COMMENTARY: Five questions I would ask the forces opposed to Bell/Astral, if I were a commissioner

THESE CRTC HEARINGS INTO big acquisitions have simply become giant public negotiating exercises where a lot of dirty laundry is aired in public by those who feel they’ve been wronged in the past. It becomes payback time, if you will. The applicant – in this case, Bell Media – puts in an application that is a swing for the fences. It cocks its regulatory bat and takes a mighty swing, looking for that grand slam home run on the first pitch, where all of its proposals are accepted by the Commission – but knowing full well it’s likely to miss...