Senator Downe: Yes. Thank you. The amendment does not specify that the $2 million is for each day of the violation. That is because — and I’m reading what the lawyers wrote; these are not my words — the Broadcasting Act already provides the following clause 28, the new subsection 34.4(2):

Continued violation

A violation that is continued on more than one day constitutes a separate violation in respect of each day on which it is continued.

That was the question I had when the amendment came — why it doesn’t say “daily.”

Senator Downe: Well, if they pull this stunt again, it would be great for the local libraries that would be flooded with money. That may be a better expenditure than the CBC broadcasting some of their current shows. This is a way of trying to put some pressure on them. If they were off for another seven days again, that would be $14 million.

I want to go back to the point. At the beginning of the pandemic, all Canadians were desperate for information, and we were counting on the CBC. We were counting on the only locally produced TV news, and they weren’t there. It’s totally unacceptable what happened. Hopefully, this amendment will prevent that from ever happening again.

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