Some 7.500 Canadian artists appeared on TV screens last year — the majority ef them over

CBC stations. Two of the best known are Pat Kirkpatrick (left) and Barney Potts.

RADIO-TV

Whatever's wrong with CBC TV

knifing won't help Canadianism

‘WUHAT’S good, what's bad

about Canadian TV? Is it
in a crisis or isn’t it, now that
it’s reached its third year? Is

CBC TV. going up, down or
standing still? Are U.S. im-

ported programs on privately-—

owned stations, and U.S. bor-

der stations, throttling CBC?

Will the privately-owned sta-

tions, speaking through the Can-
_ adian Association of Radio and
Television. Broadcasters
(BARTB) be given their head
‘and the CBC shackled ? Is Can-
adian talent getting a break from

CBC.- and. private _ stations?

Where’s the CBC going to get

the money it needs ?

These are a few of the ques-
tions coming up for discussion
now that the government has set

~up a Royal Commission to look:
- into that policy and financing of
‘Canadian TV and radio — a
commission: of which R. M.
“Canadians - should - be - hew-
ers - of wood” Fowler has been
named chairman by Prime Min-
ister St. Laurent. ~

Let’s look at a few facts.

* * *

There are 2,000,000 TV sets in
operation right now in Canada.
The figure will go up by at least
another half million by the end

of this year. Just about 90 per —

cent of the Canadian population
now lives within range of either
CBC, private or U.S. TV sta
tions. :
It’s having a tremendous im-
‘pact on our cultural life, some
of it good, some of it bad.
Mostly through CBC stations,
‘some 7,500 Canadian performers
.-appeared on the screens. last
year and the. CBC paid more
“than $4,000,000 to actors, writers
singers, .dancers. et. al. CBC
spent $21.3 million last year. on
TV alone, $13.4 million on radio.
_ CBC so far has only eight sta-
tions operating, private TV has
. 26. Where CBC televises it has
kept out private-station compe-
tition, much to the disgruntle-
ment of James Allard, leading
Spokesman for, CARTB. |
_ What the CARTB is demand-
ing — and conducting a well-
heeled campaign for — is to
. talk the government into setting
up a new Regulatory Board
within which both CBC and the
_ private stations would operate

in competition to treat the CB .

in competition. It wants to treat
the CBC as just another chain.

And the CARTB has a lot of

support, even in the government.
The Tories, of course, have for
years been hacking away at the
CBC, trying to whittle it down.
Now it begins to look as though
the government is prepared to
go along with the idea. On the
other hand, organized labor
generally backs the CBC, though
with a critical eye. ©

At present, CBC is financed
largely from a 15 percent tax on
the wholesale price of sets, ad-
vertising revenue, and some
loans and grants from the fed-
eral treasury. But the income,
according to some experts, will
diminish as the market becomes
more saturated. Where, then, is
the money to come from? That’s
something the Fowler commis-
sion will have to discuss .

What about the quality, the
lookability of CBC TV ?

Recently a Gallup Poll, con-
ducted in Ontario and Quebec,
reported that 51 percent of Can-
adian viewers there didn’t watch
Canadian TV. Quebee viewers
lined up this way on what they
thought of CBC programs gener-
ally: 27 percent thought it was
doing a good job; 64 percent
fair; 4 percent poor: Ontario’s
comparative rating was 23 per-
cent good, 52 percent fair, 16
percent poor.

Some protests have been heard
lately that CBC is importing
too many .U.S. stars for its
shows, under the threat of can-
cellation of contracts from big
advertisers. A. Davidson Dun-
ton, CBC chairman, told Liberty
magazine last week that U.S.
imports. are a matter of concern
to him. “Something will be
done about it.”
~ Dunton also replied pointedly
to the charge from a questioner

- «

CARTB, that CBC was standing
in the way of the development
of Canadian professional per-
formers. Said Dunton:
“Why doesn’t Liberty mag-
_ azine campaign for more tax
money for the CBC if it wants
.. more Canadian talent on the
air? In fact, it might be a
good idea for the press, at
large, to campaign for more
money for the CBC, if it feels
that way. Then CBC could
use more Canadian talent.
The Canadian TV public have
got to pay for — or subsidize,
if you will — Canadian talent,
if they want it. We know
there is a lot of good talent,

but a lot of the artists we

can’t use simply due to lack
of money.”

Well — what can be done
about the situation? :

Here’s a good starting point
—in the words of Charles Sims,
chairman of the cultural com-
mission of the Labor-Progres-
sive party, which, by the way,
will present its own brief to the
Fowler commission.

“T think the approach should
be to contribute towards the
understanding that Canadian
TV and radio in all their respects
should serve as the most impor-
tant cultural media to defend and
develop democratic Canadian-
ism; to strengthen and build the
CBC as a publicly-owned sys-
tem that should serve Canada
and provide greater opportun-
ities for Canadian talent; that
the Broadcasting Act and Regu-
lations should be strengthened
so as to encourage and require
that all privately-owned TV
and radio stations also give
priority to Canadian content and
opportunities for Canadian
talent. ‘ f

“We should try to give a
balanced judgment of the CBC,
recognizing the many splendid
things it has done, while criti-

cizing its shortcomings and
making positive proposals for
improvements.

“At the same time, we should
develop a balanced criticism of
the private TV and radio sta-
tions, opposing their crass com-

‘mercialism and their present

policies of dependency upon the
U.S. for their program materials;
to strongly oppose the CARTB
proposal for a new regulatory

_ board.” :
clearly biased in favor of the |

Sims also suggested “a con-
vineing criticism ofthe evil
effects of U.S. influence upon
Canadian TV and radio and

practical proposals to limit and.

eliminate the objectionable
while favoring exchanges with
the U.S. on conditions of equal
independent relations.”

He made these additional
points:
uw “To propose ways and

means whereby Canadian

writers, artists, musicians and
technical workers. would be
aided through the CBC and
through federal grants, to de-
velop in Canadian TV and radio,

~ “To oppose any proposals
to reintroduce license fees.”

U.S. struggle

|
4

i

through

Gurley Flynn's eyes

I SPEAK My Own Piece, the
first volume of Elizabeth

Gurley Flynn’s autobiography,
spans a half century. It is a saga
of struggle, told by one who

lives in its tumult daily — year
after year.

All will find its study re-
warding, but for younger readers
its value will prove immeasur-
able, arming them with facts
to enable them to expose the
calumnies of today. ;

It proves that American
social struggles have a genea-
logy as indisputably native to
the U.S. as are New England
baked beans or Pennsylvania
scrapple.

It exposes as a slanderous lie
the charge that embattled trade
unions resisting oppressive
legislation are impelled by
orders received from an “eyilly
conspiratorial foreigm source”
seeking our destruction.

It tolls the bell over the hopes
‘of those who pretend to be-
lieve that if world-wide emer-
ging socialism and all its works
were blotted out, capitalism
would become a paradise re-
gained, with no evil communi-
cations remaining to corrupt
working class good manners!

x * x

Here, in black and white is
the story of this generation’s
‘forebears — jailed, blacklisted,
cruelly beaten and murdered to
win what their descendants en-
joy today. These men and
women fought against inhuman
working conditions, for daily
bread and to recapture the basic
rights guaranteed under the
U.S. Constitution. To keep body
and soul together, men and
women in mines and mills had
to resist the encroachments
which a _ burgeoning U.S.
capitalism would have imposed.

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn em:
phasizes the contrast between
the nature of the struggle then
and now. ;

In those early years the crud-
est physical violence was ram-
pant, tolerated and often insti-
gated by the forces of “law and
order.” : ;

Today lawlessness has trans-
ferred its place d’armes from

ee

the night sticks, guns and tear
gas of company | detectives,
police and available hoboes
sworn in as deputies, to the

violence against constitutional
rights practised by the depart-
ment of justice and courts which
do. its bidding.

x * &

The book records the names
of many eminent Americans
who protested and fought against
the shocking cruelties of that
half century. Intellectual hon-
esty and an unfaltering human-
ity shine through the pages.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn holds
an unblurred mirror up to truth,
never permitting the riper ex-
perience of later years to gloss
over the setbacks and mistakes
of the past.

With her warm, outgoing feel-
ing for people there is never
given the impression that the
folk of whom she writes are a
faceless mass.

Through these pages we share ~
the lives of heroic men and
women in a moving chronicle of
defeat and victory—tragedy and
triumph. —, and oftentimes heart-
breaking cruelty. ey

The victories recorded en- |
courage us to believe that vic-
tory can be won too, in the bat-
tles now being waged on so

_™any fronts in the U.S., among

them the fight to win amnesty
for Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
herself and for her co-workers
now in prison. .
- Then — as now — the most
apparently resounding defeat
carried within it the seeds of
victory. “Truth, crushed to
earth, will rise again.” In un-
forgetting lines, Elizabeth Gur-
ley Flynn, writing of a great
steel strike, said: “The great
life-giving force, the workers
—had gone out of the vast
plants.” i
Every page of I Speak My Own
Piece (obtainable here at the
Peoples Co-op Bookstore, 337
West Pender Street, price $1.90
Paper, $3.25 cloth) impels us to
an ever deeper conviction: that
this “great life-giving force” ~
will one day make the U.S.
truly “America the Beautiful.”
MURIEL I. SYMINGTON

= MER

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