Toronto: Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s criticism of the CBC was a direct attack not only on Canadian culture but also on the Quebec and French communities in particular.
Twitter on Sunday labelled the main account of CBC as the broadcaster was a government-funded media. After this, the CBC announced on Monday that it would ban the use of Twitter.
The CBC receives $1 billion from taxpayers’ money annually, but has denied the fraud because it maintains its editorial independence and received the funding only after a vote in Parliament.
Poilievre, on the other hand, has been constantly talking about ending this funding. Last week, he wrote a letter to Twitter requesting it to impose a government-funded media ban on CBC News. But the letter made no mention of the broadcaster’s French-language wing, Radio Canada.
Jagmeet Singh said that this is not just an attack on independent journalists, but an attack on Canadian culture. It seems as if someone is attacking Quebec culture. During the day, bloc Quebecois leader Yves François Blanche also said on Twitter that Poilievre was playing a dirty ideological game. They are directly targeting French speakers and the right to access information. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also condemned Poilievre’s this move.