4 ~ Sunday, January 28, 1996 - North Shore News Bury the ‘Corpse’ IT COSTS you about a bil- lion bucks a year but if it were not there, would you get the trerables? The subject is the money-munch- ing machine known as the CBC. It is obsolete and mainly a play- ground for our elites. It is charged with fostering national unity but its idea of doing that has been to bash English Canada while boosting French Canada. Its supporters say we must have it because it is vital for the Canadian culture, which according to Liberal minister Sheila Finestone doesn't exist. They also support multicultural- ism, which is destroying whatever Canadian culture and tradition remains. It was the CBC, too, that gave us masterpieces like The Valour and the Horror, The War Against the Indians, and the O.J. Simpsoa trial “from a Canadian point of view,” whatever that is. John Crispo of the University of Toronte once described it as a “lousy, left-wing liberal NDP pinko network.” The elites never give up. A “task force” headed by former CBC presi- dent Pierre Juneau is recommending that the sick network be given new medicine in the form of taxes on cable and telephones. Over our dead bodies, say I. It did have its glory days. But ‘now it -heads the political correctness parade and its producers will put any ' bleater on the air who rants about “racism.” “4 As this column was being pon- 4 dered they had Marxist Alan Dutton on the air, going on about “racists” ‘who are opposed to Indian land _ Claims. ~’ Look for more on ‘that, But could “You, imagine the CBC doing a “docudrama” featuring Asian gangs ,, or black Toronto cop-killers as the :-bad guys? : Of course not. The other net- works wouldn’t do it either. But in the CBC’s case we ure paying a lot ' for what we don’t get. : » ” There have been big budget and ‘staff cuts, it is tue — usually . ‘described by the “Friends of the - CBC” as “vicious.” Radio Canada International (RCI) is said to Gz for the chop, too, But ‘the “friends” are’ bleating their heads (off about how Canada’s voice in for- fen fields will be silenced. ° " WHAT does RCI do? It broad- City adds Monday meeting THE FOLLOWING i is a list of sched- * uled “mectings ‘for ‘the North Shore municipalities and school districts, North Vancouver City Council: Monday, Jan. 29, 6 p.m. Informal pub- lic meeting: Tuesday, Jan. 30, 7:30 p.m. in council chamber concetning proposed lecation of the fire boat house at the foot of Chesterfield Ave. “. North Vancouver — District Council: Next meeting will be held Monday, Feb. 5, 7:15 p.m. ‘West Vancouver _ District Council: Next meeting will be held Monday, Feb. 5, 7:45 p.m. West Vancouver School District . 45: Monday, Jan. 29, 7 p.m. at Westcot elementary school, 760 Westcot Rd., West Vancouver. North Vancouver School District 44: No meeting this week. Next meet- ing is tentatively Tuesday, Feb. 13. Doug Collins 8 other hand casts news and radio features to China, Nigeria, Vieam and God knows how many other places. 1 can just imagine some Chinese peasant putting down his plough to catch the news about what Jean Chretien is up to. One of the most delicious com- ments on the proposed demise of the RCI came from Ashok Chandwani, an East Indian columnist for the Montreal Gazette. “We cannot let RCI die,” he wrote. “A solution has to be found. If not, come April, the Himalayas and the Sudan will never be the same again.” Good news, if you ask me. The “friends” claim millions lis- ~ ten to it. But how do they know? I am also told that RC! is heard by Canadian troops abroad. According to the Defence Department, howev- er, there will be only 2,800 of them tn even after the Yugoslavia contingent is complete. Hardly a mass audi- ence. Meanwhile, the RCI employs 150 people and costs $16.5 million. The RCI affair rerzinds me of something the late Malcolm Muggeridge said. He had been hired to do debates with people in India through the BBC World Service, another expense for the poor Brits, who have to pay for TV licences so that BBC bureaucrats can sip fine sherry at public expense. “We inet somewhere in the stratosphere,” he said. “And no one ever heard us.” There’s another conspicuous dol- lar-cruncher in the CBC but don’t look to our Quebec-dominated polit- ical system to wipe it out. I refer to the sacrosanct French tadio and TV outlets in English Canada. Including engineering staff shared with the English side they employ 380 people in Ontario and 139 in Western Canada. The cost in the four western provinces is $10 million a year. Yet their audiences in B.C. are so small they are “off the chart,” as they say in the business. CBC-TV meant something before multi-channel television and political purity arrived. But it is now becoming irrelevant. Reform MPs have recommended that Corpse TV be dumped and that the radio service be made to pay its own way. Don’t bet on it. WA sxe auy aus ALASKA 8 5 9 984-6122 Pe) May 3196 sbocd the HORIZON USipp =—1325 Marine Dr. r Norgate Malt DEREK :A. CAVE Trial Lawyer Get the:settlement North Van « “Behind Cap Mail you deserve. 925-7880 For deble ne ah LEVOLOR’ Verticals ' PLUS Dp" - - 1%" - oe Riviera Hovrizontals with free. Dustguard Offer ends Jan 31/96 Pt. Coquittam 942-3911 Vancouver 264- “7285 Squamish 898- 5259 Whistler 932-6617 retirement plan just got smarter? 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