CBC accuses Quebeocor Inc. of using FOI to attack its VP

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation claims that Quebecor Inc. is using freedom of information requests -- 150 so far this year -- to undertake a campaign of personal harrassment against Sylvain Lafrance, CBC's vice-president of French services, according to a story published by Canadian Press.

Tim Casgrain [chair of the CBC board of directors], in a letter to Heritage Minister James Moore, says the CBC has received more than 150 access requests so far this year - and most have come from just two sources.

"We accept that as a public broadcaster, we are vulnerable to our competitors using our accountability against us in a way that distorts our actual behaviour," Casgrain wrote Moore in a letter dated Nov. 21 that was then posted on the CBC's internal web site.

Stories on CBC executive expenses appeared recently in the Sun Media chain and Le Journal de Montreal, both of which are owned by Quebecor Inc.

Quebecor spokesperson Isabelle Dessureault, vice-president of public affairs for Montreal-based Quebecor Media Inc., denied that the newspapers targeted CBC because it was a competitor. "We do not target CBC unfairly."

However, the CP story pointed out that Quebecor chief Pierre Karl Peladeau is pursuing a defamation suit against Lafrance and the CBC after Lafrance was quoted as saying that Peladeau was acting like a "hooligan" last year for withholding contributions to the Canadian Television Fund.

Quebecor Inc., through its TVA division, is the largest magazine publisher in Quebec.