Tory government's handpicked CBC board oversees access-to-info file

OTTAWA - If the Conservative government is rankled by the CBC's attitude towards access to information, it might have a bone to pick with the board of directors it chose.

The public broadcaster is under scrutiny by a Commons committee for fighting the information commissioner in the courts over access to information. The Tories initiated the study, saying Canadians were concerned about taxpayers footing the bill for two federal bodies to battle in court.

But who exactly within the Crown corporation sanctioned its current approach towards access and the costly court battle?

The CBC's annual report says the corporation's board of directors provides management oversight. The board also ensures, "policies related to public accountability and access to information" are followed, in conjunction with senior managers.

Marco Dube, a CBC spokesman, said the legal actions against the information commissioner and the internal access-to-information guidelines were presented to the board for discussion, although it didn't specifically approve them.

The board, including president Hubert Lacroix, were all appointed by the Conservative government. Among the directors are figures with ties to the party or conservative politics — notably Montreal lawyer Brian Mitchell, who once ran for the party presidency and sat on its national council.

Pierre Gingras, appointed earlier this year, is a former member of Quebec's ADQ party. Director George Cooper is a former Progressive Conservative MP for Halifax.

Montreal lawyer Remi Racine, appointed to the board in 2007, was once national secretary of the Progressive Conservative party. He told a Montreal newspaper in 2008 that he was still a card-carrying party member and was close with John Baird, now foreign affairs minister, and former minister Jim Prentice.

"When you get involved in a political party, it's because you feel strongly about society's problems," Racine told La Presse. "Afterward, it's natural to find yourself in corporate associations, all sorts of things."

Liberal and Progressive Conservative governments before Harper's also hand-picked the members of the CBC board.

The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, an organization that has often criticized CBC management, is to appear before the Commons access committee on Thursday. The group is expected to outline its concerns over the structure of the upper echelons of the corporation.

The organization has lobbied repeatedly for an arm's-length process for board appointments and wants CBC president to be hired by and answerable to the board.

Spokesman Ian Morrison say it is curious that a board selected by the government would have given its blessing to the wrangling with the information commissioner.

"It is strange that they would appoint directors who would then endorse this very restrictive interpretation of the CBC's responsibilities under the Access to Information Act," Morrison said.

The CBC is arguing before the Federal Court of Appeal that the information commissioner does not have the right to review documents the corporation deems exempt from the Act. The commissioner, Suzanne Legault, has underlined that she currently reviews top secret and other documents from other agencies, including the RCMP and CSIS.