Senator Housakos: Government leader, you have to admit, it’s highly unusual for a minister of the Crown to feel compelled to write a letter to the chair of the CRTC asking her to respect Canadians’ rights and freedoms in regard to a law that hasn’t even gotten out of the door of the House of Commons. Clearly, even the minister himself felt compelled to have to do that. That in itself should raise some questions.

Senator Gold, yesterday, I asked you about the taxpayer-funded CBC announcing plans to move its operations entirely online. Senator Gold, the CBC can, to use your words, “speculate” and “anticipate” all it wants about the future but receives funding now to provide a service now to all Canadians in all regions.

My question is a simple one and one that we should all want an answer to: Would the aforementioned minister responsible be willing to write another letter in his nifty letter-writing campaign to the CRTC chair to ask her to guarantee that CBC funds are being used properly in alignment with their licensing obligations, or is it a one-letter-a-week policy by the Minister of Canadian Heritage to the CRTC?