6, Le Soleil de Colombie, 30 Janvier 1976 Che Vancouver Sun Extrait du ‘‘VANCOUVER SUN”? le 24 Janvier 1976 At the stake _ There is the air of a witch-hunt about the local campaign being fo- mented against the CBC’s applica- tion to extend the French-lan- guage television network to Brit- ish Columbia. The_French station is being cast in the role of a Joan of Arc — guilty of heresy, if not real witch- craft, and deserving of nothing less than burning at the stake. The rabble-rousers mounting the campaign have certainly not been hindered by the ham-handed way the Canadian Radio-Television Commission has gone about reor- ganizing the distribution of TV sig- nals available to B.C. viewers. The commission’s bureaucratic clumsiness has spawned all kinds of silly rumors which have served ~ only to raise irrational fears and feed the flames of prejudice al- ready licking at the pyre. People are being told that the French station is not only being rammed down their throats at great expense to the taxpayer to serve an insignificant minority, but will bump U.S. channels off _ the cable system .and force them to spend $100 on a new device if they want to watch Archie Bunk- ‘er, or whoever. - If we may be permitted a-derog- atory exclamation, hogwash. The French outlet is not just for” 40;000 British Columbians whose mother tongue is French. It is not. just for the 100,000 British Colum- bians, half of them in metropoli- tan Vancouver, who are bilingual. It is also for anglophones who wish to enrich themselves and take advantage of all the things life in Canada has to offer, not just those which come in English. ‘The expense argument is: just as sraiabaie The studio and transmis- sion facilities already exist; the only change is that the capital costs will be ascribed to the French network rather than the English network. The operational costs, even when the station is fully developed, will amount to less than 70 cents a year for each : British Columbian. As far as the bumping is con- cerned, it has nothing to'do with the CBC, which is merely applying for a spot on the UHF band. If the. cable companies are ordered to carry the French station on a VHF ‘channel, that order will come from the CRTC. If any stations. are to be bumped off VHF chan- nels — and there are alternatives — the CRTC will do the bumping. ; Viewers who. -want to take full advantage of an expanding selec- tion of television programs will eventually have to cough up for a converter anyway. Some of us would pay almost anything to sée”’|"” our favorite. show; -be. it Archie Bunker or Joan of Arc. eo ene ee ee eee OEE ee ee een ore province] Extrait du ‘‘ PROVINCE”’ le 17 Janvier 1976 ... and French at the right price ’ Progressive, Conservative MP. John Reynolds is reporting ‘‘over- whelmingly favorable’ response to his public campaign of opposi- tion to the introduction of a French-language TV station that would, as things stand, knock a U.S. channel (likely Channel 4) off the Vancouver cablevision net- work. He has been careful, in his latest’ advertisements, to. stress the financial costs of the CBC service. His ads call it ‘‘an unnecessary expense at this time’ and he has spoken of it as ‘wasting our damn money.” He is trying hard to deny any suggestion of anti-Quebec bias, and notes he is supporting Claude Wagner’s bid for the feder- al Tory leadership. ' But in.a December. newsletter, he lumped the Radio Canada TV . plan in with “Francophone tom- foolery’’ and protested: ‘‘There is a .06% French-speaking popula- tion in Vancouver and in my esti- ‘mation this is nothing short of special consideration to appease a ‘very limited audience while the majority suffers.’’ He has thus, whether he likes it or not, encour- aged those who don’t want French-language TV here _ be- cause, as one put it, “they ‘should ‘keep. the Frog stuff in Quebec where it belongs.” That kind of attitude we can do without. We could do with French TV — Canada service would provide Vancouver with a valuable oppor- tunity to contribute to bicultural Canadianism, to enrich its own culture and, incidentally, to take advantage of some first-class pro- gramming. While the proposed expenditure of $2.7 million in capi- tal costs and something like $1.5 million a year in operating costs may be questioned at this time of economic woe, we think that, allin all, it’s worth it. But there is indeed a valid ques- tion as to whether the price should involve giving up Channel 4 in order to make room for a service with a patently limited audience, regardless of its mérits or the claims of French Canadians to such service as a right. Technically, it is not necessary to do so. Any channel-bumping would not be required by TV engi- néers but by the Canada-first rules and approaches of the Cana- dian Radio-Television Commis- sion. The service could be offered on. the UHF wavehand alone, without being relayed by cablevision, thus saving Channel 4. It could then be watched only by those with UHF- " capable sets. Most sets are, these days, but, for various reasons, it would be preferable to have the signal available on cable as well. The cable companies could be allowed to convert the UHF signal to ‘VHF and deliver it in the so- called ‘“‘mid-band’’, using one’ of the spare frequencies between Channels 6 and 7. However, those who want the service via cable, rather than out of the air, would have to buy a converter, a small gadget that costs anywhere from $70 to $110. French- Canadians may protest that asking some of them to buy converters. or new UHF-capable TV sets is no fair way to satisfy their claimed right to French-lan- guage service. By no means all would be so affected, however. The remainder would merely face an approach they came to accept when French-language radio was introduced here in 1967. It was put on FM radio, because the AM band was crowded. FM radios: were not so common then; that meant many French-Canadian lis- teners had to buy new-radies: . The happiest solution would be to use one of the three unused “impaired” cable channels. TV engineers suggest only one of the three offers much chance of giv- ing good quality. They have their eyes on it to save another U.S. channel that is scheduled to be bumped when Western Ap- proaches goes on the air in Sep- tember, but it could be made available for the Radio Canada station. Under the current ground rules of the CRTC, however, Channel 4 will have to go if the Radio Cana- da station is approved. When the commission sits here next month, it should changc the rules. if the price is right. "The Radio 1976)" : @ lassujettissement au régime des personnes agées de 65 ans et plus ~ (en vigueur le Jer janvier 1976) . iv @ |‘abandon volontaire d’un emploi (en vigueur le 4 janvier 1976) @ |‘assouplissement des modalités de paiement de prestations de maladie (en vigueur le ter juillet “Qu’est-ce qui se passe...” le plus prés de chez vous. Vous pouvez étre touché par les derniéres modifications _ apportees a la Loi sur lassurance- chomage. Les principales modifications portent sur: 1976) Pour plus de renseignements sur les modifications apportées 4 la Loi sur |‘assurance-chOmage, vous pouvez vous procurer la brochure intitulée au bureau de la Commission d‘assurance-chomage Assurance-chémage Unemployment Insurance Canada Robert Andras, ministre Sos Base Main-d'oeuyre et Immigration. Canada @ le taux majoré accordé aux ‘prestataires avec personne a charge (en vigueur le 4 janvier 1976) @ |‘assouplissement des modalités de paiement des prestations de maternité (en. vigueur le ler février tUSsgsooy Ol Temiet jos