go on spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need, or our people are going to end up with even more brutal inflation,” Poilievre said. “I will be cutting waste, bureaucracy, consultants, foreign aid and other unnecessary expenses to reduce taxes, debt and inflation. That’s the choice in this election.”
Carney said Canada’s identity and institutions face foreign interference, and instead of defending them, Poilievre is following Trump’s lead and “taking aim at our institutions like CBC/Radio-Canada.”
He rejected Poilievre’s plan to preserve only the broadcaster’s French-language operations.
“You can’t split this, baby. His attack on CBC is an attack directly on Radio-Canada, and it is an attack on our Canadian identity.”
— With files from Catherine Morrison, David Baxter, Kyle Duggan and Sarah Ritchie in Ottawa, Alessia Passafiume and Maura Forrest in Montreal and Pierre St-Arnaud in Trois-Rivières, Que.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 4, 2025.
Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
19-18
The Liberal/NDP coalition is still alive and well as we see here! We should not be funding the CBC, especially from the Liberal biased reported we have witnessed over the last few years, but more so when they continually spew the disinformation on news from the Middle East which favours the terrorists and ignored the facts that in some cases even the UN acknowledged, such as the questionable amount of Gazan’s killed by the IDF in the war.
But continuously we have seen biased reporting on many domestic political issues and that is why I have removed all CBC programming from my TV guide list and do not read any CBC articles online.
If we are funding the CBC we should be funding CTV, Global and other media! CBC should be defunded and be treated the same as all media.
It is unfair to other media that we are funding this organization which has been biased, but even if they were not biased, why are we funding them?? They are not a non-profit or some other vital organization!
Defund them! Typical Liberal/NDP garbage that shows nothing has changed with these two parties! The ‘Coalition’ is still alive and well!
CBC. A Canadian institution? What does that mean? A socialist welfare institution that caters to the hand that feeds it. Sadly it stoops to the liberals as their financier and not the tax payer that actually subsidizes/ supports it unwillingly.
Agree with say- what. Why not suppor5vall media? Include rebel news. Juno , etc?