Rogers

Three years and over a million Netflix customers later, Rogers and Shaw are trying to get into the online streaming game. Their new service, Shomi launches in November. It looks like Netflix without the red, provides similar programming, and will initially be available only to existing Rogers and Shaw customers for $8.99 a month.

We need to rethink the way we understand and talk about the CBC. Its role isn’t to accrue profits. Its role is to provide a public service to Canadians, a role that in a democratic society is no less important than the upkeep of roads and rivers, the protection of our communities, and the provision of our healthcare.

Canadians should be outraged with this purchase. It signifies the end of competitive hockey programming in this country, furthers the monopolization of the entire Canadian sports and television industries, and effectively ends the relationship millions of Canadians have developed with HNIC since it began on the radio in 1931.

The Canadian government announced on Sept. 6 that it will no longer defend Quebec’s asbestos-mining industry, a decision that was based on a campaign promise made by the recently elected Parti Québécois (PQ) government to stop the mining of the carcinogen.