CBC/Radio-Canada President and CEO Catherine Tait will be reappointed for a shortened second term as head of the public broadcaster, according to information first revealed by Le Devoir and confirmed by La Presse.
As a general rule, the bosses of the state-owned company hold office for periods of five years. However, the Minister of Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, will entrust Ms. Tait with a mandate of only 18 months next week, that is until January 2025.
Coming from the audiovisual production, particularly the film and digital sectors, Ms. Tait became the first woman to lead CBC/Radio-Canada on April 3, 2018. Her first term was marked by strong tensions between French and English services in the public broadcaster newsrooms, especially on EDI-related issues (equity, diversity and inclusion).
Since taking office, Ms. Tait has made these issues her priority area of action. “As the first woman president of the public network, it is unthinkable for me to drop diversity, she confided to our colleague Nathalie Petrowski in 2018. I hope that with a first woman in this position, it will generate other ideas, other perceptions. That’s what makes a culture rich, right? »
The use of the “word beginning with an N”, his participation in a demonstration in memory of the victims of residential schools for Aboriginals or the interpretation in the Journalistic Standards and Practices of Radio-Canada are all issues that have given rise to controversies.
Ms. Tait is also a strong supporter of Bill C-18, currently before the Senate. She quickly reached out to other broadcasters, wanting to make them partners rather than competitors. “There’s no point in waging war on each other,” she explained in an interview. Our real competitor is not Bell or TVA. It’s Netflix, Amazon, Google and Facebook. We absolutely must collaborate and form a united front against them. »
