TORONTO – Following this week's announcement by the Federal Elections Debates Commissioner David Johnston on how televised leadership debates will be produced, Rogers’ OMNI Television said it would air and translate them live in Cantonese, Italian, Mandarin, and Punjabi on TV and online.
OMNI is part of the Canadian Debate Production Partnership (CDPP), a consortium coming together to bring Canadians the debates on a wide range of platforms.
The debates will be held during the second week of October (exact dates have not yet been finalized) and the CDPP will promote, produce and distribute the French and English leaders' debates, where anyone can broadcast it or stream it for free. Jennifer McGuire, the general manager and editor in chief of CBC News is the official debates producer.
It will be widely distributed on television, radio, digital and social streaming platforms to ensure access to a broad cross-section of Canadians across the country, on the platform of their choice, will be able to see it. It will also be available in ASL, LSQ, closed captioning and described video, as well as some Indigenous languages.
The CDPP includes CBC/Radio-Canada, Global News, CTV News, Torstar, HuffPost Canada, La Presse, Le Devoir and L'Actualité.
The two debates (one English, one French) will be held in the Ottawa/Gatineau area.
