Ottawa, March 20, 2003 --The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) announces the appointment of the Honourable Gilbert R. Clements to its Atlantic Regional Panel, on which he will serve as a public representative and Vice-Chair.
The Honourable Gilbert R. Clements was (from 1995-2001) the thirty-eighth Lieutenant Governor of Prince Edward Island since the creation of the colony in 1769 (and the twenty-fifth since P.E.I. entered Confederation in 1873). Before entering politics, Mr. Clements owned and operated a successful electrical contracting and appliance sales business and later owned and operated a real estate and insurance business. First elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1970, he was re-elected six times and held various ministerial portfolios in the government of Premier Alex Campbell including Municipal Affairs, Tourism, Parks and Conservation and Community and Cultural Affairs. In the government of the late Premier Joseph Ghiz, he served as Minister of the Environment and Minister of Finance. Mr. Clements was Chair of the Canadian Council of Environment Ministers on two separate occasions and was recognized in 1976 as the only elected official to receive the Travel Industry Association of Canada Crandall Award, given for the greatest contribution to preserving the environment in Canada. As Minister, he attended Conferences on the Environment in England, the U.S.S.R., Venezuela and Alaska and in 1992 he was an official member of the Canadian Delegation to the "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro. He has always been active in community affairs, serving in many organizations, and is one of the very few recipients of both the 125th Anniversary of Confederation Medal and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, in recognition of his extensive service to the community. He was Chancellor of the Order of Prince Edward Island and was the first recipient to receive the Medal of Merit (insignia of the Order) in August 1996.
Ron Cohen, the National Chair of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, expressed his enthusiasm regarding the appointment of Gilbert R. Clements to the Atlantic Regional Panel. "The CBSC has, for more than a decade, played an important role in responding to public concerns regarding content on private radio and television stations and networks in Canada. It has provided a sounding board for Canadians wishing to express their views about things they had seen or heard on the airwaves and it has, in more than 280 publicly released decisions, defined content expectations for Canadian private broadcasting. The role of its public and industry Adjudicators has been critical to its success. For the CBSC to now be able to rely on the vast experience and public commitment of the Honourable Gilbert R. Clements in this process will be a great benefit to the Council and to the public it serves. We are honoured to have him as a part of the team."
The Atlantic Panel, like all of the other CBSC Panels across the country, is made up of equal numbers of public and industry members. Its Chair is Hilary Montbourquette of NewCap (Moncton), an industry Adjudicator. The other current broadcaster members are Kaye MacAulay of NewCap (Stephenville) and Randy McKeen of Telemedia (Fredericton). The other public members are Burnley (Rocky) Jones and Professor Sylvia Hamilton (both of Halifax).
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. More than 530 radio and television stations and specialty services from across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the CBSC’s website at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the CBSC National Chair, Mme Andrée Noël CBSC Executive Director, John MacNab