#SaveOMNI Petition

On May 7, 2015, during Asian Heritage Month, Rogers Communications Inc. (Rogers) announced the elimination of all newscasts on its OMNI TV Stations. This decision was made without consultation of community members and leaders, who have watched and benefitted from OMNI TV for decades. Rogers has abandoned the spirit of OMNI TV’s license by eliminating local Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, and Italian news programming and systematically dismantling OMNI’s ability to meaningfully serve multilingual audiences. In doing so, Rogers has declared that Canada’s ethnocultural communities are unworthy of accessible, representative, meaningful news broadcasting. As in 2013, Rogers eliminated Portuguese news, South Asian news, and Diversity Programming (cutting 21 shows broadcast in 12 languages)*.

 
As concerned Canadians and community members, we ask the CRTC to review Rogers Communications Inc.’s breach of the mandate of Canada’s Broadcasting Act via their decision to eliminate all OMNI TV ethno-specific, multilingual newscasts.

Please see the attached open letter to the CRTC: http://urbanalliance.ca/2015/05/26/rogers-communications-inc-et-al-and-omni-tv-an-open-letter-from-concerned-canadians/

Here’s how you can help!

1. Call your MP and MPP. Tell them to press Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), to convene an immediate hearing to review OMNI’s licence.
2. Spread the word to friends and family, by circulating this email, and share it on social media like Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #SaveOMNI
3. Tweet, blog, and sign the petition on change.org