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From: "Dan King" danking@sympatico.ca To: procedure@crtc.gc.ca; srtv@srtv.on.ca Subject: Intervention on behalf of Star Ray TV Date: Monday, August 20, 2001 6:48 PM To: The Members of the Board of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Please consider my request that Jan Pachul's application be accepted and that a low power UHF TV station licence be granted. Jan Pachul's low power UHF TV station is just what this community needs to create a channel for community content and local affairs. Toronto has suffered greatly over the past four years at the hands of the Provincial government and neglect by the local media. This has led to a collapse of our infrastructure and $300 million dollar municipal budget crisis. Toronto has slipped from its #1 spot in 1996 as the best city in North America since Amalgamation was imposed on this city against the public will. This was expressed in a 76% referendum against the measure, which apparently went unnoticed by Ontario's Premier, based on remarks made the day after the results were announced. Toronto's governance model was confirmed in the Abella Ontario Appeals Court decision of Oct. 10th, 1997, (copies available on request) as being equivalent to that of the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). Any powers exercised by our elected city council over our $5B municipal budget is only at the pleasure of Ontario's Premier. It is a fact of law that municipal affairs in Toronto are excluded from the principles of democracy defined in Canada's constitution. These are important fundamental facts about our society made clear to the court by the Attorney General of Ontario, but are not widely known by Toronto's citizens or by the members of the CRTC. It is not appropriate in a civilized society that these events pass without comment and yet they have. Media in Toronto has been silent on this issue. The CBC has cut its local coverage. Local media coverage has been so poor that for those CRTC members resident it Ottawa or other centres outside Toronto, it is unlikely that they would have any knowledge at all of the critical community issues affecting Toronto. We must be given the opportunity to have a dialog with our community and ourselves. It is crutial that our citizens have a voice. Star Ray TV can give it to us. With due respect to the members of the Commission, I fear that failure to provide a channel for the legitimate expression and discussion of public issues at a time of such massive upheaval in Toronto will have a destabilizing effect on our society. Fringe groups such as the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty have already engaged in violent acts that have threatened the safety of the Police charged with the responsibility of protecting the government. It is time to move these people off the streets and into the TV studio. They will be held accountable for the dialogue they have with our public. There is much for a community television station in Toronto to discuss. Please give us the opportunity to have this dialog. Dan King 341 Bloor St. W. Suite 505 Toronto Canada M5S 1W8 416-595-1782 |