(Ottawa) The president and general manager of CBC/Radio-Canada, Catherine Tait, had a bad time on Wednesday as parliamentarians from all parties lectured her on the decision to entrust the French adaptation of the podcast show Alone: A Love Story to a French studio to avoid the Quebec accent.
The tone was set from the first moments. “Is my accent okay?” You have no problem with my accent today? “, Conservative MP Bernard Généreux told him from the outset, during his appearance before the Standing Committee on Official Languages.
Between you and me — I’m going to hold back because I could say very bad words — honestly, it’s very insulting. It is an insult, literally, to the Quebec nation, downright.
Bernard Généreux, Conservative Party MP
The big boss immediately replied that she “100% agree” and that is why she promptly sent an apology to the president of the Union of Artists.
The Bloc spokesperson for official languages, Mario Beaulieu, for his part considered that what happened demonstrated “a contempt for Quebec, a contempt for the Quebec accent”.
He also criticized the CBC for only reflecting the point of view of the English-speaking community on Law 21 on state secularism and Law 96 on French. Mme Tait responded that journalists are governed by standards and that anyone who has grievances against journalistic content can contact the ombudsman as they do not interfere in this.
Deplorable, hurtful and unacceptable
During his testimony, Mr.me Tait was again apologetic. Not only is the failure to use Canadian dubbing expertise “an unfortunate incident […] an error”, but the comment to justify this was downright “deplorable, […] wounding, […] unacceptable”.
The adaptation of the podcast will be made in the country, she recalled, noting that it will be Radio-Canada, her own organization, which will be responsible for it. Production is already underway and the new version will be online at the beginning of the summer, we learned in response to a question from the NDP official languages spokesperson, Niki Ashton.
Alongside him, the head of transformation and senior vice-president, people and culture, Marco Dubé, said that the teams who made the decision have been met and understand the scope of their error.
Measures have been put in place so that CBC teams who want to translate podcasts into French have the obligation to contact firms in Quebec, he assured. Exchanges between the Radio-Canada and CBC teams have also been “strengthened”.
The parliamentary secretary to the Minister of Official Languages, Liberal Marc Serré, briefly discussed the podcast. He simply stated, after having reiterated the CEO’s comments on the unacceptable nature of the decision, that “we all agree with that”.
Instead, he tried to discuss how to protect the quality of journalism in regions where French is a minority and expressed concern about the impact that the cuts advocated by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre would have.
Mme Tait suggested he “better fund your public broadcaster” and said his organization is “a bulwark against misinformation, against polarization in our society.”
” What are you afraid of ? »
Mme Tait was not at the end of her troubles while the Conservatives returned to the charge, telling her that we could not be more clearly outraged that she had prevented two officials from coming to testify before the committee, even though they had been formally convened.
“What are you afraid of,” MP Luc Berthold asked him at one point, during a particularly tense exchange about the absence of the executive producer of CBC Podcasts, Cesil Fernandes, and the first head of advertising, marketing and radio and audio public relations for CBC/Radio-Canada, Émilie Brazeau-Béliveau.
Mme Tait had then just explained that she is responsible for the errors of all her employees and that it is up to her to appear before elected officials.
She then said the Broadcasting Act “very clearly” emphasizes that “we have independence not only for journalistic content, but for programming decisions.”
“Do you believe that the CBC is above legislators and the laws,” added Mr. Berthold. Parliament has the right to summon any person to come and testify before us. And this power is above the broadcasting law. »
He then explained to him that he wanted to understand “where this contempt for Mr. Fernandes’s Quebec accent comes from. And only he can come and explain why […] he thought it was a good idea. […] And you can’t answer that question. »
Questioned by The Canadian Press at the end of her testimony, Mme Tait confirmed that she stands by her decision not to allow her two employees to testify.