Media
CBC tries to hide senior executive bonuses
From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Author: Franco Terrazzano
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation filed a complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner after the CBC refused to disclose 2023 bonuses for its eight senior executives until days after its President Catherine Tait is scheduled to appear at a parliamentary committee.
“This reeks of the CBC trying to conceal its senior executive bonuses so Tait doesn’t have to talk about it when she testifies at a parliamentary committee,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “The CBC is required to follow access to information laws and this nonsense delay is a blatant breach of the law.
“If Tait and her executives think they deserve their bonuses, they should be open and honest about it with taxpayers.”
The CBC proactively discloses certain information related to executive compensation in its annual reports. However, because the annual report lumps together salary and other benefits, Canadians don’t know how much the CBC’s eight senior executives take in bonuses.
Other Crown corporations have provided the CTF with access-to-information records detailing senior executive bonuses. For example, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation paid out $831,000 in bonuses to its 10 senior executives in 2023. The Bank of Canada paid out $3.5 million in bonuses to its executives in 2022.
On March 11, 2024, the CTF filed an access-to-information request seeking details on the compensation paid out to CBC’s eight senior executives in 2023, including bonuses.
On April 9, 2024, the CBC issued a 30-day extension notice.
The new deadline for the CBC to release details on senior executive bonuses is May 10, 2024, just days after Tait is scheduled to appear at committee on May 7, 2024.
In response to a previous access-to-information request, the CBC released to the CTF records showing it paid out $15 million in bonuses to 1,143 non-union staff in 2023. The CBC did not issue an extension notice on that request.
“Tait is wrong to hide the cost of bonuses for CBC’s eight senior executives from the Canadians who pay their cheques,” said Terrazzano. “Tait must do the right thing and confirm to the parliamentary committee that she will cancel CBC bonuses.”
The CTF filed the complaint with the Office of the Information Commissioner on May 3, 2024, regarding the CBC’s delay in releasing documents regarding senior executive bonuses.
“The CBC is legally obligated to release the bonus documents days after the parliamentary committee hearing so obviously Tait has the details readily at hand,” said Terrazzano. “If MPs ask for those details, she needs to answer.
“And just to be clear, the CTF is fine with the CBC releasing this information at committee or anywhere else.”
From LifeSiteNews
The decision was otherwise roundly condemned on X as “horrific,” “horrendous,” the hallmark of a “dictatorship,” and even “the biggest breach of privacy Western civilization has ever seen.”
Apple Store on New York’s Fifth Avenue.
Apple pulled its highest-level security feature in the U.K. after the government ordered the company to give it access to user data.
The U.K. government demanded “blanket access” to all user accounts around the world rather than to specific ones, a move unprecedented in major democracies, according to The Washington Post.
The security tool at issue in the U.K. is Advanced Data Protection (ADP), which provides end-to-end encryption so that only owners of particular data – and reportedly not even Apple – can access it.
“Apple can no longer offer Advanced Data Protection (ADP) in the United Kingdom to new users and current UK users will eventually need to disable this security feature,” an Apple spokesman said.
According to Apple, the removal of ADP will not affect iCloud data types that are end-to-end encrypted by default such as iMessage and FaceTime.
The nine iCloud categories that will reportedly no longer have ADP protection are iCloud Backup, iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, and Freeform.
These types of data will be covered only by standard data protection, the default setting for accounts.
Journalist and Twitter Files whistleblower Michael Schellenberger slammed the U.K.-initiated move as “totalitarian.”
The decision was otherwise roundly condemned on X as “horrific,” “horrendous,” the hallmark of a “dictatorship,” and even “the biggest breach of privacy Western civilization has ever seen.”
Elon Musk declared Friday that such a privacy breach “would have happened in America” if President Donald Trump had not been elected.
Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at ESET, commented that the move marks “a huge step backwards in the protection of privacy online.”
“Creating a backdoor for ethical reasons means it will inevitably only be a matter of time before threat actors also find a way in,” Moore said.
Britain reportedly made the privacy invasion demand under the authority of the Investigatory Powers Act of 2016.
Business
Federal Heritage Minister recommends nearly doubling CBC funding and reducing accountability
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling for the CBC to be completely defunded in the wake of the federal Liberal government’s recommendation to nearly double the state broadcaster’s cost to taxpayers and hide its budget reporting.
“It is outrageous for the government to try to hide the cost of the CBC from the taxpayers who are paying its bills,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “This government is totally out touch if it thinks it can nearly double CBC’s cost to taxpayers and try to hide its costs.”
Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge said the government should nearly double the amount of money the CBC takes from taxpayers every year.
The CBC will cost taxpayers about $1.4 billion this year.
“The average funding for public broadcasters in G7 countries is $62 per person, per year,” St-Onge said. “We need to aim closer to the middle ground, which is $62 per year per person.”
Canada’s population is about 41.5 million people. If the government funded the CBC the way the minister is recommending, the CBC would cost taxpayers about $2.5 billion per year.
That amount would cover the annual grocery bill of about 152,854 Canadian families.
St-Onge also recommended the annual taxpayer funding for the CBC be removed from the government budget report and instead be entrenched in government statutory appropriations.
“I propose that it be financed directly in the legislation instead of in the budget through statutory appropriation,” St-Onge said.
“Canadians have told this government that the CBC costs them too much money, that it is not accountable to taxpayers and they don’t watch it, and now the government wants to double down on all those problems,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “The CBC is an enormous waste of money and journalists should not be paid by the government.
“The CBC must be defunded.”
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