Catherine Tait, CBC president and custodian of Canadian culture GlobeArts
From the comments: CBC head warns of ‘cultural imperialism’ threat from Netflix, readers disagree en masse
Tait came under scrutiny earlier this year for comments comparing Netflix's presence in Canada to British and French colonialism.Laugh if you will – or, if you’re offended by CBC’s earnestness, sputter in disgust – but Tait means it. And she comes by that sense of public service honestly: Her father, Richard, was a career diplomat for Canada, she a ‘diplobrat.’ Born in Athens in 1958, she lived in Switzerland, Ottawa and Toronto , then spent most of her high-school years in London.
Growing up outside of Canada means that Tait has no nostalgic tether to the broadcaster formed in childhood. But it also gave her an outsider’s analytical, ironic posture. So, when asked about her earliest connection to CBC, she citesand other iconic comedy efforts. Those shows, she says, are “what made me go, ‘Wow, I want to be a part of that.
But years of living in the United States – of experiencing, on a daily basis, the fraying social contract, the reflexive cynicism toward the government – “wore me out.” As a TV producer, she acknowledges that the country’s “romantic attachment to crime” has fuelled extraordinary entertainment, such as: “It’s because they don’t trust anybody! They don’t believe in a benevolent society.
She has been telling anyone who will listen that she does not want CBC/Radio-Canada to be the only strong voice left, as other media outlets wither. Over the past few months, she says, the broadcaster has struck a working group with some newspapers “to come up with solutions that would allow us to share and be more effective – and take responsibility, to ensure we have a diverse media ecosystem going forward.
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