Civil Liberties Groups Call for CBC President to Testify at Emergencies Act Inquiry

People walk into the CBC building in Toronto on April 4, 2012. The Canadian Press/Nathan Denette

Civil liberties and constitutional rights groups are requesting the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC) call on the president and CEO of the CBC, Catherine Tait, to testify in the ongoing public inquiry looking into the government’s use of the Emergencies Act.

The rights groups, including the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), The Democracy Fund (TDF), and the Freedom Corporation, proposed the move in a letter submitted to PEOC Commissioner Paul Rouleau on Oct. 21, in which they said that Tait’s evidence would “significantly contribute to an understanding of the issues relevant to this Inquiry.”

As required by law, the POEC is looking into the circumstances surrounding the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act earlier this year. The letter noted that the commission is mandated to investigate “the impact, role and sources of misinformation and disinformation.”

It pointed to recent testimony from Pat Morris, superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police, that the letter said, “laid an evidentiary foundation to believe that the news media played a role in propagating misinformation which contributed to the events leading up to the invocation of the Emergencies Act.”

“I was concerned by comments made publicly by public figures and in the media that I believe weren’t premised in fact,” Morris said in his testimony.

“The media can provide editorials and editorial boards can have stances,” he added. “I believe that a lot of people were making assertions that weren’t accurate ... I did not see information that substantiated what was being said publicly and via the media and I found that the subjective assertions sensationalized and exacerbated conflict.”

JCCF lawyer Hatim Kheir said in a news release that the groups are asking for Tait to testify because “she is the head of Canada’s national broadcaster, which is one of the largest sources of news in the country.”

“Given that claims made in news reports were used to substantiate government requests to the Court, such as Ontario’s application for a restraint order, and given that Supt. Morris testified that the news reports were inconsistent with his best intelligence, the Commission should hear from individuals who can testify about the media’s approach to covering the Freedom Convoy protest,” Kheir said.

If called, Tait will be cross-examined on journalistic standards, the CBC’s approach to covering the Freedom Convoy, its rigour in verifying reports, and the organization’s approach to corrections when stories later turned out to be untrue, said the letter.

Retractions

The POEC is holding a series of public hearings from Oct. 13 until Nov. 25 to look into the Liberal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14 in response to the Freedom Convoy protests and border blockades against the federal COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.

The CBC has previously retracted articles that made erroneous reports about the convoy, including a late January article that said Russia could be backing the protest, which it later corrected.

In March, the broadcaster retracted a second story concerning foreign influence that claimed a Freedom Convoy fundraiser was shut down due to the suspicious nature of its donations.

“On February 10 in a report about the protest convoy CBC Radio’s The World This Hour incorrectly said GoFundMe ended a fundraiser for the protesters over questionable donations to the group,” the CBC said in a statement reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

On Jan. 28, CBC TV questioned in a broadcast whether “Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows or perhaps even instigating it from the outside,” a remark that was corrected and later cited as unfit for broadcast by CBC Ombudsman Jack Nagler.

Some federal cabinet members including Attorney General David Lametti cited CBC News as a key source of information considered in the government’s decision to invoke the act.

“CBC reported, I believe on February 13, that there was also foreign funding through a variety of different sites,” Lametti said while testifying at the Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency on April 26.