By Ahmad Hathout
Cogeco is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to force the CRTC to make a decision on a joint complaint it made with Bell late last year alleging a Quebecor internet radio station is broadcasting on a commercial FM station illegally.
In August 2024, Quebecor made a deal with Leclerc Communication, the owner of commercial radio station CJPX-FM (99.5 FM) in Montreal, allowing Quebecor’s internet radio station QUB Radio to operate on those airwaves during primetime Monday through Friday.
“In the hyper-competitive world of Montreal radio, the upheavals of recent months in talk radio offer us a very interesting opportunity to position new, strong, quality content on the FM band,” Leclerc said about the agreement at the time. “We are proud that Leclerc Communication has chosen QUB’s programs to enhance the weekday programming of 99.5 FM,” Quebecor added in the announcement. “After the web and television, we are very pleased to be able to expand QUB’s reach by adding content that will diversify the current offering on the FM band.”
There’s just one problem with it: the deal did not get approved by the CRTC, which would have found it to be in violation of regulator rules, claims a Part 1 application jointly filed in November by the city’s major radio players, Bell and Cogeco. The Montreal-based companies allege the deal effectively changes control of 99.5 FM, which requires the regulator’s blessing, and violates the commission’s policy on cross-media ownership because Quebecor already exercises control of the maximum two out of three types of media it is allowed in the city: television station TVA Montreal and newspaper Le Journal de Montreal.
It’s now been nearly a year since that Part 1 complaint was filed and the CRTC has yet to make a decision on it. On Friday, Cogeco filed with the Federal Court of Appeal a writ of mandamus, which is a request for the court to compel the regulator to make a decision on it. Cogeco says in its application that it has suffered financial losses due to this alleged “illegal” agreement, which it says has been exacerbated by the CRTC’s delay in deciding on the matter. Quebecor had also asked the CRTC to render a decision as soon as possible.
“The CRTC’s silence for more than a year is unacceptable,” Paul Beaudry, Cogeco’s vice president of regulatory and corporate affairs, said in a statement to Cartt. “Cogeco Inc has no other choice but to proceed with this new action.”
A week after the Leclerc deal, Cogeco sent a letter to the CRTC laying out the problems with the agreement and asked it to block the broadcast of QUB Radio on the airwaves until it examines the transaction.
The court filing states that the CRTC reached out to Quebecor and Leclerc to get more information about the agreement and was told that Leclerc still exercises control of the station despite the broadcast of QUB Radio five days a week in primetime.
For a couple of months, the matter slogged through the regulatory process: confidentiality requests were filed, extensions to file comments were afforded and, by March 7, all materials, including interventions, were handed over the CRTC, according to the complaint.
Since then and up to August, there had been radio silence, alleges the complaint.
In August, Cogeco said it sent a letter to the CRTC reminding it of its “obligations” to make a speedy decision, citing case law from the country’s highest court. It warned the commission that it would file a judicial review application to the Federal Court of Appeal to compel the commission to make a decision. The CRTC said in mid-August that it finished study of the matter and will release a decision on it “in the coming weeks,” according to the court filing.
“The case is not complex,” the court complaint reads, “and the CRTC can exercise its jurisdiction and issue a decision as soon as possible, i.e. within the next two weeks.”
The CRTC told us it cannot comment on the matter because it’s now before the courts. Quebecor did not respond to a request for comment in time for publishing.
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