Radio Canada International: History and Development

David Kimmel teaches history and Canadian studies at Brock University in
St. Catharines.

At a time when public broadcasting in Canada is fighting for its life,
it is nothing short of shameful that the 50th anniversary of Radio
Canada International should have been commemorated with a book so weakly
written and poorly presented. It is repetitive and sophomoric in style;
the writing is often awkward; and the text is full of spelling, grammar,
and typesetting errors. In terms of content, Siegel has covered most of
the important points, but the coverage is at best unbalanced. His focus
is the end of World War II and the Cold War—rightly so, since these
are the circumstances that gave Canadian international broadcasting its
raison d’кtre. But he has also paid undue attention to the
development of the CBC and of radio generally, and not enough to the
recent history of RCI, events that have brought it to the brink of
oblivion.

This is a commissioned history, and that probably explains the latter
shortcoming. It is likely responsible for another problem: despite an
attempt to investigate the tensions between RCI’s progenitors, the
Department of External Affairs and the CBC, too little is said about the
struggle to maintain journalistic integrity while serving as the
official voice of Canadian foreign policy. This is a particular
disappointment, since Siegel is an authority on the interplay of
politics and the media. There are some good stories here. We learn of
lobbying by Ukrainians in Canada to step up anti-communist content. We
also hear, however briefly, of a related RCMP spy caper and a case of
Soviet entrapment. Siegel writes of RCI as “a story of missed
opportunities.” Ironically, he has also missed opportunities to
highlight the value and relevance of Canadian international broadcasting
and to offer reasons for RCI to survive the 1990s.