“We are independent of all lobbies and of all political and economic influence. We uphold freedom of expression and freedom of the press, the touchstones of a free and democratic society. Public interest guides all our decisions.”

These essential words drawn from the Journalistic Standards and Practices of CBC/Radio-Canada were developed during my time as director of information programming at Radio-Canada. They are also, historically, a constant struggle to enforce. Successive managements of CBC/Radio-Canada have not always defended the healthy “arm’s-length” distance from the government of the day with equal alacrity. I should know.

I was fired as director-general of information in February 2012. I sought to understand the reasons behind the decision. Things had been going well in the information service. Our investigative journalism into corruption in Quebec was recognized as having greatly contributed to cleaning up its democratic life. So why?

I understood that my days were numbered during a meeting with the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors a few weeks after Stephen Harper’s majority victory in May 2011. At that time members of the board denounced an anti-Harper “bias” in the campaign coverage and were embarrassed by it. However, according to an independent analysis by the academics of Le Centre d’études sur les médias, this allegation was unfounded.

When I began to investigate, I discovered that my firing was consistent with a history of tension that had always existed between CBC/Radio-Canada management and the political power of the day, particularly under majority governments.

My book, ÉTAIT Radio-CanadaIciÉTAIT Radio-Canada, explores the high points of these tensions between Radio-Canada and the federal government. In examining certain episodes that occurred under Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper, a striking pattern emerges of political intervention undermining the independence of the national public broadcaster.

In 1968, Trudeau declared his dissatisfaction with journalistic coverage that he deemed to be “separatist”; he threatened to “put the key in the mailbox.” He proceeded to attack the corporation’s budget directly — a tactic followed by all the succeeding governments of Canada. What better way to attack the broadcaster’s independence than to submit its parliamentary allocation to annual variations?

This was also the approach Chrétien took in severely amputating CBC/Radio-Canada’s budget by $400 million immediately after the “close call” referendum results on the future of Quebec in 1995.

It is also the formula that Stephen Harper is using now.

To reduce the corporation’s independence, what better way than to name a president and CEO, Hubert Lacroix, who is prepared to implement the wishes of the current government and have his mandate renewed for another five years as a reward? To ensure the support of the board, the government also appointed those who contribute financially to the Conservative party. The corporation’s governance urgently needs reform, in the public interest.

In Ici ÉTAIT Radio-Canada, I am not conducting a personal trial of Lacroix. I do, however, show that he is collaborating in what I would call the great dismantling of the public broadcaster in collusion with the political powers that be. Among the elements of proof, I have uncovered and documented political interventions: confidential notes and emails from former heritage minister James Moore on the participation of Gilles Duceppe on a radio show hosted by Catherine Perrin; on how to cover the royal visit of Prince William and Kate Middleton to Canada; and on pressure exerted to meet the government’s expectations of how the anniversary of the War of 1812 should be covered and showcased. In all of these cases, I had to defend Radio-Canada’s editorial independence.

A further destructive factor is Lacroix’s “one company” determination as a means in itself rather than a tool to generate more money for programming. This has resulted in dissolving a half-century of distinct French- and English-language organizations designed to meet the needs of audiences. Radio-Canada, one of the world’s most popular and successful public broadcasters with audience shares other North American networks can only dream of (more than twice what CBC ever draws), is being heavily penalized and required to absorb far more than its share of budget cuts due to CBC’s loss of Hockey Night in Canada and other factors.

CBC/Radio-Canada is probably this country’s most important institution and it is seriously threatened because the arm’s-length relationship between the government of the day and CBC/Radio-Canada has never been as fragile as it is now.

All developed western democracies recognize the need for an independent public service broadcaster. Most fund it properly. We are now at the third-lowest level of public funding among all OECD countries — and this for a country of immense geography and complex diversity with two official languages and many more aboriginal ones.

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It is high time for all Canadians to realize that this precious resource, this essential national institution, their voice and their eyes and ears on the world, is truly in danger of disappearing forever.