GATINEAU – The CRTC today announced on Twitter that its Quebec Commissioner Alicia Barin (above) was appointed by the Governor in Council as interim vice-chair, broadcasting on Monday for a six-month period.
Barin takes over the role from Caroline J. Simard, who is set to begin her new role as Commissioner of Elections Canada starting Aug. 15.
Simard was previously scheduled to leave the Commission in September. She was a dissenting voice on two recent CRTC decisions regarding the CBC – the decision to renew its licences with significant changes to its conditions of licence, and the decision to force Radio-Canada to apologize for the use of the N-word on air and report to the Commission on how it will ensure similar issues are better addressed in the future.
Barin (who signed the majority decision on the CBC licence renewal) has “over 20 years of experience in the Canadian media industry,” according to her bio on the CRTC’s website.
She served as the vice-president of strategic planning at Astral Media from 2000 to 2013, during which time she had direct input in operational and regulatory initiatives. “In particular, Alicia successfully led the start-up of new pay and specialty channels and helped establish new business models for multi-platform television services as well as the coordination of Canadian content programming and investment spending,” her bio reads.
Since her time at Astral, Barin “has worked in corporate affairs for a project management firm as well as an architecture firm to grow these businesses as they served a variety of private and public-sector clients.”
She was appointed to the position of CRTC commissioner for Quebec in 2019 for a five year term.
Barin has a Bachelor of Laws degree from McGill University and an Honours Business Administration degree from Western University.
The CRTC’s website indicates Barin’s term as interim vice-chair, broadcasting will end Feb. 7, 2023, and her term as commissioner for Quebec will end Aug. 11, 2024.
Photo borrowed from the CRTC’s website.
