Today's tonic: "If Pierre Poilievre gets his way, the next Olympics might not be so fun to watch - To eliminate the CBC would turn the Olympics into yet another product that must be paid for to be witnessed. "

Canadian beach volleyball Silver medalists

I haven't blogged in weeks and a lot has been happening, especially politically south of the border.  Please expect some thoughts soon on the ascension of Kamala Harris to the Democratic presidential nomination.

But for today, another topic: It's been a busy summer with work where I supervise a team of media librarians at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. Our team conducts media management of digital workspaces for two Toronto servers at CBC, one for News and one for all other production including CBC Sports.  We also manage several more servers at CBC locations across the country. 

Our team has been since late July setting up records and maintaining and archiving records of all Olympic events, plus any interviews, footage, stills captured, etc. our CBC crews have been shooting with athletes over in Paris.  We ensure the CBC Sports digital server has enough capacity to take in all of this content so that editors and producers can do their jobs getting Olympic shows to air.  

It is an immense responsibility, one we do every Olympic games (as long as the CBC hosts them for Canada).  We look forward to doing the same work for the Winter 2026 Games in Milano, Italy.  That is, if we still have an English CBC to work for.  

That is, if only Pierre Poilievre is stopped implementing his promise to destroy English language CBC.  The iconic cultural institution with other 80 years of branding and accomplishment, the best source of journalism for English Canadians in this scary world overrun with disinformation.  

Public broadcasting's aim should be to bring Canadians together, as we did these last two weeks with the coverage of the Paris Games.  Public broadcasting also ensures a clear source of reliable information, not tainted by association with private corporate interests.  CBC journalists go after stories to tell Canadians, regardless if those stories favour the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, or any other points of view.  The CBC is as unbiased a media organization as you can get in English Canada and is structured to provide excellent national, provincial and local news coverage that impacts you in your communities. 

From far right wing eyes, the centre (or CBC) can look left wing.  From far left eyes, the CBC also looks fairly conservative and too safe.  I've always admired the CBC for its clear, concise, non-sensationalist approach to covering the news of the day.  

Today, I'm happy to share this article by Mark Hill in the Toronto Star, which details how the CBC's coverage of the Paris Games this year has brought Canadians together to share moments of joy, excitement, heartbreak and spectacle.  Over 13 million Canadians watched a part of the Opening Ceremony.  

Destroying the CBC would turn our backs on decades of Canadian-first media.  Poilievre's plan would ensure that "Schitt's Creek" for example would never have existed.  That popular English-language comedy became an international hit and its creator has said that CBC gave the kind of artistic freedom to create that show that made it so special and allowed it to find international audiences including several Emmy Awards a few years ago.  

The examples go on and on.  This will be a huge fight to save Canadians' right to journalism, to public broadcasting, to more English language news and entertainment and sports programming.   

Here's an excerpt from Hill's article: 

To eliminate the CBC would turn the Olympics into yet another product that must be paid for to be witnessed. For all their flaws, what’s wonderful about events like the Olympics and the World Cup is that their novelty and nationality attract reams of fans who otherwise couldn’t care less about sports. If Olympic coverage was subsumed by paid networks like Sportsnet and TSN, one more thread that unites us as a country would be severed, and yet another public service would be lost. 

A few weeks of sport won’t solve the country’s issues. But it is a reminder that we are all Canadian, and that the tedious jeremiads claiming the CBC is to the left of Mao are unmoored from reality.

Also, Olympic table tennis is wild. Don’t take that away from us.