Advisory group named to drive CBC board appointments

OTTAWA — A nine-member panel has been charged with vetting potential appointees to the CBC/Radio-Canada board of directors, led by former TV journalist Tom Clark, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly announced Tuesday. “I am pleased to establish this committee of qualified people who will support our goal of naming candidates who know the sector and understand our changes to the board of directors of CBC/Radio-Canada,” Joly said in French during a press conference on Parliament Hill. In addition to Clark, who retired in January from a 45-year career in broadcast journalism, the advisory panel also includes: Prem Gill, a former Telus Corp. director of content and current CEO for Creative BC; Carolyn Warren, a former CBC producer and current senior arts advisor for the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity; Janelle Wookey, a Franco-Métis filmmaker and former CBC producer, host and director; actor Colm Feore; Marc Beaudet, CEO and co-founder of of Turbulent, a Quebec-based digital platform company; Monique Savoie, the founder and artistic director of Montreal’s Société des arts technologiques; Alanis Obomsawin, acclaimed documentary filmmaker; and Éric Larocque, who is heading the organizing committee for the 2021 Games of the Francophonie. The group will be responsible for vetting the applications that come through the governor-in-council appointment website and creating a shortlist for the minister to choose from right away, “as well as supplementary qualified candidates to create a pool to fill posts in the future,” a press release said. Reforming the board’s appointment process was both part of Joly’s mandate letter from the prime minister upon being named to her portfolio, and part of the Liberal party platform during the election campaign, Joly noted. When asked if she was sticking to a previously stated goal of having a gender-balanced board, Joly said it’s something they are always working towards, and that they’re also looking for people who “reflect and know the sector.” Joly added that’s it’s important to have a competent board “when we know the state of media is in a constant state of evolution.” There are currently nine people on the board of directors out of a potential 12 spots. Board members are appointed to five-year terms, and three of those terms have expired — chairman Rémi Racine and director Marni Larkin were both set to leave as of June 20, while Terrence Leier’s term expired May 30. “Ultimately, the board members that are sitting on the board right now will continue to sit until the new nominations to the board,” Joly said. On Tuesday, three postings were published on the governor-in-council appointment website for CBC part-time directors, chairperson and full-time president. The deadline for applications for chairperson is July 11, and July 18 for directors. The deadline for applicants interested in the president’s job is Aug. 15. Current president and CEO Hubert Lacroix’s term ends Dec. 31. Another director, Maureen McCaw, will also finish her term this year, on Dec. 12. The current board and leadership have faced calls for their resignation from unions representing both CBC’s French- and English-language employees. Friends of Canadian Broadcasting also highlighted earlier this year that seven out of the nine board members were donors to the federal Conservative party. In late 2015, the Canadian Media Guild said the board failed to “publicly defend the national broadcaster.” “Instead of fighting for a strong CBC/Radio-Canada, accessible on different platforms, they have announced that even if the funding is restored, they will continue with the plan to diminish CBC/Radio-Canada,” the union said at the time. In a statement Tuesday from Jonathan Spence, CBC branch president, and Kamala Rao, national president, the union said it welcomed the new selection process. “CBC/Radio-Canada is not just another player in the media industry. It was created as a public trust, a public asset, to serve people across Canada and it needs strong, vocal leadership from its Board of Directors,” the statement said. The union also called for the inclusion of CBC employees, selected as representatives by the broadcaster’s unions, on the board of directors. “As journalists and media workers, we have a good sense of what is required to do our jobs well. We know that unrelenting layoffs, smaller newsrooms, and diminished resources have taken their toll. Inevitably, the cuts have an impact not only on our working conditions but also on what we can offer our audiences,” the statement said. Independent broadcast consultant Kelly Lynne Ashton said in a phone interview that Tuesday’s announced group was a “pretty solid panel.” She noted that even though some members of the panel don’t have broadcasting experience, “the CBC has gone beyond broadcasting. They are active on digital platforms and they need to be more actively on digital platforms, so it’s not a bad thing to be bringing in people who have a network.” Ashton said the current government needs to move in the opposite direction from its predecessor, which didn’t appoint enough people with broadcast experience on the CBC board. Among the professional experience listed for current board members, there are two lawyers, a leader in the video-game industry, a former broadcaster, a former marketing research company executive and communications executive, a real-estate/investment executive, the head of a management consultant firm, and another communications firm principal. There’s something to be said for having a well-rounded board with non-industry experience, but it’s “not helpful” when that’s all there is, Ashton said. Under the previous government, “there seemed to be a suspicion that if you came from a related industry you were going to favour your friends somehow,” Ashton said. “But what it meant is that you’d have a board with no applicable experience that was supposed to be giving guidance and strategy at a time when it was very particularly needed.” In a statement, NDP heritage critic Pierre Nantel called Tuesday’s announcement “smoke and mirrors.” “Despite this new process, new criteria, and the skills of those appointed, the Minister still has the final say and could decide not listen to the committee’s recommendations,” said Nantel, who also criticized the lack of a stated timeline in which the group has to complete its work and for new appointees to be named. “It is becoming more and more clear that CBC figures very low down on her list of priorities,” Nantel said. “This is disappointing, as this year will be very busy with the sale and construction of the new Radio-Canada tower in Montreal. It will take a well-functioning and renewed Board to oversee all of this.” — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Advisory group named to drive CBC board appointments

News | June 20, 2017

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Advisory group named to drive CBC board appointments

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