Pro-life and pro-family advocates in southern Ontario who have been frustrated by the media’s inability (or refusal) to report accurately and fairly on life and family issues may find some relief in the recent decision by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to grant the Burlington, Ont.-based Crossroads Television System a licence for a television station.

The decision, released April 9, gives the organization (which is associated with, but officially separate from, Crossroads Christian Communications) the right to start a station that will serve the Toronto-St. Catharines area of Ontario. The CRTC rejected a competing bid from Manitoba-based Trinity Television Inc.

The decision follows the CRTC’s 1996 rejection of a licence for Crossroads. The commission ruled then that Crossroads’ plans did not demonstrate an adequate representation and reflection of other faiths. CTS now joins CJIL-TV in Lethbridge, Alta. as Canada’s second over-the-air, all-religion station.

In an interview with The Interim, Crossroads Christian Communications founder and president David Mainse said the station plans to take a strong stand on issues relating to life, family and morality.

Common concerns

“All religious groups have the same concerns – for family, and (against) destructive things like euthanasia and the death culture. Basically, it’s incumbent upon a religious station to take a strong stand for life, and God willing, that’s what we will be doing as an editorial policy.”

In recent months, Crossroads has followed a “Take a Stand” theme on its daily 100 Huntley Street television program. According to Mainse, the new channel will likely follow through with this theme, which focuses on addressing various social and moral concerns. As well, the station plans to have current 100 Huntley Street co-host Lorna Dueck host a news program that Mainse said will deal “head on” with issues of concern to Christians.

Dueck is known for her concerns about social issues and has, among other things, filed televised reports when Toronto pro-life activist Linda Gibbons has been arrested for peaceful picketing and counseling efforts outside Toronto abortuaries. She also consulted Campaign Life Coalition’s Toronto head office for a recent feature on euthanasia.

Mainse, meanwhile, is slated to be a keynote speaker at the National Pro-Life Conference in Ancaster, Ont. this July.

The earliest air date for the new station is this coming Oct. 12, while the latest is Dec. 1 this year. Much needs to be done in the way of arranging for the production of new programming, selling blocks of air time and commercial space, and securing the approximately $1.6 million needed for items such as the station’s three main pieces of equipment: an antenna, a transmitter and a master control unit.

The good news is that, thanks to its previous productions, CTS already has 80 per cent of the equipment needed to run a television station. The rest will be funded by means including advance sales of air time.

“Now that the licence is a reality, we’re moving forward with decisions on the content of the station,” said Mainse. “We made certain proposals to the CRTC in our licence application, and of course, we are following through with those. But there’s a great more detail – to whom do we sell blocks of air time? What new productions do we need to initiate?”

Mainse said CTS will be run as a regular tax-paying business, but any profits the station accrues will be plowed back into further programming production. “We felt we had to get into a regular, tax-paying business, lest we be seen as taking advantage of the (CCC) charity … I think it’s eminently fair the way we’re seeking to do this.”

Mainse said 40 U.S. Christian television ministries have applied to Crossroads for airtime, but only 15 can be accommodated.

The CRTC is requiring CTS to air at least 20 hours a week of “balance” programming (shows produced by non-Christian faiths). Speculation about how that 20 per cent will be allocated prompted a report in the Toronto homosexual magazine Xtra! that CTS welcomed the broadcast of shows produced by groups that are favorable to homosexual activism.

Xtra! suggested the comment could open the door to organizations such as the pro-gay Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto, and senior pastor Brent Hawkes, gaining airtime on the new station, even though they can’t presently afford broadcast and production costs for a show.

But Mainse appeared to nix that idea. “There must be a misinterpretation there … I do not understand (homosexuality) as a religion. This is a religious station. We adhere totally to Ontario employment policies in terms of non-discrimination, but I was not aware that the gay and lesbian community formed a religious group.”

The balance requirement (which curiously doesn’t apply to other forms of television programming) will be overseen by a six-member CTS committee – three Christian and three non-Christian.

Some opposition

According to Lisa Plouffe, communications officer for the CRTC, cable operators will have to give the new station a location on the dial no higher than channel 36. Cable operators “will have to give it a clear, unimpeded channel,” she said.

CTS’s licence bid was opposed by Rogers Cablesystems Ltd., CITY-TV, CFTO-TV and Vision TV because of the shuffling of channels involved and increased competition for advertising revenue. But the CRTC decided that those concerns are unfounded.

“Such a service (Crossroads) is likely to attract a niche audience that would be much smaller than that attracted to a conventional television service,” wrote secretary-general Laura Talbot-Allan. “A significant portion of the advertising revenue generated by a new religious television station is likely to be derived from new advertisers.”

Mainse said he “got up and danced a little jig” when he first received news that Crossroads’ licence application had been approved. “Then I sat down and put my head in my hands as the heavy weight of the responsibility came upon me.”