The File 1000-121 Affair

The File 1000-121 Affair exemplifies Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz’s observation: “Those at the top have learned how to suck money from the rest in ways that the rest are hardly aware — that is their true innovation” (The Price of Inequality, p. 40).

This well-documented case of long-term systemic corruption and regulatory capture at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) involves public officials abusing the agency’s statutory authority to force millions of ordinary Canadians — without their knowledge — to unjustly enrich and subsidize private media companies in the country. The scheme originated in 1993 (while I was employed in the Canadian broadcasting industry for my specialist knowledge about the cable-TV industry and relevant CRTC regulations); was modified in 1998; and is currently associated with funding for the Canada Media Fund.

Facts and primary-sourced documentation (1993-2015) are detailed in my report: ‘One Media Law: A Case Study of Regulatory Capture, Systemic Corruption and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission‘ (Mahar, August 17, 2015), as well being available on this website’s document archive.

From March 1995 to the present day, this corruption has been enabled by politicians and journalists turning a blind eye to the scheme — despite notifications — and by CRTC officials who have provided false and misleading information to the public, journalists and elected politicians, as well as by refusing to provide information about the scheme and not permitting me to appear at public hearings in 2021 and 2025.

Key mechanisms for the corruption’s initial stage included overcharging millions of Canadians for monopoly cable-TV services, collection fees under false pretences, siphoning revenues from the broadcasting system, and enabling cross-subsidisation that gave incumbents unfair competitive advantages in other industries, such as telecommunications. During this stage, false and misleading information was provided to the public, journalists, and elected officials by the quasi-judicial tribunal and some of its officials, when I publicly addressed the scheme and advocated for an investigation.

The second stage of the corruption involved a secretive self-adjudication process and an unpublished decision by the CRTC. In response to an official complaint by Cable Watch Citizens’ Association (Cable Watch), alleging a CRTC regulation was unlawful, and that cable-TV companies had acted unlawfully by collecting fees for the scheme without proper notice to ratepayers, CRTC officials opened File 1000-121, and subsequently issued an unpublished decision on June 25, 1996. In this closed-door process, the CRTC adjudicated the legality of its own actions and those of the corporations, ultimately ruling itself and the corporations innocent of any unlawful activity. The CRTC also ruled that ratepayers — who were being required to pay inflated fees for monopoly cable-TV in order to unjustly enrich their cable-TV company and also subsidize private television production companies — were not entitled to notice about the CRTC regulation, its monthly cost to them, or its beneficiaries. This opaque, self-serving process, shielded the scheme from public scrutiny while allowing it to continue and expand.

Additional Information  

  • January 6, 2006: On my behalf, lawyer Paul Armarego notified political leaders Stephen Harper, Gilles Duceppe, Jack Layton and Jim Harris about the File 1000-121 Affair and requested an investigation into the  case of systemic corruption at the CRTC: (January 5, 2006); (Attachment A); (Attachment B); (Attachment C); and (Attachment D). However, none of the Canadian political party leaders responded to my lawyer, and there was no investigation.
  • March 27, 2006: Shortly after Stephen Harper became prime minister of Canada, and former CRTC commissioner Beverley was Minister of Canadian Heritage, CRTC File 1000-121 and all of the documents stored in the file were destroyed, as confirmed the following year by a lawyer at the Commission (CRTC, October 10, 2007).
  • February 7, 2008: This is last time that the CRTC permitted me to appear at one of its public hearings. I advocated for a judicial review into the File 1000-121 Affair (CRTC public hearing). Later that same day, I issued a press release, title: ‘Prime Minister Stephen Harper fails to take action on CRTC cable scandal — Canadian consumers may be owed more than 1.2 billion dollars’ (Canada NewsWire, February 7, 2008) .
  • February 8, 2008: Member of Parliament Libby Davies stated in the House of Commons that Canadians were owed more than $1.2 billion (House of Commons). Member of Parliament Jim Abbott — Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage — provided false and misleading information to Parliament in response.

It is a matter of public record that on February 7, 2008, CRTC commissioner Rita Cugini emphatically stated that there was no unpublished CRTC decision made on June 25, 1996, which is not true. The public official also falsely claimed and that nobody at the Commission had any knowledge about the matter (CRTC public hearing).

Furthermore, I provided the CRTC with a copy of the  unpublished CRTC decision that was made on June 25, 1996 BEFORE I appeared at the public hearing on February, 7, 2008, along with detailed information and other documents related to the File 1000-121 Affair.

Some Documents related to the Cable Watch complaint and the Unpublished Decision by the CRTC: