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Local group protests CBC Thunder Bay cuts during morning rally

THUNDER BAY -- About 45 people gathered on Miles Street on Friday morning to protest job cuts at CBC Thunder Bay.
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Soon-to-be former CBC staffer Jolene Banning, who lost her jobs in the corporation’s latest round of cuts, is serenaded in Thunder Bay by about 45 protesters upset at the gutting of the public broadcaster nationwide. (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com)

THUNDER BAY -- About 45 people gathered on Miles Street on Friday morning to protest job cuts at CBC Thunder Bay.

The public broadcaster provides a vital service to the community, said protest organizer Paul Berger of Citizens United for a Sustainable Planet.

“It’s really important to me, because CBC tells us about ourselves and it also tells the rest of Canada about Thunder Bay,” Berger said.

“If we keep having cuts and cuts and cuts, the ability to tell those stories, the ability to know who we are as Canadians from coast to coast to coast gets diminished. And I think we really need to fight against that.”

The latest round of cuts could see up to 1,500 jobs lost nationally, two of which will come in Thunder Bay – although only one person, administrative assistant Jolene Banning – is losing her job. Two other senior managers, Gary Rinne and Susan Rogers, are retiring and their jobs will be amalgamated into a single position.

Banning, who was surrounded and serenaded with a song written about her in protest of the cuts, was touched by the outpouring of support.

“It warms my heart,” Banning said, adding she plans to enjoy what’s promising to be warm summer weather before deciding what to do next.

“This isn’t right,” Berger said.

Coun. Andrew Foulds said the cuts began in the 1990s and have been profound. Locally CBC Thunder Bay lost its afternoon show, which is now a regional broadcast out of Sudbury. In past years the station also lost its noon-hour show.

“One of the things about that afternoon show is that it gave us our culture for Northwestern Ontario,” Foulds said.

“We’re down to one show that’s uniquely ours.”

Rogers, the station manager, spoke briefly to protestors, encouraging them to keep up their efforts to ward of further cuts.

Rogers said the latest round of layoffs saved the CBC $15 million at local affiliates across Canada.

“Not one station in Ontario is untouched – from Kitchener-Waterloo that just started to Hamilton, which only has about six people anyway – every station is experiencing cuts,” Rogers said.

Rogers said management is fighting back and trying to save the feet on the streets, the reporters.

“I can tell you that everything will be done to keep providing you with that kind of journalism. That is the priority,” she said.




 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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