https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-senators-cbc-outside-experts-fairness-balance/
Senators want experts to analyze CBC reporting
Globe and Mail
June 18, 2026
Marie Woolf, Ottawa
Senate committee report stresses the need for the public broadcaster to focus on local news coverage
A Senate inquiry into the role of the CBC has recommended that the public broadcaster bring in outside experts to periodically review the fairness and balance of its news and current affairs reporting.
A report published on Wednesday by the Senate’s Transport and Communications committee said the committee heard from witnesses of the view that news content produced by CBC and Radio-Canada, the corporation’s French service, “is sometimes perceived as having an ideological or partisan bias.”
The committee’s study, which began in 2024 before the last federal election, said senators took seriously testimony raising questions about CBC/ Radio- Canada’s impartiality.
“These allegations of bias are serious and undermine trust in the public broadcaster,” the report said. “The committee is of the view that the corporation could periodically conduct an analysis of the news content and current affairs by its news services in order to assess their impartiality and balance.”
It added that CBC/ Radio- Canada executives “are well aware of the allegations of bias against the Corporation.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre – who has called for an end to government funding for CBC, but not the public broadcaster’s French services – has repeatedly alleged that the CBC is politically biased.
In 2023, Mr. Poilievre branded CBC “a bias propaganda arm of the Liberal Party.”
CBC/ Radio- Canada declined to comment, saying it was still studying the report.
When Marie- Philippe Bouchard, president and CEO of CBC/ Radio- Canada, provided testimony to the committee inquiry in October, 2025, she refuted the allegation that the corporation espouses particular political positions.
She told senators that the corporation’s news programming adheres to “strict journalistic standards, practices and guidelines that are, in fact, ensuring a pluralistic approach, a diversity of points of view and fairness in our coverage.”
The Senate report also focused on CBC/ Radio- Canada’s role in producing local news. It recommends the government provide stable, multiyear funding to the public broadcaster to enhance its local programming. It also suggested that CBC/ Radio- Canada create fresh initiatives to collaborate at the local level with private and community media outlets in all regions of Canada.
When CBC/ Radio- Canada’s broadcasting licences come up for renewal next year, the Senate committee recommended the broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio- television Telecommunications Commission ( CRTC), impose new reporting requirements for the corporation to publicly share data on its local programming and how much it spends on producing it.
Senator Andrew Cardozo, who took part in the inquiry, told The Globe and Mail that allegations of bias in the public broadcaster’s news and current affairs coverage “have long been talked about and, in my humble opinion, need to be addressed seriously.”
Witnesses who spoke to the committee, he said, argued that a return to more local programming would lead to more local stories about the lives that Canadians live. The case was made that this “would reflect the diversity of views, and hence have less bias,” he said.
In an e- mail, Mr. Cardozo said the committee “recommended a regular review of bias to ferret out what the concerns are, address them, and in so doing re- build trust at a time when we need the Canadian public broadcaster more, rather than less.”
Among the witnesses to raise concerns about the perception of bias was Kirk LaPointe, a journalist and former ombudsman of CBC. He told senators that some Canadians complain that “the moderate conservative views of Canadians don’t get reflected” by CBC.
Richard Stursberg, former executive vice- president of CBC’s English services, told the committee the issue of impartiality could be analyzed by conducting an independent study of the corporation’s news content. Such an analysis was produced in 2010 when Mr. Stursberg was part of CBC’s executive team, the report said.
CBC was created as a corporation in 1936 to counter the cultural influence of foreign programming, as U. S.- based radio networks expanded their reach into Canada.
Giving evidence to the committee during its inquiry, Friends of Canadian Media recommended that CBC/ Radio- Canada’s local news production and distribution “be properly funded,” saying the broadcaster’s mandate should be updated to ensure that local news is prioritized. Updating the mandate to reflect local communities and audiences was among the report’s recommendations.
CBC/ Radio- Canada receives public funding approved annually by Parliament, as well as commercial revenues from advertising, subscriber fees and other income from renting its real estate assets and leasing space at transmission sites.
In 2024- 25, CBC received just over $ 1.4- billion in government funding, up from the $ 1.3- billion it received in the previous fiscal year. In 2024- 2025, the public broadcaster raised $ 343.9- million in advertising revenue, and $ 244.8- million from subscriber fees and other income, according to the report.
Some witnesses who gave evidence to the committee stressed the importance of the public broadcaster promoting Canadian artists and local cultural events. But some said it was becoming increasingly difficult for the public broadcaster to fulfill this role owing to financial constraints.
The report heard from a variety of experts that the corporation’s services were crucial during an emergency. CBC/ Radio- Canada, the report said, is an integral part of Canada’s national public alerting system to warn people about dangers they may face, including from natural disasters such as forest fires.