A few weeks ago I received a request to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Transportation and Communications.In my role as president of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association (CCNA) I routinely am asked to sign a letter of endorsement, speak to a business group or attend some sort of soirée, but a Senate invitation was a first.
The association's CEO, John Hinds, accompanied me. The meeting was held on Monday, Jan. 31 at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue in downtown Vancouver. I was significantly impressed by the building and the meeting room. This is the same location that recently housed the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform.
I had been requested to make a 10-minute presentation on the state of the community newspaper industry and to be prepared to answer a series of 10 questions, such as "How did the existing policy framework allow for such a concentration of broadcast media in Toronto and Montreal?" After many hours of preparation and fretting about the possibilities of sounding like a fool in trying to answer some of those questions, I packed my bag and headed off to my first Senate meeting. When we arrived at the Wosk Centre we were informed they were running a bit behind schedule, so we settled in to the comfortable seats to listen to the "witness" before us.
She was a very bright professor from a leading B.C. university who held the Senators in apparent awe-inspiring attention for 20 minutes or so as she presented her views on the need for more regulation of media in Canada, particularly the print media. I struggled hard to keep up with the language of academia but to little avail. I was getting quite uncomfortable until, after her presentation, the first Senator to speak apologized for not really understanding anything on which she had so eloquently waxed for 20 minutes. Relief!
Committee chair Joan Fraser called the next "witness." It was our turn. We approached our seats and, after a warning about carrying on for too long, I was asked to make my presentation.
I introduced myself as the president of the CCNA and, as it turned out, more importantly, the publisher of Coast Reporter in Sechelt. I could sense some relief with the Senators as my credentials did not include a post-graduate degree. After 10 minutes or so, I wrapped up the presentation and was faced with the majority of Senators anxiously expressing their interest to have at me with questions. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
Senator Pat Carney, from Vancouver, went first. She started her question with commentary about being a regular reader of Coast Reporter on her many visits to the Sunshine Coast to see her extended family. I braced myself. Senator Carney went on to comment on how much she enjoyed the paper, from the front to the back. Whew! Each Senator opened his or her questions with gracious comments of their home-town community newspapers. After fielding some very good questions about our role in rural Canada, concentration of corporate ownership and relationships between advertising revenues and editorial quality, Fraser thanked us for our time and made some complimentary remarks.
They like us! In the media landscape of Canada, community newspapers are obviously the least of their concerns.
I'll look forward to my next Senate dialogue with a little less apprehension.
