Canada: Trudeau Granted Establishment Media $100-Million+ Taxpayer Bailout

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on Tuesday revealed direct federal subsidies to the broadcast industry during the pandemic exceeded $100 million in Canadian dollars (about $77 million U.S.), plus a $36.5 million giveaway from waiving license fees.

Ottawa-based news website Blacklock’s Reporter disclosed the previously hidden extent of the pandemic subsidies for state media operations, which was only the latest in a series of bailouts.

In early August, Blacklock’s Reporter and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation obtained records that showed the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) gave out $12 million (Canadian) in raises and $15.4 million in bonuses, even as it was complaining about “immense pressure” from the pandemic and collecting a $21 million bailout from taxpayers.

“It’s not fair to ask struggling taxpayers to pay higher taxes so the taxpayer-funded CBC can give itself millions in bonuses and pay raises during a pandemic,” Franco Terrazzano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation declared.

At the same time these huge subsidies were paid, the audience for Canadian television was falling by double digits. Broadcasters argued these declines, and the lost advertising revenue they represented, made financial support from the government necessary.

“You paid taxes so that Trudeau could give $104M in bail-out money to the propagandists at Global, CTV and CBC,” said an astonished Ezra Levant, publisher of the independent Rebel News, on Wednesday after the Blacklock’s Reporter expose was posted.

“No wonder they shill for him [Trudeau] so hard. Never trust the mainstream media. Understand they are paid to hate you,” Levant said on Twitter.