VANCOUVER, March 28, 2012 /CNW/ - Before a group of Reimagine CBC supporters arrived at James Moore's constituency office last Thursday to deliver 27,000 signatures opposing cuts to the public media institution, they were assured the Port Coquitlam MP and Minister of Canadian Heritage would receive their petition. Yet, when they arrived the doors were locked, the blinds were drawn, and he has not responded to follow-up requests.
"Last week I was surprised but now I'm really worried," says Adel Yazura, a constituent who tried to deliver the petition. "The fact that Mr. Moore is avoiding us seems to confirm that the government has bad news in store for the CBC when it releases the budget on Thursday. I guess they don't want to know how unpopular the bad news will be."
Copies of Reimagine CBC's 'Keep Canada Connected' petition were delivered to the constituency offices of a dozen Conservative MPs on March 22. James Moore's office was the only one that didn't receive the petition.
"Reimagine CBC supporters got a polite reception at all of the offices visited except the office of the minister responsible for CBC," says Jamie Biggar, spokesperson for Reimagine CBC.
"Moore is sending a very negative signal to the tens of thousands of Canadians who have participated so far in our project to ensure our public media continues to serve us in this time of great social, technological and economic change. We are asking that he get involved in the conversation instead of shutting the door on it. Canadians want our government to be a champion for public media."
A recent poll by Nanos Research shows that 59% of Canadians support or somewhat supporting maintaining or increasing funding to the CBC, while 24% oppose or somewhat oppose this position.
For more information about the project, visit www.reimaginecbc.ca.
As of this morning, more than 29,000 Canadians had signed the petition against CBC cuts: www.reimaginecbc.ca/connected.
Jamie Biggar, Executive Director of Leadnow.ca
778-847-8205, [email protected]
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