A Legacy in Every Living Room
For generations, the CBC wasn’t just another media outlet — it was the hum in the background of Canadian life.
It narrated our mornings, filled the kitchen with news and weather, and connected distant communities through the simple act of storytelling.
For my family, CBC Radio was almost ceremonial. My grandparents listened during the war years. My parents tuned in faithfully every morning before work. I grew up with that familiar intro music, those calm, steady voices, and the unmistakable rhythm of Canada talking to itself.
It was more than information; it was a form of civic belonging. CBC helped make a vast, sparsely populated country feel like a neighbourhood.
That was the magic: a public broadcaster reflecting the public itself.
But today, that voice sounds different. The tone has changed. The mission has drifted. And the trust that once felt automatic now feels conditional — sometimes even broken.
The Mandate That Made CBC Matter
To understand what’s gone wrong, we need to remember what made the CBC matter in the first place.
The Broadcasting Act of 1991 outlines CBC’s purpose in plain language:
“To provide radio and television services incorporating a wide range of programming that informs, enlightens, and entertains… while reflecting the multicultural and multiracial nature of Canada.”
It’s an elegant mission — and profoundly democratic.
It doesn’t say “to persuade” or “to provoke.”
It says to inform, to enlighten, to entertain.
That triad used to define CBC’s moral compass. The broadcaster wasn’t supposed to pick a side in the national conversation — it was supposed to host the conversation.
Its purpose wasn’t to shape public opinion but to facilitate it, to be the forum where Canadians of every background, belief, and region could see themselves reflected.
That’s what gave it legitimacy, and that’s why generations of Canadians, including mine, gave it something priceless: trust.
A Crown Corporation, Not a Private Empire
It’s easy to forget that the CBC is not a business.
It is a Crown corporation, meaning we publicly own it.
And each year, Canadian taxpayers contribute over $1.4 billion to keep it running.
That’s not a small subsidy; it’s an investment in national storytelling.
Parliament may act as the shareholder on paper, but in truth, the people of Canada are the owners.
And ownership carries rights:
The right to transparency.
The right to accountability.
The right to know how public funds are being spent and how effectively they’re serving the public good.
That’s why CBC’s recent actions around CBC Gem, its streaming platform, have left such a sour taste for so many Canadians.
When the public — through journalists, MPs, and the Information Commissioner — asked for subscriber numbers and performance data, CBC refused.
Not only did they refuse, but they also took the Information Commissioner to the Federal Court to block the release.
Their reasoning? The data was “sensitive commercial information,” and releasing it would harm their competitive position.
Competitive with whom?
Netflix? Disney Plus? Crave?
Those are private, profit-driven corporations. CBC is supposed to be a public service.
It cannot be publicly funded and privately accountable at the same time.
The entire justification collapses under its own contradiction.
The CBC Gem Problem
When CBC Gem launched in 2018, it was sold as the future — the way to bring Canada’s stories into the streaming age.
It offered free content for casual viewers, and a $4.99/month ad-free premium tier for those who wanted more.
At first, it seemed like an innovative pivot. After all, younger audiences consume media online. The CBC had to evolve.
But over time, Gem has become symbolic of something more profound: a broadcaster that no longer knows what business it’s in.
If Gem were truly a public platform, it would be proudly transparent about how it’s performing.
It would tell us how many Canadians are watching, where they’re watching from, and what kinds of stories resonate.
Instead, the corporation treats those figures like trade secrets.
That’s not just tone-deaf — it’s antithetical to the very idea of a publicly funded media service.
The refusal to release subscriber data has angered both taxpayers and industry professionals, because it sends a clear signal:
CBC wants the benefits of public funding without the burden of public accountability.
The Double Standard of Independence
Defenders of the CBC argue that it needs “independence from government influence.”
They’re absolutely right — editorial independence is essential.
But independence does not mean impunity.
Freedom from political direction doesn’t give the broadcaster the right to hide data from Canadians.
Transparency about spending, viewership, and outcomes is not interference — it’s oversight.
We expect the same of every other Crown corporation, from Canada Post to VIA Rail.
Why should the CBC be the exception?
The Decline of CBC Radio: When Familiar Voices Fell Silent
For lifelong listeners, the more profound heartbreak is not about numbers but about tone.
CBC Radio once had a rare dignity.
It respected its audience’s intelligence. It offered long-form interviews, serious discussions about art, literature, and science.
It could be poetic, curious, even contemplative.
Today, that depth has thinned.
Many of the network’s flagship programs have been replaced or retooled into short, opinion-heavy segments dominated by social commentary and identity politics.
The shift from public service journalism to cultural activism has alienated a broad cross-section of listeners — not just conservatives, but moderates and classical liberals who valued balance.
The change is most evident in tone.
Discussions once framed as “How do Canadians feel about this?” are now often framed as “Why don’t Canadians feel the way we think they should?”
There’s a subtle moral superiority that creeps into the programming — and with it, a sense that the CBC no longer speaks with Canadians, but at them.
The Loss of Family-Friendly Broadcasting
Perhaps the most jarring change is the normalization of explicit or sexual content in time slots that used to be family-friendly.
Long-time listeners have noticed that the broadcaster now explores themes once reserved for adult podcasts or after-hours shows — not morning radio.
When you have to turn off CBC Radio in front of your children, something fundamental has changed.
This isn’t prudishness; it’s about appropriateness and tone.
A public broadcaster, funded by everyone, should reflect shared standards of decency — not push boundaries simply for the sake of appearing “modern” or “edgy.”
The Echo Chamber Effect
Within the CBC itself, a growing number of current and former journalists have begun speaking out about the ideological rigidity of the institution.
Tara Henley’s widely read 2021 resignation letter described a newsroom where “ideological orthodoxy” had replaced open inquiry.
More recently, anchor Travis Dhanraj cited “toxic workplace culture” and “psychological harm” as reasons for leaving, echoing earlier claims of retaliation for dissenting views.
Critics from both inside and outside the CBC describe an environment where journalists fear being ostracized for asking the wrong questions or failing to conform to the dominant worldview.
That’s not journalism — that’s groupthink.
And when groupthink infects a national broadcaster, the result is a slow but steady erosion of public trust.
A Crisis of Credibility
Public trust is the lifeblood of public broadcasting.
Once lost, it’s almost impossible to regain.
Polls show that confidence in CBC’s neutrality has dropped sharply over the past decade.
Where Canadians once saw the CBC as a unifying voice, many now see it as the mouthpiece of a particular class: urban, progressive, university-educated, and politically homogeneous.
This isn’t simply a right-wing critique — even centrist and left-leaning Canadians are beginning to tune out, not because they disagree with the CBC’s values, but because they no longer recognize its tone as inclusive or representative.
The irony is painful:
CBC was founded to connect Canadians across divides. Today, it increasingly amplifies them.
The Digital Mirage: Mistaking Change for Progress
CBC Gem, social media outreach, and podcast networks — all of these were meant to modernize the CBC.
But modernization without mission is hollow.
The push to “go digital” has often come at the expense of the broadcaster’s defining purpose: depth, balance, and cultural stewardship.
Instead of elevating the public conversation, the CBC has started to mimic the tone of the private platforms it was supposed to counterbalance.
It now competes for clicks, outrage, and algorithmic attention — the very forces eroding journalism worldwide.
Accountability Is Not Optional
When a public institution behaves like a private enterprise, it loses moral authority.
The court case over CBC Gem’s subscriber data isn’t a small procedural matter — it’s a philosophical one.
If the CBC can hide its own metrics, it can hide almost anything: declining viewership, shrinking audiences, inefficiencies, even waste.
And if Parliament — the elected representative of the people — can’t compel disclosure from a Crown corporation it funds, then who can?
That’s why this issue matters far beyond the numbers.
It’s about who serves whom.
A public broadcaster that forgets it serves the public ceases to be public at all.
Rebuilding the National Conversation
The solution isn’t to abolish the CBC.
Canada still needs a national voice — one capable of telling our stories outside of commercial pressures and foreign influence.
But that voice must rediscover humility. It must return to the core values that made the CBC special in the first place:
Intellectual honesty.
Cultural curiosity.
Regional balance.
Respect for the audience.
Transparency with the public purse.
That means publishing viewership data, revealing operational performance, and openly discussing where programming has lost its way.
It means reinvesting in regional journalism and local storytelling.
It means creating space for all Canadians — not just those who speak the language of the university seminar room.
What Canadians Deserve
Canadians don’t want propaganda.
They don’t want sanctimony.
They want a broadcaster that treats them like adults — capable of handling diverse perspectives, complex issues, and respectful disagreement.
They want a CBC that feels Canadian again: grounded, balanced, and representative of a country that doesn’t fit neatly into one ideology.
That’s not a partisan demand; it’s a patriotic one.
The Way Forward
To restore credibility, the CBC should:
Publish full audience metrics and subscriber data for CBC Gem.
Release a public annual performance audit showing how its $1.4 billion subsidy supports Canadian content.
Reaffirm its editorial mandate to reflect all Canadians — rural and urban, progressive and conservative alike.
Reinvest in cultural and literary programming that connects rather than divides.
Modernize without moralizing — innovation should not come at the expense of civility or neutrality.
If CBC leadership cannot embrace these reforms, then Parliament should legislate them.
Public funding must come with public accountability.
A Personal Note
I write this not as a cynic, but as someone who once believed — truly believed — in what the CBC represented.
It was the sound of home: the quiet authority of Peter Gzowski, the wit of Shelagh Rogers, the seriousness of Ideas.
It was the voice that told me Canada was a place of thoughtfulness and integrity.
That’s the CBC I grew up with.
That’s the CBC my children deserve.
And that’s the CBC we must demand back.
Because when the people fund the voice, the voice belongs to the people.
🧭 Author’s Note (Joshua Eaton)
This essay is part of ThinkerCast’s ongoing series on Canadian institutions in decline — and how we might restore them.
If you still believe in the idea of a Canada that speaks to itself with honesty and fairness, then you believe in the possibility of reforming the CBC.
But reform begins with truth — and truth starts with transparency.