The Public Eye: Television and the Politics of Canadian Broadcasting, 1952-1968

476 Pages·1979·27.499 MB·English

by  Frank W. Peers

THE PUBLIC EYE
This page intentionally left blank
THE PUBLIC EYE:
Television and the Politics of
Canadian Broadcasting
1952-1968
Frank W. Peers
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 1979
Toronto Buffalo London
Printed in Canada
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Peers, Frank W., 1918-
The public eye
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8020-5436-6
1. Television broadcasting - Canada - History.
2. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - History,
i. Title.
HE8700.9.C2P43 384.55'4'097I 078-001562-2
PREFACE
THIS BOOK traces the development of the broadcasting system in Canada
from the inception of television in 1952 to the passing of the Broadcasting
Act of 1968. It pays particular attention to the policy decisions made by
governments and by broadcasting authorities, and to the circumstances
under which those decisions were made. During the period surveyed,
there took place several public investigations of the broadcasting system
and its performance. These investigations and their outcomes form part
of the story. Necessarily, the study deals with the relationships between
the CBC, the private broadcasters, government, and the regulatory au-
thority, and also with events that affected the perceptions of politicians
and the public - such as the French network strike in 1959, the Preview
Commentary affair of the same year, and the controversies surrounding
the CBC television program 'This Hour Has Seven Days' in 1965-6.
The volume presents a good deal of material that has not appeared
previously in published form. Much of the new information is based on
original source material - government documents, CBC records, a manu-
script written by one of the chief participants, records kept by other
principals in the story, and interviews with a number of the key figures.
The book concludes with a survey of policy changes in Canadian
broadcasting over a span of fifty years, and an appraisal of the system as
it has evolved.
The preparation of the book was made possible by the good will and
generous assistance of many persons, some of whom I shall mention
now. I should especially like to acknowledge the assistance and encour-
agement of two of the principal figures in Canadian broadcasting -
Andrew Stewart, former chairman of the Board of Broadcast Gover-
nors, and Alphonse Ouimet, former president of the CBC. Dr. Stewart
gave generously of his time, and made available to me a manuscript he
had begun to prepare for possible publication soon after his retirement
from the BBG, but eventually abandoned. It contained much documen-
tary material I would otherwise not have found. A special word of thanks
vi Preface
goes to Alphonse Ouimet, a pioneer in television technology and, if any
one man can be so credited, the founder of the Canadian television
venture. Mr. Ouimet talked with me at length on several occasions, put
information from his records that I requested at my disposal, and
checked some of my manuscript for factual errors and misstatements.
Fox* my interpretation of developments and events, of course, neither he
nor Dr. Stewart bears any responsibility.
Others who read sections of the work in manuscript form include Dr.
Eugene Forsey of the Canadian Senate, Bernard Trotter, Graham Spry,
Professor William Morton, and Vincent Tovell, all of whom offered
much valued criticism. Graham Spry in particular placed his voluminous
records and papers at my disposal and imposed no limits on their use.
Among those who shared their recollections with me and who contri-
buted their assessment of events were Davidson Dunton, former chair-
man of the CBC; T. J. Allard, for many years chief executive officer of the
Canadian Association of Broadcasters, who since our conversations has
published The C.A.B. Story: Private Broadcasting in Canada; Robert
M. Fowler, chairman of the Royal Commission on Broadcasting in
1955-7 and of the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting in 1964-5;
Finlay MacDonald, former president of CJCH and CJCH-TV in Halifax;
R.L. Dunsmore, former chairman of the CBC board of directors; Jacques
Landry and Marc Thibault of CBC Montreal; Fernand Quirion, former
president of 1'Association des Realisateurs; Mel Jacks, at one time
executive assistant to the minister of transport; James Baldwin, former
deputy minister of transport; Reeves Haggan, former general supervisor
of public affairs at CBC Toronto; Ernest Steele, former undersecretary of
state and a member of the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting in
1964-5; Henry Hindley, secretary of that committee; and Hugh Laid-
law, former CBC counsel.
I owe much to discussions with academic colleagues and to their
written work. I am thinking of William Hull of Brock University,
Thelma McCormack of York University, Paul Thomas of the University
of Manitoba, Helen Carscallen of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, and
Roger Rickwood of the University of Lethbridge. The three last men-
tioned wrote masters or doctoral dissertations at the University of
Toronto from which I gained both information and insights.
I was fortunate in having access to collections in several libraries and
in the Public Archives of Canada: the records of the Massey and Fowler
commissions; those of the Glassco Commission and the Fowler Com-
mittee; the E.A. Weir papers; the CBC papers of J.A. Corry; the A.R.M.
Lower papers; the Grant Dexter papers; and the papers of Brooke
Preface vii
Claxton. To the librarians and archivists at Queen's University, the
Public Archives of Canada, the CBC Historical Section in Ottawa, the
CBC reference library in Toronto, the archives section of Radio-Canada
in Montreal, and the library of the University of Toronto, my grateful
thanks for assistance and many kindnesses.
The research and writing were facilitated by a leave fellowship and a
research grant from the Canada Council, and by assistance rendered by
colleagues in the department of political economy, University of To-
ronto.
This book has been published with the help of grants from the Social
Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from the
Publications Fund of the University of Toronto Press.
F.W.P. University of Toronto
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
PREFACE V
CHRONOLOGY xi
INTRODUCTION xiii
i Canadian Television: Beginnings 3
ii A National Service 29
in The Fowler Commission, 1955-1957 55
iv A Turning Point 92
v A New Government, A New Bill 115
vi The Broadcasting Act, 1958 152
vii A 'Sea of Troubles': The CBC from 1958 to 1963 176
vm The BBC'S 'Most Productive' Years: 1958-1963 215
ix Advice to the Perplexed Liberals 262
x The System in the Mid-Sixties 283
xi From the Fowler Committee to the 305
End of 'Seven Days'
xii The White Paper and the 1967 Broadcasting 352
Committee
xin The Broadcasting Act, 1968 383
xiv Evolution of the Broadcasting System 413
in Canada
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE 441
APPENDIX 445
INDEX 449