OTTAWA – Radio Canada veteran Guy Gendron has been appointed CBC/Radio-Canada’s French Services ombudsman, effective March 8, 2016.
Gendron (pictured) is replacing the retiring Pierre Tourangeau who will stay on until March 31. Gendron brings over 30 years of journalistic experience at Radio-Canada to the role of ombudsman, including experience as a local and national reporter, foreign correspondent, parliamentary correspondent, investigative reporter, interviewer, anchor, and chief editor. He worked on Enquête, Enjeux and Zone libre, and hosted Tout le monde en parlait before going on to become chief editor of Le téléjournal 22 h and Les coulisses du pouvoir.
Completely independent of program staff, the ombudsman reports directly to the public broadcaster’s Board of Directors through the president. The Corp. has an ombudsman for English Services and one for French Services, who are tasked with handling complaints from members of the public who are not satisfied with the response they receive from the news department.
“The way Canadians get their news is evolving and I’m confident that Guy will issue decisions tailored to this changing environment”, said president and CEO Hubert Lacroix, in the announcement. “I’m pleased to announce his appointment: his extensive knowledge of journalism and Radio-Canada, coupled with his open mind and intellectual rigour, are definite assets for this job.”
“I look forward to helping evolve our application of the Journalistic Standards and furthering the discussion about journalism best practices”, added Gendron. “I consider it a real challenge to follow in the footsteps of the many highly conscientious journalists who have preceded me as ombudsman, particularly Pierre Tourangeau and Julie Miville-Dechêne, whom I had the pleasure of working with for many years.”
