It’s all-out war between the CBC and Quebecor.

The Montreal-based company, which owns the Sun newspaper chain, Quebec’s TVA television network and the Vidéotron cable system, has long attacked the public broadcaster, calling it a “money drain” and even suggested it be shut down. But things got ugly when the CBC finally decided to fight back.

Last week, the broadcaster issued a statement accusing Quebecor of “using its newspapers and more recently its Sun News Network TV licence to pursue a campaign against CBC/Radio-Canada” and distorting the truth in that reporting.

It did so following three years of access-to-information requests made by Quebecor to the public broadcaster. Many of those requests were related to how the CBC spends the $1 billion it receives each year from the federal government.

Quebecor responded by calling the information in the statement “misleading and unfounded.”

They also sent a letter of notice to the CBC demanding the broadcaster remove the “false and defamatory” information from its website.

While the CBC is used to the scrutiny involved in being a publicly funded broadcaster, a war of words of this nature has rarely been seen in Canadian broadcasting.

The situation became more complicated Tuesday when Information Commissioner Suzanne Legault raised new flags about the CBC’s handling of access-to-information requests, saying the broadcaster appears to be arbitrarily rejecting some requests without doing due diligence.

Legault’s office is embroiled in a court battle with the CBC to gain access to documents at the heart of several hundreds of complaints.

But NDP MP Charlie Angus said many requests were filed by CBC’s well-known rival in Quebec.

“We’re trying to establish whether CBC is being accountable to the taxpayer or CBC is being undermined in a campaign by their number one competitor,” Angus said during a meeting of the Commons’ committee on access to information, privacy and ethics.

Michel Drapeau, an access-to-information expert and lawyer who has been employed by Quebecor, has submitted hundreds of requests to the broadcaster including anywhere from 50 to 80 requests this year alone.

Hubert Lacroix, CBC’s president and chief executive officer, denied that CBC and Quebecor are waging a war.

Asked about the CBC statement and Quebecor’s response, Lacroix said the “facts speak for themselves.”

Outside the meeting, Angus said, “This is very much part of the dirty war between Quebecor and CBC and the Conservative party has signed on as loyal foot soldiers.”

That view was echoed by University of Ottawa professor Marc-François Bernier, who said Quebecor appears to be trying to further its own corporate agenda by going after the CBC.

“I think part of the purpose is to weaken CBC because CBC is a rather significant competitor, especially within the Quebec market,” said Bernier.

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Quebecor CEO Pierre-Karl Peladeau told the committee his organization is trying to hold the CBC accountable for how it spends tax payer dollars.

Angus said Peladeau “has made no secret of his deep opposition and uses his newspapers across the country to demand that CBC be put out of business.”

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith

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