LARGER SUBSIDY COULD TAP WEALTH OF TALENT Emphasis on Canada needed as CBC-TV celebrates birthday AST June, Canada’s minister of national revenue, Dr. J. J. Mc- Cann who is also responsible to the government for the Cana- dian Broadcasting Corporation, spoke in parliament of Canada’s television system as “one of the great developments of the his- tory of our Canada.” He also said it would be easy to import television programs into Canada, but that it was “extremely expen- sive” to produce them for our- selves here in Canada. This is the second birthday of television in Canada. I took ad- vantage of the occasion to visit Toronto’s TV building, with its’ studio and laboratories. Guided by Mel Breen of the CBC’s pub- licity department, I was able to see for myself what was behind Dr. McCann’s statement. + % t The stage.of the main studio is the whole floor of what would be a good-sized hall. The floor con- tained a number of sets or scenes, .three cameras on trucks which are pushed by the cameraman while he focuses his camera on the actors, several microphones on long booms. Over the heads of the actors is a “grid” of pipes to which lights and sometimes scenery are attached. Off to the Side, behind glass, and above the ' floor is the control room. é As the actors carry out. their parts they are followed by the cameras and the microphones. Each camera’s image of the scene appears on a_ separate screen in the control room. There, according to a. pre-arranged schedule one of the three images is fed to the broadcasting or re- cording equipment. When scenes are changed, the actors move to another. scene, with. the cameras and micro- phones. : 3 Television production requires a great deal of rehearsing. Ac- tors, cameras, microphones, lights, cameramen, soundmen, techni- cian in the control room — all must be coordinated perfectly. There can be no pauses, no re- takes. One is impressed by the fact that there is in Canadian TV a tremendous wealth of talent and creative energy. Given an ade- quate subsidy insteady of partial dependence on U.S. advertising (as from such programs of vio- lence and murder as Dragnet, a new import) Canadian TV could - be unmatched. In 1953 over 350,000 TV sets were sold in Canada. Over 800,- 000 Canadian families now have sets and before the end of the year there will be close to a mil- lion sets operating in Canada. There are 13 TV stations in Canada including six government- owned stations of the CBC. But Canadian televiewers still spend two-thirds of their TV time watching U.S. stations. .This is due in part to the newness of Canadian stations. Canadian pro- grams, however, are enjoying a steady increase in popularity. The statement by Dr. McCann and similar statements by CBC officials would indicate that CBC wants its programs to be really Canadian. Down below, that sen- timent is strong. But in its first year the CBC brass yielded to U.S. pressure and contracted to allow a large proportion of U.S. films in its schedule and in those of private Canadian stations. It would be giving the CBC the benefit of the doubt to say that as vet only 50 percent of its pro- gramming is Canadian in origin. But that 50 percent is generally so superior to the U.S. product as to make it clear our TV pro- ducers could do a really first class Re, ALL YOU HAVE TO DO DON’T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY to read CHINA’S CREATIVE AGE By - HEWLITT JOHNSON : | Dean of Canterbury | = 50 cents | with a sub tothe — PACIFIC TRIBUNE Add 50 cents to the cost of a year’s sub for_a total of $3.50 — either a new sub or a renewal or extension of your present sub. . : job, given adequate finances and a free rein for creative ideas. os os $e The urgéncy of Canadian pro- duction in television is particu- larly apparent in programs for young people. In the words of Dr. McCann, television “is bound to have very great effect on our family and national life dnd par- ticularly on the growing* minds of young Canadians.” Indeed, U.S. programs, or pro- grams imitative of the U.S. are already having far too great an effect on our young people’s minds. Crime, violence, war, rac- ism, sex are the constant items_ ef the spiritual menu from the USA. y It is good to be able to report that CBC-TV offers many more wholesome children’s programs than can be found on U.S. sta- tions. There are some excellent story, song, puppet, hobby and travel programs on Canadian TV. But there are also far too many programs which have the brand of Cain upoh fhem. They de- velop murderous attitudes to- wards our fellow humans. A-horrible example is re-broad-__ cast from the U.S. “Ramar of the Jungle” gives an insulting — portrait of the peoples of Africa. This is real Africa It builds wp. in Canada the anti- Negro feeling which is the shame. of the United States, which is not typical of Canada, and for which there ought to be no place in Canada. ° : Cowboy programs both from Canada and the U.S. do not tell the real truth about the work of these romantic figures of our own Canadian West. Instead they build around them a cult of vio- lence, gun-play, contempt for the Indians: Such distorted programs include Cowboy Corner, Kit Car- son, Wild Bill Hickock, Western Theatre. oe 5S xt A fine experiment on TV in education was carried out “last spring by the CBC on the advice cil on School Broadcasting. Four after-school broadcasts were pre- sented: one each on searching for uranium, smelting aluminum, maple sugaring and cowboys at work. Response of teachers to this program was very favorable. This year there will be a similar ex- perimental series during school hours. After three years, the series will become a regular feat- ure. In view of the proven ability of TV both to educate and mis- educate, it seems urgent that we should have these and similar programs on a large scale now. If we do not act with the prompt- ness needed we will have lost two years in which to tell our young people of Canadian history, ac- will be two more years in which Yankee perversion of the minds of our children will not be chal- lenged on our microwaves. “Eyes on Canada,” the theme proposed, by John Stewart in an will bring the great promise of Canadian television to fruition, in programs for young and old alike. Publicly owned television in Can- ada can indeed be what Dr. Mc- developments of the history .of our Canada.’ We can have it. We must insist upon it being that. : ‘ of the National Advisory Coun- ‘complishment and resources. It. article last year in New Frontiers, Cann called it—‘one of the great - —VICTOR HOPWOOD. Pete Seeger to sing in city _ . Pete Saeger, notel folk singer and people’s artist, who will appene in Vancouver on October 6. Seeger is best known as the orgam of the “Weavers” whose songs topped the Hit Parade a short back. He will be inthe city in the course of a cross-country under the auspices of the youth paper Champion. obtained from the People’s Cooperative Bookstore, 337 West here. BOOKS truggli Ne one can play a useful part in British politics today, if he does not understand that tha revolt of the colonial people is one of the ‘key facts making for a better world. There have been many useful sectional studies of the rising of the peoples in the colonies. To Derek Kartun, in Africa, Africa (obtainable in Vancouver at the People’s Cooperative Booksture. 337 West Pender, price 63 cents, including tax) belongs the honor of writing a clear, compact ac- count of the vast and varied Movement that is shaking the whole of British-oecupied Africa today. Those people — and they. are many — who think that the days of the old imperialism have gone for ever, will be shocked when there is unrolled before them in the pages of a short book a com- prehensive picture of the brutal oppression which is being car- ried out in their name. ° Indeed, there are very few epi- sodes in the past of imperialism Which exceed in horror the syste- matic massacre of thc Kikuyu in this year of grace 1954 which is seathingly exposed-in this book. xt bos ses From time to time the press tries to take the edge off this horror by depicting the alleged advance to self-government in West Africa. Who has not heard of Kwame Nkrumah, the first African prime minister in the British Empire? — It is sometimes asserted that if the Kikuyu were as well behav- ed as the inhabitants of the Gold Coast and Nigeria, they also could speedily advance to self-govern- ment. In fact, only a few years have Passed since there was a quite Savage repression of the people’s movement in these very areas, Moreover, the Gold Coast and Nigeria do not enjoy freedom. As Kartun says: of these countries, 4 and accumulate wealth—Pre yal a ae PACIFIC TRIBUNE — SEPTEMBER 17, 1954 — page while , tour Tickets can ‘ Vas for life 3 “a people cannot be free if al country’s main economic not sources are used to enri¢ ee themselves but forcign moO lies.” : - ime The different policies © fact perialism are due to the that white settlement is not sible in West Africa. ; Kartun recalls how an A . once said: “My people say tsetse fly is our soldier. 1 out the white man’.”. - In West Africa imperialism extending the grip of he British monopolies, while some scope to the Africa” givins mc" dle class to enjoy politica ji ed always that they do not © leng the foreign exploitation 5 This is described by Kartu! pe a “highly unequal aon tween the rising ric + san) geoisie and British (or America? monopoly capital. The chapter on Centr the can Federation shows how 4. most elementary rights 27 ies nied to Africans in Oo. where there are white settl tions In the first federal. ele Ae there were 64,500 registere Afric ers, of whom only 444 WeF® “5 cans: The 200,000 Buropeah” in represented by 26 member the the federal parliament, ee ia six million Africans by es are Of these nine, . Africans, and they are phe 2 chosen by the whites. git maining three are Europe’ ery Repression, corruption, 4 ance are used to prevent the of the movement, D not obtain decisive Té> “here are millions 9° sth struggling forward at lon ical for a place in their ow? “© sun.” : eat readily This excellent, exciting ee ten book maintain the : oli: balance. Its topicality ait ap its tical importance no less © sale. _J, R. CAMP Pendety — pos- th 1 rights ie n paul- oe al. Nive re oy ¥ jected ees = 3 ee '