MONTREAL – More than a hundred people demonstrated in front of the Radio-Canada/CBC building in Montreal Wednesday in solidarity with the RCI Action Committee, a union-supported lobby of Radio Canada International employees.
At the rally, the Committee called on the federal government to stop the budget cuts at the international radio service, and to give RCI financial autonomy from Radio-Canada-CBC. As Cartt.ca reported, CBC/Radio-Canada plans to shut down RCI’s newsroom on June 24 after 67 years on the international airwaves, in favour of a web-only presence, as part of its massive budget cuts.
But supporters maintain that limiting RCI’s presence to the Internet means that millions of listeners will be cut off from uncensored news from Canada, noting that Internet access is limited or blocked in many countries, such as China.
"We think it should be Canada's Parliament and not Radio-Canada-CBC that decides the strength or weakness of RCI”, said RCI Action Committee spokesperson Wojtek Gwiazda, who is also a host and producer at RCI. “Even if we know the government does not want to get involved in the internal functioning of the Radio-Canada-CBC, we feel that the Corporation failed to meet its obligations under the Broadcasting Act."
