By Canadian Press

NDP, Bloc accuse Poilievre of threatening French, Quebec culture with stance on CBC

Apr 17, 2023 | 1:18 PM

OTTAWA — Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says Pierre Poilievre’s criticisms of the CBC amount to an attack on Canadian culture by the Conservative leader — and Quebec and francophone culture, in particular. 

Singh addressed the issue, speaking in French, after Twitter added a label to CBC’s main account on Sunday indicating the broadcaster was “government-funded media.”

That move prompted the corporation to announce today it was hitting pause on its use of the socia-media platform, which described the BBC in the same way before changing its own label to “publicly funded media.” 

CBC receives roughly $1 billion in taxpayer money annually but it says the label is inaccurate because it maintains editorial independence and receives its funding through a vote in Parliament. 

Poilievre regularly promises to slash that funding and sent a letter to Twitter last week requesting that the label be applied to accounts associated with CBC News, but did not mention Radio-Canada, the French-language wing of the broadcaster.

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Poilievre has suggested in media interviews that while he believes in defunding the CBC, he sees the value in its French-language programming — but along with the NDP, the Bloc Québécois is raising concerns about that approach.

Leader Yves-François Blanchet said on Twitter that Poilievre is playing a risky ideological game, and that he’s openly threatening French and access to information and the arts. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2023. 

Stephanie Taylor, The Canadian Press