Great work being done by Avaaz.org to save the CBC...
You can also join the Facebook Group:
Save The CBC, Cut The Conservatives!
Dear friends across Canada,
In the last several days, an amazing 125,000 of us have come together to Save the CBC and Radio-Canada from damaging budget cuts. Our petition was delivered on Friday by Canadian celebrity Wendy Crewson and MPs from all 3 opposition parties to Parliament, while planes overhead flew large banners in English and French. Here's a picture of the petition delivery and press briefing at the House of Commons:
In the last several days, an amazing 125,000 of us have come together to Save the CBC and Radio-Canada from damaging budget cuts. Our petition was delivered on Friday by Canadian celebrity Wendy Crewson and MPs from all 3 opposition parties to Parliament, while planes overhead flew large banners in English and French. Here's a picture of the petition delivery and press briefing at the House of Commons:
 |
Our spectacular petition delivery drew reporters and TV cameras from all the major networks, but while major media like La Presse in Quebec ran the story, we had to wonder why editors at all the other corporate media outlets (and CBC competitors) didn't.
In a bid to break into the corporate media, on Saturday Avaaz volunteers passed out 2500 Save the CBC buttons to celebrities attending the Genie Awards, and encouraged a few of them, including Crewson, to speak out on stage for the cause. It worked! Some major newspapers mentioned the Save the CBC campaign for the first time (see below).
Next week opposition politicians will deliver our petition to Prime Minister Harper when Parliament returns to session, so let's still keep building our numbers by forwarding this email and asking people to sign up at this link:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_
This tremendous response from Canadians is the beginning of the restoration of the CBC as a strong public service institution in our country. But there's a long way to go -- as feared, the Harper government is considering plans to bailout big media corporations like CanWest and CTV, while insisting on starving the CBC of funds. This is a terrible abuse of taxpayer money to support political friends and partisan media while strangling the independent public broadcaster.
Our members of parliament are all back in their constituency offices right now, and available to listen to us. If you know the name of your MP, click below to find their phone number and give them a call politely asking them to stand up for Canada's public broadcasters.
http://www.avaaz.org/canada_
Or to send a message to your MP, use this action tool at the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting website:
http://www.friends.ca/yourMP
For a long time, the CBC has been forced to rely on advertizing for an increasing percentage of its revenue, making it carry American rather than Canadian shows, and focus on commercial rather than cultural content. This is part of a long term strategy to eventually privatize and sell off the CBC. But this aggressive strategy is now backfiring, and we are seeing a movement of Canadians come together to restore and protect the long term health of this national treasure. Let's keep up the pressure.
With hope and determination,
Ricken, Lisa-Marie, Laryn and the Avaaz Canada team
PS - here's the La Presse story (in French) that covered the petition delivery:
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/
http://www.theglobeandmail.
1 comment:
I sent mine in and as of now they have 126,,531 names, trying for 150,000
Post a Comment