By Devin Drover

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is taking the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to court to force the broadcaster to provide transparency regarding the money it spends on advertising.

“Canadians have a right to know how their tax dollars are being spent, but the CBC wants to keep taxpayers in the dark,” said Devin Drover, CTF General Counsel. “That’s why we are going to court to compel the CBC to be transparent and release financial information that taxpayers have the right to see.”

The legal challenge stems from an access-to-information request filed by Ryan Thorpe, the CTF’s investigative journalist, who has submitted dozens of requests to provide transparency about spending at the CBC. His work includes breaking the story about CBC executives receiving millions in bonuses.

Thorpe requested records detailing how much the CBC has spent on advertising over the past five years. The broadcaster has refused to release the information despite receiving $1.4 billion from taxpayers last year.

The CTF has now filed a legal challenge in Federal Court to force the disclosure of these records. A copy of the notice of application is available here.

Meanwhile, the Trudeau government has announced recommendations to nearly double taxpayer funding for the CBC and shield budget reporting from public scrutiny.

“It’s bad enough that the CBC takes more than a billion dollars from taxpayers and the government wants to raise that number, but it’s even worse that the CBC won’t respect taxpayers’ right to know how the money’s being spent,” said Kris Sims, CTF Alberta Director. “Now Canadians can add ‘refusing to be accountable’ to the list of reasons to defund the CBC.”