PSAC stands up for public servants, angers Sun editorialists

Many high-profile campaigns targeting Harper's record launched just before the writ dropped on August 2.

One of the highest profile national campaigns was from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). PSAC represents 170,000 government workers across Canada. PSAC members will be most directly affected by the outcome of the election; the stakes for them are high and personal.

Sun News to CRTC: No guaranteed spot on the dial, no more network

OTTAWA - Sun News Network made its final pitch to the federal telecommunications regulator on Thursday, saying anything short of a guaranteed spot on the dial would spell the end of the channel.

The Quebecor-owned network is seeking what is known as mandatory carriage from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

Sun TV a.k.a. Fox News North tells CRTC to make us pay up

The spectacle of Fox News North, a.k.a. Sun News, begging for “mandatory carriage” from the CRTC this week — Canadians must pay for it and it must be top-tier in basic cable packages — is good fun.

It’s like bear-baiting, except that for once the bear is Sun News and not the unfortunate decent guest — like the great artist Margie Gillis — who has wandered into an interview without expecting to be savaged by animals with an unreasonable dislike of modern dance troupes.

Sorry for anti-Roma rant? As It Happens interviewer demolishes Sun News VP

If you think Sun News Network is bad now, just wait until they've got their ruling from th
e Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that their broadcasts must be carried on basic cable television and paid for by cable subscribers.

Any listener could infer they'll be much worse after listening yesterday evening to CBC interviewer Carol Off demolish Sun News Network Vice-President Kory Teneycke's slippery attempt to defend the far-right network's commentator Ezra Levant for his racist diatribe against the Roma people six months ago.

Four public officials admit selling information to Sun

Two former police officers, an ex-prison officer and another public official have admitted selling information to the Sun – the first people to plead guilty in relation to the investigation into alleged illegal payments by journalists.

Alan Tierney, an ex-Surrey police constable, and former prison officer Richard Trunkfield, both pleaded guilty to misconduct in a public office at the Old Bailey on Friday morning during plea and case management hearings.

‘Robocalls’ staffer to oppose Sun News Network’s application

Michael Sona, a former Conservative staffer linked to the Guelph robocall by Sun News Network, has applied to appear before the CRTC to oppose the network’s request for must-carry status.

Sona submitted his application on Tuesday, complaining that Sun TV personality Brian Lilley named him in connection with the Guelph robocall without giving him the opportunity to comment, a breach of proper journalistic practices.

Why You May Soon Pay for TV You Don't Want

Canadians frustrated with ever-increasing cable and satellite bills received bad news last week with the announcement that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will consider whether to require cable and satellite companies to include nearly two-dozen niche channels as part of their basic service packages. If approved, the new broadcast distribution rules would significantly increase monthly cable bills with consumers forced to pay for channels they may not want.

Sun News Asks Anti-Abortion Activists For Help With CRTC Application

Sun News TV host Brian Lilley has asked anti-abortion supporters across Canada to support the channel's CRTC application for mandatory carriage.

"Sun News is the strongest voice for the pro-life cause on television in Canada. Bar none," Lilley told anti-abortion site LifesiteNews

"We welcome the other side of the debate as well because that is what we do, but no one on television in this country gives as much airtime to pro-lifers. We shouldn't let that voice be silenced," he added.

With no market for hate and right-wing drivel, Sun News comes cap in hand for public subsidy

Sun News Network, that fearless foe of state subsidies for the CBC, wants you, Dear Television Viewer, to directly subsidize it to the tune of $18 million a year.

Have no doubt, that's just the beginning, but it would nicely cover losses the company says now amount to a modest $17 million a year -- hardly a corporate killer, one would think, but apparently enough to get Sun News queuing up at the public trough.

It turns out, as others have discovered before them (Ted Byfield, c'mon down!) that there's not much of a market in Canada for the kind of market fundamentalist pap Sun News peddles -- at least when consumers have the choice not to pay for it.

Idle No More protests at the Toronto Sun

TORONTO - A small group of Idle No More demonstrators marched to the doors of the Toronto Sun on Saturday to protest what they claim to be “racist” statements made by Sun Media commentators.

Around 100 demonstrators chanted, bellowed, hoisted placards and waved First Nations flags outside the Sun’s King St. E. building for just over an hour in the early afternoon, protesting commentary made both in the Sun newspaper and on the Sun News Network around the plight of Native Canadians, the funding of reserves, the Idle No More movement, and the ongoing hunger strike of Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence.

Security expert: Canada should keep eye out for 'Islamist' immigrants

OTTAWA -- A security expert says Canada needs to go beyond screening for terrorists landing on our shores and consider the religious beliefs of some prospective immigrants.

Scott Newark says Canada should be concerned about "Islamist" immigrants.

Newark served as executive officer of the Canadian Police Association and also worked as a security and policy advisor to both the Ontario and federal Ministers of Public Safety.

Take off the blue helmet: It may be time for Canada to leave UN and stop trying to please everyone

Predictable elements are uneasy that Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird’s tough speech at the UN represents a shift away from Canada’s usual tiptoeing around sensitive issues.

Baird scolded the UN for its inability to resolve crises (e.g., Syria), and its reluctance to take decisive action when rogue regimes run amok or defy international opinion. That sort of thing.

In taking a tough stand, Baird undoubtedly reflected Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s attitude — and Baird was filling in for Harper who, instead of addressing the General Assembly along with other heads of state, was accepting a “Statesman of the Year” award.

Harper: Economy is top priority

OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper says shielding the economy from a global broadside is his top priority even if it means balancing the books later rather than sooner.

In an exclusive interview Thursday with Brian Lilley, host of Byline on Sun News Network, Harper said he's surprised at the extent world economies continue to struggle following the 2008-09 financial collapse.

Fake Sun TV segment has mocked our democracy

When Stephen Harper’s government wants a happy clap-clap Canadian moment on Sun News, it goes the Full North Korean.

Yes, six of the “new Canadians” attending a “reaffirmation” ceremony for Citizenship Week in the Sun studios last fall turn out not to have been recently minted citizens after all. As The Canadian Press’ Jennifer Ditchburn has reported, they were actually federal bureaucrats told to smile and wave the damn flag like they meant it.

The thing looked like a school play with grown-ups. Sad frightened grown-ups.

According to CP, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office had asked Sun News to do a soft news segment, at the network’s studio, on new citizens taking the oath. It does sound as though the Tories and Sun News are joined at the hip. I have never worked anywhere in journalism where the government phoned and asked you to do anything. Oh yeah, when an 8-year-old designs a Christmas stamp, we’ll be there.

But journalists and government never get together and fake stuff. That would be a firing offence, presumably on both sides. How times have changed.

As it happens, a day later the CBC ran an hour-long actual citizenship ceremony for 75 new Canadians. When the CBC does Canada, it goes the Full Canuck. They had a studio audience, a bagpiper full of pep, Mounties, bigwigs and, one hopes, boxes of Kleenex in every chair. I’ve been to our citizenship ceremonies, most recently for a dear American friend, and people weep like faucets.

So is it possible that Sun News got wind of the CBC’s excellent heartwarming adventure and tried to do it on the cheap with an in-house oath “reaffirmation” — is that a thing? — and called the immigration minister for help? Since Quebecor won’t comment on the debacle that ensued, we don’t know. But it does sound as though Sun and the feds chat frequently.

Klaszus: CBC elbowed out as state broadcaster

As journalists in many countries fight for the right to expression, some Canadians are making a show of grumbling about our socalled "state broadcaster," the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. This language is intentional, suggesting a dangerous deference to power, collusion between government and newsroom.

It makes one think of the Soviet Union, of Iran and Libya, of regimes that forcefully use media outlets to act as megaphones for propaganda. State broadcasters typically ignore legitimate news stories (such as antigovernment protests) while promoting others (progovernment rallies). They dutifully broadcast leaders' rants, no matter how nonsensical. We are led to believe that CBC is this kind of organization, corrupt and untrustworthy. But if CBC is indeed a state broadcaster, it's a shoddy one, critical of the ruling party and strangely supportive of populist movements (take a cbc.ca headline from last week as an example: "Occupy Canada rallies spread in economic 'awakening'").

Apparently, nobody at CBC got the memo on how a state broadcaster is supposed to conduct itself.

What's Behind the Sun News-Bell Battle?

Two behemoths of Canadian media have gone to war. More such wars may be inevitable.

Since you’re reading The Mark, I’m assuming you already know how crazily fragmented the global news media business has become.

Despite that, Quebecor (which owns the Sun newspaper chain, the top French-language broadcaster (TVA), and the cable/wireless company Vidéotron) still chose to launch a new TV channel, Sun News, in April. The home of “hard news and straight talk” (a tag line built for risqué jokes if there ever was one) is unique in both its format and licensing. Built to ape Fox News’s style, where commentators and experts give their opinions on the day’s news (it costs less to riff than to report, after all), the channel is unapologetically opinionated and right-wing. Its format will win viewers and breathe some life into the staid business of Canadian news, as long as its journalists continue to push the envelope – and improve.

Sun News is unique in its licensing because, in southern Ontario, it is both an over-the-air broadcaster and a specialty channel. Because it is an over-the-air broadcaster (having replaced the former Sun TV station in Toronto), cable companies like Rogers Cable, Cogeco Cable, and Bell Canada’s Fibe TV must carry and deliver it to their customers for free, according to long-standing CRTC policy. However, for the rest of the country (including our satellite TV companies), the new Sun News is a digital specialty channel, which means carriers like Shaw Communications, EastLink, Telus’ Optik TV, and Bell Satellite can choose whether or not they carry it, and can pass a fee on to their customers if they wish to.

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Source: The Mark news