The mass layoffs continue after Bill C-18 passed. This time, Bell is once again passing out the pink slips.
Throughout the Bill C-18 debate, lobbyists were pushing various narratives about how the journalism sector is in absolute crisis. Layoffs were all over the place, news deserts were expanding, and the whole sector was on the brink of collapse.
The solution, according to the lobbyists, was to pass Bill C-18. According to lobbyists, Australia passed their own version of the link tax. The result was that there was mass hirings all over the place, it reinvigorated the sector, and the whole sector in that country is now more lively than ever before. If only the Canadian government would pass similar laws so that the Canadian news sector would experience the new golden age of journalism as seen in Australia. After all, it’s just common sense.
Now, obviously, it was all bullshit lies. After Australia passed their version of the link tax laws, layoffs began flooding the Australian media sector, but lobbyists simply dismissed it all as a one-off and not representative of the glorious journalism era Australia is in and that Canada just needed to pass this “common sense” bill so the Canadian journalism sector can experience the exact same thing.
Well, pass the bill the Canadian government did. This to the facepalming of experts such as myself. We all knew what was coming next and one of those things were mass layoffs now that the con job was complete.
Sure enough, the mainstream media reacted to this by basically laughing at the government, calling them all dumbasses for believing their stupid lies, and got to the business of hacking and slashing jobs across the board. I tell you, it’s amazing that the government ended up believing all of their stupid lies over the warnings of experts! Man, lawmakers are even dumber than they could possibly imagine!
CBC was one of the first with the threat to slash 10% of their workforce. The government asked what it would take to stop the layoffs and the CBC responded by saying that they want a bailout in exchange for not laying off the employees. The government bailed out the CBC and the CBC then took that money and showered their CEOs with bonuses after, showing that they really didn’t need the money. They were just awarding the government with the “fell for it again” award.
Bell, separately, slashed 9% of their workforce. This while raising dividend payouts for their shareholders. Naturally, this pissed off the government when they realized that they had been had, but Bell responded to the angry questioning by basically mocking lawmakers for being dumb enough to believe them. the cherry on top was that they issued another round of layoffs after those angry hearings as yet another middle finger to the government.
Additionally, Corus got in on the mass layoff game by slashing 25% of their workforce. Corus was a bit smarter by waiting for the heat to wear off before issuing those layoffs. For the most part, it worked as there wasn’t a peep from the government over it that we are aware of.
Global also issued their own layoffs as well, adding to the overall flow of the pink slips.
Recently, we learned that the flow of pink slips is continuing with another round of layoffs at Bell. This time, nearly 700 got shown the door. From the CBC:
Bell Canada says it’s cutting approximately 690 employees, mostly managers, to help reduce debt and drive growth. The cuts follow thousands of company layoffs last year.
This time Bell says it’s axing about 650 non-unionized management positions across the country, representing less than two per cent of its workforce.
Canada’s largest communications company said it’s also cutting approximately 40 jobs at Bell Media, its media and entertainment subsidiary.
Man, the mainstream media just can’t stop laying off its employees. It’s almost as if they don’t give a flying fuck about trying to maintain a proper company now that they have everything they could possibly want.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, this supposed “golden era of journalism” is going to continue. The question is when the next shoe is going to drop for those employed in the sector.
