Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau warned Friday that the decision by the country's largest telecommunications company, Bell Canada, to cut thousands of jobs, including hundreds of journalists, undermines Canadian democracy.

Trudeau took advantage of a press conference this Friday to criticize Bell Canada and express their anger at the company's announcement Thursday to lay off 4,800 people and sell 43 of its 105 regional radio stations.

“I’m furious,” Trudeau said.

The Canadian Prime Minister explained that the decision of Bell Canada, which owns one of the main Canadian media conglomerates through its subsidiary Bell Media, undermines Canadian journalism and democracy.

“It's not just the erosion of journalism and quality local journalism at a time when people need it more than ever given the misinformation (that exists). “It’s an erosion of our democracy, of our ability to tell ourselves stories,” he said.

“I'm quite angry with what is happening,” he added.

Media in crisis

Bell Canada, which for years held a virtual monopoly on telephony in the country, is currently The largest telephone and Internet company in Canada.

Additionally, through Bell Media, it owns CTV (one of the largest Canadian television channels)the iHeartRadio Canada radio network, and around thirty specialized television channels, such as the sports channel TSN, or the economic channel BNN Bloomberg.

The cuts announced Thursday, the company's largest in the last 30 years, These measures come almost a year after Bell Media cut 6% of its workforce and closed nine radio stations.

Bell Canada blamed the Canadian government for the layoffs emphasizing that he did not act quickly enough to help media outlets that are in crisis due to the diversion of advertising revenue to giants like Google or Facebook.

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Published: 02/09/2024