Investigate CBC

Dear Commissioner,

I am writing to request an investigation into whether the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) violated section 325(1) of the Canada Elections Act.

The section states:

No person shall prevent or impair the transmission to the public of an election advertising message without the consent of a person with authority to authorize its transmission.

During the 2019 Federal Election, the CBC sent five letters to the Conservative Party of Canada demanding, under threat of legal action, that advertisements and social media posts containing short clips of CBC copyright material be taken down.

Under threat, the Conservative Party removed the advertisements and social media posts from distribution. Despite the CBC being successful in preventing the transmission to the public of election advertising it proceeded with a lawsuit.

The CBC issued its successful threats despite clear guidance from Elections Canada’s Broadcasting Guidelines, which states:

However, during the election period, they are not entitled to decline an ad unless the broadcast would be in contravention of the law. If a news clip is relatively short and is not a substantial part of the audiovisual work from which it was taken, the broadcast of the news clip in a political ad would not infringe the copyright of the owner of the audiovisual work and would not require the permission of that owner to be broadcast.

As Canada’s public broadcaster, and member of the Leaders’ Debate Consortium, CBC executives have a duty to be aware of Elections Canada Broadcasting Policy.

CBC executives must have been aware their letters to the Conservative Party, which sought to impair the transmission of election advertising, were not in accordance with the Broadcasting Guidelines, and had no legal basis.

The CBC ignored clear guidance, threatened a political party during an election, and was successful in preventing transmission of election advertising.

I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Cheryl Gallant, M.P
Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke

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