CBC initiative brings opposing views to same table

British prime minister Winston Churchill, remembered more for decisive force than diplomacy, is also credited with saying, “jaw-jaw is better than war-war.”

Where Canada’s domestic tug-of-wars are concerned, CBC producer Bertram Schneider thinks we could use a little more jaw-jaw.

“We are deeply polarized (in Canada), and if anything, getting more polarized… COVID amplified that, to be honest,” he says. “I think that’s the magic of this project ­— it gets people who have really diametrically opposed points of view on significant issues to sit down.”

Schneider is discussing Manitoba Talks, a new CBC Manitoba initiative that’s about getting citizens from across the political divide at the same table, talking to one another. A segment from the initiative released to YouTube in early February saw a trans man and Muslim woman civilly debating gender and sexuality, with more content coming in the following weeks based on a Saturday event.

This format recalls the Jubilee series popular on YouTube and social media, but while that approach is gladiatorial, making for meme-able soundbites and toxic comment sections, Schneider says Manitoba Talks promotes dialogue and mutual understanding, modelled on Germany’s ZEIT Online My Country Talks series.

The conversations are private, and it’s at the discretion of participants whether they want to share them with CBC reporters after the fact.

Some may be recapped for CBC Radio, others may fall into the ether.

Still, Schneider expects that participants — paired by software for how divergent their views are on divisive topics — will have plenty to debate.

“If we can actually have these conversations — brave conversations, honest conversations — with people who are very opposed to us, I think it will be extremely helpful and an interesting experience for the people involved,” he says. “(Because) we live in a very divided world.”

Case in point: while Canada gropes for unity in the face of what many Liberals frame as a grave American threat to the country’s sovereignty, a conservative separatist movement brews in Western Canada, with an Alberta referendum on provincial independence on the horizon.

The tension issues dividing East and West, right, centre and left in Canada include pipeline and resource development, equalization payments and taxation, immigration and asylum policy, Indigenous reconciliation, U.S. relations and hot button social and cultural issues.

Manitoba, the “keystone” province in Canada’s East-West tensions, may seem an island of comparative stability, but drive an hour outside Winnipeg to Portage-Lisgar and you’ll find yourself in one of Canada’s most conservative districts, also a hotbed for the 2022 Freedom Convoy.

The CBC itself came into the crossfire in the last federal election, with CPC Leader Pierre Poilievre threatening to defund the public broadcaster if elected, leveraging popular conservative discontent over CBC’s perceived politically progressive slant and spending excesses.

“(We’re) making significant efforts to reach out to all parts of the province, (especially) communities that traditionally wouldn’t trust a public broadcaster,” says Schneider. “Maintaining trust, rebuilding trust in media, specifically in public broadcasting, is a forever goal.”

While this long-term commitment hovers over initiatives such as Manitoba Talks, he reflects that the project’s hopes are also rather modest: just getting people talking to one another again.

“What the experience in other countries (with this approach) has been is that it rehumanizes the other. It demystifies the other,” he says.

“It makes people realize, ‘You know what, I still don’t actually agree with them at the end of the conversation, but I actually understand this person’s motivation.’”

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