GATINEAU – Jilted 9(1)(h) license applicant ICTV has filed a petition to the Governor-in-Council demanding federal Cabinet not only set aside the CRTC decision granting Rogers Media a must-carry TV license for OMNI, but also that CRTC chair Ian Scott and vice-chair broadcasting Caroline Simard, be fired.

It has also filed a motion for leave to appeal the same CRTC decision to the Federal Court of Appeal.

In the petition to the GIC filed late Monday, Independent Community Television Montreal, an independent, not-for-profit community TV operation out of Montreal (which was one of the applicants hoping to win the coveted must-carry license for a national ethnic TV channel which ultimately went back to Rogers) says because both Scott and Simard met with Rogers Communications and Bell Canada (Bell was also a licence applicant) executives multiple times while this public proceeding was in motion before them, the decision must be set aside and both of their appointments terminated.

Chairman Scott met with Rogers three times during the period between the call for applicants and the decision and with Bell twice. Simard met with Bell three times during the same time period.

All of the meetings were and are publicly logged in the Lobbyist Registry and the specific company executives who were involved in the meetings with the CRTC commissioners are not named, as is the policy. As for the topics of the meetings, they are also not detailed, which is normal, and instead were tagged one of “telecommunications” (two meetings, both with Bell), “consumer issues” (two meetings, both with Rogers), or “broadcasting” (four meetings, two with each company). The meetings stretch from November 24, 2017 to March 6, 2019.

ICTV “submits that the actions of Scott and Simard give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias. By acting in a manner contrary to law, Scott and Simard’s actions breached the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness intrinsic to the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada,” reads the ICTV petition to Cabinet.

“Furthermore, ICTV submits that the actions of Scott and Simard dictate that their appointments must be terminated. The precedent established by the Government of Canada in its 2016 termination of Commissioner Raj Shoan, and later validated by the Federal Court of Canada, sets the principle that the Government of Canada has a zero-tolerance policy for reasonable apprehensions of bias on the part of CRTC Commissioners,” the document continues.

Shoan, as readers of Cartt.ca may be aware, is the former CRTC Ontario regional commissioner who had his appointment rescinded officially, in the end, for “inappropriate” meetings with industry stakeholders while certain proceedings were before the Commission. There were numerous extenuating circumstances surrounding Shoan’s dismissal, however. (Please click here for the history of that battle, which included a bitter power struggle with former CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais.)

Scott, Simard, and vice-chair telecom Christianne Laizner presided over the public hearing held in November 2018 and collectively made the decision on who got the license.

Another one of the other parties rejected, Corriere Canadese, has also filed a petition to the Governor-in-Council to overturn the decision and Cartt.ca has heard from sources that additional appeals from other rejected applicants may be in the works. The deadline to appeal the OMNI decision to cabinet is July 8, however, any court appeal must be done within one month of the decision, which is why ICTV filed its court appeal and GIC petition on Monday.

ICTV told the Federal Court the CRTC communications with Rogers and Bell “give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias in favour of Rogers or against the other parties and amount to a violation of the principles of procedural fairness,” since the non-profit was not given the same chance to meet with CRTC commissioners.

ICTV also told the GIC in its petition the decision to give Rogers the license and not to an independent ethnic broadcast group “fails to safeguard, enrich and strengthen the cultural, political, social and economic fabric of Canada.”

The federal government has until August 22nd (90 days after the CRTC licence decision) to respond to these petitions – and any others which may arise. (This sentence has been corrected to reflect the proper deadline for Cabinet to respond, which is 90 days after the decision, not after the deadline to appeal. Cartt.ca regrets the error.)

There’s no telling yet when, or if, the Federal Court of Appeal will grant ICTV’s motion of leave to appeal.

We’ll have more on this as this story develops.

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