OTTAWA – CBC/Radio-Canada has handed over some, but not all, of the documents requested by the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics. And some of them remain sealed.
The move follows an order by the Committee that the national broadcaster produce records requested under Access to Information by Quebecor Media and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. CBC said Monday that it is complying with the order “under protest and with strong reservations about the purpose for which the documents have been requested”.
"After serious consideration, we decided to provide the documents to the Committee this morning, but to seal some of them”, said president and CEO Hubert T. Lacroix in a speech Monday to the National Press Club. “At the same time, we formally expressed concerns about some important constitutional questions and boundaries, and we have asked the members of the Committee to read the Bordner Ladner Gervais opinion – which we provided to them – and reconsider their course of action.”
CBC said that it sought a legal opinion from outside counsel which determined that the Committee's order falls outside of the scope of the parliamentary privilege on which it is based, and “constitutes an unconstitutional incursion into the domain of the courts, contrary to the constitutional separation of powers between the legislative and judicial branches”. That opinion was enclosed with the documents.
The ‘pubcaster also said that it will not challenge the order in court, noting the “lengthy and costly series of judicial proceedings” would not serve the best interests of Canadians.
CBC/Radio-Canada is slated to appear before the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics on November 24, 2011.
"This is, for us, about the critically important concept of independence from political influence and our ability to act – as we have always done as a public broadcaster – within a competitive broadcasting ecosystem," added Lacroix.
