LILLEY: CBC hits pause on show targeting RCMP and conservatives
· Toronto Sun
Worried about the impact on the news brand, CBC is pausing production of a “satirical” show that appears to have been attacking conservatives and Canadian institutions. Called Northland Tales , the show is being co-produced by CBC and APTN, though a statement from CBC went to great lengths to stress that it was CBC Entertainment and not CBC News behind the production.
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After controversy erupted online about the production using fake names and false pretenses to get people, including retired Mounties, to agree to interviews, CBC has confirmed it is hitting pause while also defending this style of production.
“Social experiments and satirical prank shows are a long-established television format used by broadcasters and streamers around the world, including many public broadcasters. In this case, the Indigenous creators are using the format for Northland Tales,” CBC said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon.
No truth, no reconciliation
They said the idea was to “increase better understanding of historical injustices” and to support truth and reconciliation. Clearly, though, some of the methods used in the production are making the folks in the news department uneasy and thus the pause.
“It is important for us in the execution that this entertainment series does not negatively impact our news brand. With that context, we are currently pausing on production while we assess the existing footage,” CBC’s statement read.
The production team behind the show has called it a Borat-style show that “flips the script” on injustices.
One episode, however, lured retired RCMP officers to CBC’s Vancouver studios with the claim that they would be honoured for their service and would be given a chance to talk about life in retirement. The former Mounties were flown to Vancouver, all expenses paid, and appeared in their red serge uniforms for a show they were told was called “After the Call.”
Instead, they had their mobile phones taken away, told it was standard practice, and then were berated about real and perceived injustices carried out by the RCMP over their entire history. According to friends of those who participated, the former officers were humiliated and felt devastated.
RCMP veterans mystified by attack on their members
Glen Siegersma, the Chief Administrative Officer of the RCMP Veterans Association, said on Tuesday that he doesn’t understand why anyone would do a show like this targeting retired officers.
“We are aware that a production company has been seeking out retired members of the RCMP,” Siegersma said over the phone Tuesday.
He said many retired officers deal with mental health issues given what they dealt with in their careers, some have PTSD that can be triggered by actions like this.
“The people who are doing this are not thinking about the potential impact,” he said.
Show came to light when one victim of the prank spoke out
The show only came to light before being broadcast due to a public posting by Frances Widdowson, an academic who has questioned some of the claims around residential schools. She was approached about being interviewed for a documentary series on aboriginal policy, history and free speech, all topics near and dear to her heart.
She was flown from Calgary to Vancouver, all her expenses were paid and she was given an honorarium. Towards the end of her interview, though, she realized this was not a real documentary.
“Two Aboriginal men walked into the studio and dumped a bag of shoes, children’s shoes, onto the coffee table in front of me,” Widdowson said.
Children’s shoes have been used as a symbol of the children who died at residential schools. That’s when she realized that it wasn’t a documentary but an attempt to attack her over her views on residential schools.
For author Lindsay Shepherd, her introduction to the production was a request to speak about Sir John A. Macdonald. Given that she had written a children’s book about Canada’s first Prime Minister, she jumped at the chance.
Things went so well that they hired her on a contract to help develop a Sir John A. toy for kids. It was after completing the research for that project and while conducting a second interview that she realized the producers were not who they claimed to be and had lied about their intentions.
“This was not a prank show where you could shake hands afterwards and that was so funny and yeah you really got me. No, this was humiliation,” Shepherd said.
“They sought out people whose views they disagree with and they want to embarrass and that is who they set their sights on and this was all just a trick they wanted to waste our time, they want to make us look bad.”
CBC must be held to account
CBC may have paused this show, but they still funded it, which means each of us funded this. They may want to claim this is a satirical show or a comedy show but it is not.
This show was nothing short of activism masquerading as comedy. It pushed a very specific left-wing political view that is actually detached from reality.
CBC, and Marc Miller, the minister in charge of the state broadcaster, need to be held to account for this. In deciding to back this project, CBC has given us another reason on why they should be defunded.