Bev Oda funding scandal
p2pnet.net news view:- The Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which represents Canada’s major television and radio broadcasting companies, celebrated its 80th anniversary last week in Vancouver. CAB President Glenn O’Farrell opened the organization’s annual conference by arguing for dramatic changes to the Canadian broadcasting law framework.
O’Farrell expressed fear of a growing asymmetry between regulated and unregulated competitors, citing emerging competition from websites such as MySpace and YouTube as examples of unregulated competitors that are attracting growing audiences and advertising dollars. While acknowledging that this year there has been “an unprecedented level of regulatory review, from telecommunications, to radio, to the future of television in Canada,” O’Farrell concluded that “we need to pick up the pace.”
Adapting the Canadian broadcasting system to the Internet environment may indeed be necessary. However, while the CAB was meeting in Vancouver, across the country in Ottawa a flurry of questions in the House of Commons about the fundraising practices of Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda threaten to derail the reform efforts.
The controversy unfolded on Tuesday – the day after O’Farrell’s speech – when NDP Canadian Heritage critic Charlie Angus noted that Oda was planning a major fundraiser in Toronto sponsored by the head of regulatory affairs for CanWest, one of the country’s largest media companies. The fundraiser, which directly targeted the broadcast community, was to have featured Industry Minister Maxime Bernier, Oda’s cabinet partner on broadcast and copyright policy matters.
With a broadcast regulatory review in the offing, Angus pulled no punches in stating that “the broadcast review happens in two weeks. The cash grab happens next week. Why is the minister using her office to trade political access for political contributions? “
Oda responded by arguing that the fundraiser was fully compliant with Canadian law. Hours later, she abruptly canceled the fundraiser, with a spokesperson indicating that Oda wanted “to avoid any negative perception.” Under legislation introduced this past spring by the Conservatives, such a fundraiser would be banned starting next year.
Despite the cancellation, questions about Oda’s fundraising practices persisted throughout the week.
On Friday, Angus noted that Corus Entertainment was host to another Oda fundraiser in 2005. Angus linked the fundraiser, which raised $15,000, to the current search for the next chair of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (current chair Charles Dalfen has announced that he is not seeking a second term), sarcastically asking whether “passing the hat around a boardroom table constitute a fair assessment process for choosing the next head of the CRTC?”
In fact, further investigation into Oda’s past campaign financing demonstrates that the close ties between Oda and industry lobbyists may run deeper than even Angus realized.
According to Elections Canada data, Oda held a similar fundraiser in May 2004 – before she was even elected to the House of Commons – that attracted enormous corporate support from the broadcast industry including Alliance Atlantis, Astral, CanWest, and CHUM, as well as from more than a dozen senior executives from major broadcast and cable companies.
Once elected, the support continued. With Oda installed as the Conservative Canadian Heritage critic, her riding association last year reported contributions from a veritable who’s who of broadcast and copyright lobby groups and companies. These include broadcasters (Corus, Vision TV), cable companies (Rogers, Shaw, and Cogeco), record companies (Sony, Universal, Warner, EMI), and copyright lobby groups (Canadian Recording Industry Association, Canadian Motion Pictures Distributors Association, Entertainment Software Association).
Moreover, as the odds-on favourite to become the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Oda accepted thousands of dollars from broadcasting and copyright interests during the most recent election campaign, with her two largest contributions coming from individuals linked to two industry giants – Rogers and Standard Radio.
While there have been no allegations that the fundraising was not fully compliant with the law, it does raise the potential for repeated questions about the fairness and impartiality of the policy process. Oda enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the broadcasting industry before entering politics, yet her close ties to lobby groups will unquestionably cause some discomfort for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has emphasized greater government accountability and reduced influence of well-heeled lobby groups.
Moreover, should the government proceed with a major broadcast review or introduce new copyright legislation, Oda’s fundraising practices will likely come to the fore as critics wonder aloud whether those groups obtained political access and exercised greater influence over the policy process.
This cloud over Canadian Heritage policy could not come at a worse time. With the need for a new CRTC chair, the prospect of a new policy initiative to address the future of Canadian broadcasting and content rules, and the focus on copyright reform, the department promises to be in the spotlight in the months ahead. These initiatives may now be forced to share that spotlight with a regular stream of questions about Oda’s fundraising activities that could leave Canadians asking whether there is a hefty price tag associated with key government policies.
Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]
Also See:
planning a major fundraiser – Bev Oda: shades of Bulte, November 9, 2006
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November 13th, 2006 at 8:09 pm
The entrenched and established corporations fear what is happening. Joe Public is getting enough of ads forced down his throat and enough of the self-interest and self-promotion these corporations are doing. As a result, Joe is seeking cheaper entertainment and unbiased news. He has went where he can find it; the internet.
For the last several years, ad companies surveys and predictions back up the idea the public is leaving the commercial and pay-for channels in favor of the internet. The result of that is that less and less ad dollars are being spent on these media corporations and more is being targeted at the internet in hopes of snagging the customer there.
Major media has only two choices. One is to protect their turf with more laws, the second is to go where the money is. Their own subscription rolls are shrinking as well as their funding. Doesn’t take a wizard to see it went somewhere.
Oda is a sign of the symptoms, mega-entertainment on steroids and facing a severe diet of lack of funding if the present trends continue. Their solution will be to buy the internet and turn it into a restricted market place. A market place that consists of endless shelves and advertisements for other places to turn to spend your money. This will only come to be if the internet can be tamed. Come it will, just as you are seeing in every country. The attempts to fence up property, restrict the usage, and ensure that each and every surfer can not wander through the internet without massive exposure to the commercial.
November 16th, 2006 at 5:42 am
She looks a lot like Roseanne Barr. That along makes you want to step back.
November 16th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
There’s only one good change that should be done to the Canadian Broadcast laws:
A B O L I S H T H E C R T C
Tha’s it.