The Canadian Radio-television and Communications Commission (CRTC) has ruled against Sun News Network’s application for mandatory distribution on basic cable TV packages.

Susana Mas writes for CBC News, that “The Quebecor-owned network did not successfully demonstrate to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission that it met the criteria for a mandatory distribution order.”

Mandatory carriage means that cable companies would have to include the channel with basic service, instead of providing it as an added-cost option to subscribers.

The CRTC did, however, express concern that Canadian news providers aren’t being given priority in cable packages. CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said in a release that “under the existing rules, Canadian news services are not being given a pride of place in our broadcasting system.”

The CRTC has proposed a new regulatory framework to address “the systemic issue regarding the distribution of Canadian national news services under equitable and commercially reasonable conditions.” Changes include the following:

• Distributors must-offer all Canadian national news services (not necessarily on basic service)

• Distributors must place Canadian news services in close proximity in their channel lineup

• National news services must be available in a package and on a stand-alone basis

• National news services should be offered in the most appropriate packages according to their content.

CRTC has invited Canadians to comment on the changes online by September 9.

Sun News released a statement saying that they were “disappointed” by the CRTC’s ruling, but “encouraged [that the CRTC] have found merit in the main arguments laid out by Sun News on price, channel placement and distribution.”

Despite earlier comments to CBC by Sun News Network vice-president Kory Teneycke indicating that anything other than mandatory carriage “would inevitably lead to the closure of the station,” the network is not shutting down.

The statement from Sun News said that the network is “glad that our application has acted as a catalyst for this broader review of the framework for national news services,” and added that they “intend to participate fully in those proceedings, and will continue to operate pending an outcome.”

The CRTC also denied 11 other mandatory carriage applications, and approved three new television services including a service operated by the Legislative Assemblies of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Image: Sun News Network

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It was more than a little convenient to hear right-wing commentator Ezra Levant recently deliver his latest public apology, just in time for the start today of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CTRC) hearings into his Sun News Network’s application for “mandatory carriage.”

A favorable ruling by the regulator would put Levant in every Canadian home with a basic cable package and $18 million a year in the pockets of Sun Media. That might be good news for Levant and Sun Media parent Quebecor Inc, but for Canadians looking for unpolluted public discourse, not so much. What’s more, in return for rescuing Sun media from the red ink, Canadian subscribers would get an increase in cable rates.

Levant likes to make headlines, even when most of them are unflattering. The last one in March was to Canada’s Roma community, following a racist rant he gave on his Sun News Network show The Source in September, during which he described the community as “gypsies, a culture synonymous with swindlers” that have come to Canada as “to gyp us again and rob us blind as they have done in Europe for centuries.”

The network apologized two weeks later but Levant’s took until mid-March, on the eve of the CRTC hearings. The network’s vice-president, Kory Teneycke, recently told CBC Radio he didn’t think Levant’s “intent was racist” and that the man he’s known for 20 years has “no hatred in his heart.”

While the CRTC considers the mandatory coverage request, we at DeSmog Canada think it’s a good time to discuss the social value of such reckless commentary on Canada’s airwaves. While some may argue the right to free speech, any good lawyer will tell you that free speech does not entitle you to libel people or to fabricate information, even if it’s your on-air shtick is to shake things up.

Levant has a history of being censured or sanctioned for defamatory statements and falsehoods. He is also guilty of distorting and inventing facts, defaming people and failing to exercise the diligence required of a responsible “journalist.”

In 2010, he was forced to apologize and retract comments he made in a Sun Media column accusing American billionaire George Soros of collaborating with Nazis as a child in Hungary. Sun Media later issued a retraction and apology. In 2011, Levant accused Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi of “anti-Christian bigotry” for calling an end to a preacher-led protest. That same year, Levant violated the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council’s ethical guidelines with an on-air diatribe leveled at Chiquita Bananas, after the company announced it would avoid using fuel derived from Alberta’s oil sands. Addressing an executive of Chiquita Brands International, Levant said, “Hey, you. Yeah you . . .Chinga tu madre [Fuck your mother].”

His pro-oil industry lobby group, the Ethical Oil Institute, was also behind a pro-Keystone XL pipeline publicity stunt in front of the White House in 2011, where two women wearing burkas stood holding a hand-lettered sign that read "Stop tar sands, Stop Canada, Americans4OPEC.com." The Americans4OPEC.com website states that it’s a satire created by EthicalOil.org to highlight “the choice Americans now have: A choice between several more decades of dependency on OPEC’s conflict oil or a future built on reliable, secure, and peaceful ethical oil from neighbouring Canada."

Despite the apologies and public backlash, Levant hasn’t slowed down his attempts to stir up controversy, and spew misleading information. His strategy, as we’ve noted in the past on DeSmog Canada, is to use brazen PR stunts and disinformation to confuse the debate around whatever issue he is tackling at the time. Levant is particularly focused these days on promoting the oil sands, with a campaign that tries to vilify his opponents through the use of lies and deception.

Consider Levant’s recent attack against well-known environmentalist David Suzuki, who he falsely accused of having requested female “escorts” to act as bodyguards during an October 2012 visit to John Abbott College in Montreal. As part of his illogical attempt to portray Dr. Suzuki as a dirty old man and sully his reputation, Levant further twisted the truth by taking some of Suzuki’s past writings and quoting them out of context to fit his manufactured story.

The college responded to the accusations with a statement saying Dr. Suzuki had both male and female students accompanying him throughout the day, and calling Levant’s assessment a misinterpretation of the facts. “There was no rider in Dr. Suzuki’s contract specifying the gender or dress code of those assisting him throughout the day. The negative comments and innuendos made are demeaning to those students and to the College … .”

Levant’s disregard for facts was also recently highlighted on his TV show when he accused “white billionaires from New York” of using “First Nation puppets” to try to stop pipeline developments in North America.

Most Canadians understand Levant’s purpose is political entertainment. Few take it seriously. Still, Canadians should ask themselves: Is this really the kind of dialogue we want filling the public square?

Wouldn’t it be more productive, not to mention more Canadian, if our debates around critical issues such as environment and resource development were based on facts, not a slew of misinformation and personal attacks?

Of course, creating and maintaining an open dialogue is hard work. It’s also not as entertaining as watching people take cheap shots and fire off false statements about their opponents. Yet, it’s the boring work that must be done if we are to come to decisions that reflect the values of most Canadians.

Let’s start by turning the volume down on shock seekers like Levant. Removing this pollution-filled type of communication is the first step to cleaning up Canada’s polluted public square.

Jim Hoggan is president and owner of award-winning strategic communication firm Hoggan & Associates, founder of DeSmogBlog, and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Image Credit: University of Saskatchewan via flickr.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.