OTTAWA – If, like Cartt.ca, you believed that the OMNI file was closed, sealed, over and done with, think again.
On September 16, Joe Volpe, publisher of the Corriere Canadese and one of the applicants for a national, multilingual multi-ethnic discretionary service, CorrCan Media Group, filed a motion in the Federal Court for a judicial review of the pronouncement by the Governor General in Council (Cabinet), issued on August 17, where the government declined to void or return CRTC Decisions 2019-172 and 2019-173 granting Rogers Media a must-carry license for its OMNI branded multicultural channels.
The relief sought is to quash the Cabinet decision, order the CRTC to issue a licence to the applicant (CorrCan) and returning the matter to the CRTC for reconsideration.
Amongst the grounds for the application is the allegation that the issue “was not actually deliberated by Cabinet, that it therefore made perverse and capricious findings, conclusions and inferences without evidence and in total disregard to the evidence.”
The respondent, the Attorney General, will have to respond next and then the Court will take it from there.
“We applaud anyone with the courage to stand up to powerful forces who are acting improperly,” said Aldo Di Felice, president of TLN Media Group, one of the other applicants who were denied, in an email. “It reminds me of the opening montage in our CanadaWorld TV video at the CRTCNovember 2018 public hearing: ‘They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.’ – Andy Warhol.”
