New Members Appointed to the Ontario Regional Panel of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council

Ottawa, March 26, 2003 --The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) announces the appointment of Hanny Hassan and Mark Maheu to its Ontario Regional Panel.

Hanny Hassan, a public Adjudicator, is a structural engineer and the President and Principal Engineer for a Toronto-based consulting engineering practice. A member of the Professional Engineers of Ontario, he holds corresponding professional affiliations in Ohio and Florida. Mr. Hassan has also been President of the Council of Muslim Communities of Canada (CMCC) since 1993. He has a long and distinguished career in community service, including significant contributions to the Muslim and Arab communities, of which he is a member, but also with respect to equity and multicultural issues. Mr. Hassan is a frequent speaker and lecturer to schools, universities, church groups, service organizations and the business community of Islam and Arab issues. He has also focussed his publicly-oriented energies and commitments on interfaith and multicultural issues and is currently, among other things, Co-chair of the National Muslim-Christian Liaison Committee, a member of the Toronto Chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a member of the Advisory Committee to the Secretary of State on the impacts of anti-terrorism legislation and public backlash on the Muslim and Arab communities, the CMCC representative on the Canadian Ethnocultural Council, and the Muslim Convenor in the Jewish-Christian-Muslim Interfaith Dialogue Series. A London native, Mr. Hassan holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Engineering degree from Dalhousie University.

Mark Maheu, an industry Adjudicator, is Vice-President and General Manager of CHUM group Radio - Ottawa (which includes CFRA-AM, CJMJ-FM, CFGO-AM and CKKL-FM). Over the past 24 years, Mr. Maheu has worked in most areas of the radio industry, whether as on-air host, program director, music director or general manager. He began at CHOK-AM in Sarnia; his considerable experience has taken him to stations in London (Ontario), Winnipeg and Evansville (Indiana). He has been at the Ottawa station group since 1992. Mr. Maheu is active in the Ottawa community and has served as a director on the boards of several charities, including the Cancer Research Society of Canada.

Ron Cohen, the National Chair of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, reacted to the appointments: "The CBSC relies on the commitment of community-minded individuals for its own ability to respond to public concerns regarding broadcast content. Moreover, it is dependent on a broad spectrum of points of view, reflecting Canadian society. Hanny Hassan and Mark Maheu are both leaders in that society. They bring considerable wisdom and discernment to the appreciation of community values. The Council is grateful to them for agreeing to participate in the definition of standards benefiting all Canadians."

The Ontario 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 Robert Stanbury (of Hamilton), a public Adjudicator, and its Vice-Chair is Madeleine Ziniak of OMNI Television (Toronto). The other public members are Jennifer David (of Ottawa), and John Pungente, S.J. and Cynthia Reyes (both of Toronto). The other current broadcaster member is Mark Oldfield of MCTV (Sudbury). There are currently two broadcaster vacancies on the Panel.

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