OTTAWA – Aboriginal broadcaster Wawatay Native Communications Society wants the CRTC’s recent Aboriginal radio licences decision to be overturned, and that it be granted the FM licences for the Ottawa and Toronto markets instead.
The Commission's June 14 decision awarded the broadcasting licences in those markets to First Peoples Radio Inc., an affiliate of Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN), for stations at 95.7 FM in Ottawa and 106.5 FM in Toronto.
But Wawatay said in a statement that it is the only broadcaster to have “consulted and received consent from Chiefs of Ontario and all representative Indigenous nations” for those licences.
"We have a letter in our application on the public record that states the Chiefs of Ontario voted unanimously in assembly and chose to support Wawatay…”, said Wawatay Communications Society CEO John Gagnon, in the statement. “What we find out now is that the CRTC has no policy, practice or procedure to even consider the due diligence to do the duty to consult."
Wawatay added that it has “cross-party support from several MPs asking the Minister of Canadian Heritage to repeal the CRTC 2017-198 decision”.
During its appearance at the Aboriginal radio station hearing in March, Gagnon said that Wawatay provides radio programming to more than 50 communities in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, and to First Nations in the Treaty 3 area through two city radio stations (Timmins and Sioux Lookout), with 35 local community stations affiliated to the network in Northern Ontario.
