The inside story of decades of government interference in the work of our national public broadcaster, CBC/Radio-Canada.

Is there a quiet campaign to hamstring and silence the CBC? In Losing Our Voice Alain Saulnier, long-time head of news and public affairs at Radio-Canada, documents the decades of political interference that have jeopardized the very existence of one of Canada’s most important cultural institutions.

For French-speaking Canadians, with limited options in their own language, the national broadcaster is all the more important. But tensions surrounding national unity and identity have exacerbated the tendency of federal politicians to meddle in CBC/Radio-Canada’s content and management. Saulnier takes us behind the scenes as these tensions play out, and culminate in the punitive Harper budget cuts.

Alain Saulnier has headed news and public affairs programming at Radio-Canada’s French-language radio and television networks services, as well as Quebec’s professional journalists’ federation. Since September of 2012, he has taught journalism to graduate students at l’Université de Montréal while continuing to produce educational programming and working with Le Devoir. He lives in Montreal.

Alain Saulnier's profile page

Pauline Couture is a senior strategic communications professional, author, and literary translator with extensive experience in both the corporate and the non-profit sector. She has been a journalist and broadcaster in both of Canada’s official languages and worked as a senior executive in the country’s film, television, and technology sectors.

Pauline Couture's profile page

Saulnier's timely book makes it clear that a lot more vigilance from those outside the CBC is going to be required if Canada's struggling public broadcaster is ever going to be rescued from the politicians.

Globe and Mail

[Alain Saulnier's] immensely sad and troubling book should be required reading for anyone who cares about the cultural future of the country.

Toronto Star (for the French edition)