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The Broadcasting Act of 1932
The Broadcasting Act of 1932 was made to make mass media broadcasted in Canada more Canadian. This led to the creation of national networks across Canada for each stream of communicating with the masses, under protection of the federal government.

In 1932 the Prime Minister of Canada R.B Bennett made three statements for Canadian broadcasting, the first saying that Canadian broadcasting should be free of influences from foreign countries. The second saying that only public ownership can make the enjoyment of radio broadcasting equal for all, regardless of class or place. The third saying the use of the air above Canadian soil is a natural resource that the government had complete control over, it would not be privatized and will only be used towards the development of its people.

Broadcast system in the 1950’s
By the end of the great depression and in the post-war economy Canadians became more fascinated with materialistic objects such as, cars, radio, television etc due to the new standards of living promoted in advertisements of that time. By the late 1950’s most Canadian households owned a television set, this opened the cultural gap between French-Canadians and English-Canadians even more.

The differences amongst both the French-Canadian broadcast system and the English-Canadian broadcast system were revealed in the Massey Commission of 1951.

In the commission Charles Siepmann found that 6.7 percent of the content on French-Canadian radio networks were imported from other countries, whilst 20.4 percent of content on its English counterpart the Trans-Canada Network was imported from other countries, mainly the United States. In addition, the second largest English national network, The Dominion Network imported 38.8 percent of the content it broadcasted. The differences amongst both the French-Canadian and English-Canadian networks were also prevalent in private broadcasting networks.

French-Canadians were more appreciative of public broadcasting more than English-Canadians and preferred it when the government was involved with making, and promoting Canadian content, according to a survey done in 1951.

In the year 1952, broadcast television in Canada appeared in both official languages, in hopes that both the French and English-speaking populations within Canada would have an equal chance of expressing concerns and understanding new government policies.

Prior to this there was a sense of separation amongst French speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canadians, due to the fact that they had separate broadcasting systems

Two Canadian television stations, CBLT-Toronto and CBFT-Montréal started their operations in 1952. CBFT-Montréal was the first flagship television of the French language, and CBLT-Toronto was the English television flagship of the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). Later both CBLT-Toronto and CBFT-Montréal became the head offices of their respective services.

The Canadian Broadcasting Act of 1958, led to the CBC’s loss of regulatory powers, instead creating the BBG (Board of Broadcast Governors), Which later became the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission). The CBC was still able to maintain its role as Canadas national broadcaster.

Perception of Broadcast news in Canada
A study done in 1977 by Arthur Siegel found that 17.2 percent of the news broadcasted on the CBC were about Québec, while 55.2 percent of stories on Radio-Canada were about Québec. The study also found that only 15 percent of news stories broadcasted on French-Canadian and English-Canadian networks were of the same story, the following year the common coverage rose to 25 percent.

In 1977 the studies also found that 73 percent of news broadcasted by the CBC came out of four Canadian cities Ottawa, Québec, Montréal and Toronto. These cites acted as a central hub for Canadian news and news radiated outwards to other parts of the country.

The CBC’s English-Canadian audience declined throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. In the 1980’s the CBC had an audience share of 22 percent which dropped to an audience share of 13.5 percent in 1993. The number of Canadians who believed the CBC upheld its mandate of promoting and making Canadian culture also declined going from 39 percent in 1985 to 31 percent in 1991 according to research done by the Standing Committee on Communications and Culture

Americanization of Canadian Broadcasting
The Americanization of English- Canadian Broadcasting was a main concern in 1957 because American content made up 50 percent of the content that was being distributed on English-Canadian networks, while American content only accounted for less than 15 percent of content broadcasted on French-Canadian networks. About 90 percent of the programs broadcasted in French-Canadian networks were produced in Montréal.

In 1957 English-Canadian networks had a larger issue with the Americanization of its broadcasted content. The CBC broadcasted various American programs on their network, and struggled to uphold its mission of Canadianizing broadcast in Canada. Société Radio-Canada was more successful since French-Canadians preferred content made in Québec. These factors led to the realization that a uniform broadcasting structure across Canada is difficult to attain and uphold

Content Quotas
Since 1959 there have been Canadian content quotas, placed on both public and private networks, in order to keep a certain percentage of Canadian content on the air. These quotas were set to 60 percent of Canadian content on public television broadcasters and 50% of Canadian content on private television broadcasters. Content quotas for radio in Canada were set in 1971 and required 30 percent of their content to be Canadian. The CBC showed higher levels of Canadian content whilst private broadcasters are strongly against it, often showing the minimum amount of Canadian content needed to meet requirements

Québec’s attempt for provincial regulations
A couple years prior to the Aird Commission the provincial government in Québec wrote the first draft of the first Broadcasting Act, which suggested that the provincial government should have the ability to control broadcasting within its province instead of the federal government. This draft was never passed and the and the first official Broadcasting Act led to the creation of the CRBC (Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission).

Québec’s persistence on the matter led to a court case known as the Radio Reference, where the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that broadcast authority would remain in the hands of the federal government. Québec continued its attempts to gain authority of broadcasting within the province in 1945, but this was later denied by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1977

Ethnic broadcast hearings of 1984
In 1984 an ethnic broadcast hearing was held by the CRTC, at this hearing the CRTC were told that fair, balanced and non-stereotyped ethnic programming system should "serve as a bridge to enable groups to overcome cultural barriers; increase access by ethnic groups to conventional radio and television and to cable services; foster cultural appreciation and promote encounters among all Canadian cultural groups; and assist immigrants to acquire at least one of Canada's official languages" (CRTC 1985)

In 1985 the Broadcasting Policy Reflecting Canadas Linguistic and Cultural Diversity was passed and it was the first policy of its kind to exist on an international level.

The policy outlined the requirements of what an ethnic station and program should consist of and divided them into five categories:

"TYPE A: A program in a language or languages other than French, English or native Canadian. TYPE B: A program in French or in English that is directed specifically to racially or culturally distinct groups whose first or common bond language (in the country of their origin) is French or English (such as Africans from Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco; Caribbean Blacks; groups from India). TYPE C: A program in French or in English that is directed specifically to any culturally or racially distinct group whose heritage language is already included in TYPE A (such as those groups who have not retained the use of a third-language). TYPE D: A program using a bilingual mix (French or English plus a third-language from TYPE A) that is directed specifically to any culturally or racially distinct group (such as French and Arabic, English and Italian, English and Punjabi). TYPE E: A program in French or in English that is directed to any ethnic group or to a mainstream audience and that depicts Canada's cultural diversity through services that are multicultural, educational, informational, cross-cultural or intercultural in nature. (This will allow for programming in English or French that will facilitate the integration of ethnic groups into the mainstream and will reflect culturally or racially distinct groups to the population at large." (CRTC, 1985)

And the CRTC would consider television and radio stations as ethnic if they:

"devote not less than 60% of its weekly programming time between 0600 and 2400 hours to ethnic programs of TYPES A, B, C, D or any combination thereof. The Commission will establish by condition of licence the percentage of the 60% that must be devoted to programs of TYPES A and B. The remaining 40% of the broadcast week between 0600 and 2400 hours may be devoted to ethnic programs of TYPES A, B, C, D, E or any combination thereof, or to any other type of conventional programming." (CRTC, 1985)

Changes within National Identity
The CBC was governed by the Broadcasting Act of 1968 until the 1990’s when the Broadcasting Act of 1991 was approved by the government. The main difference between the two acts was instead of promoting the idea of one uniform national identity, the Broadcasting Act of 1991 embraced the multicultural and multiracial aspect of society into the identity of Canada.