Regulatory, Telecom & Media News – Rogers and Shaw agree to suspend merger closure

The Commissioner of Competition says Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications have agreed not to proceed with closing their proposed merger until a negotiated settlement is agreed upon with the Competition Tribunal. As a result, there is no need for the Tribunal to hear the Commissioner’s application for an interim injunction. Rogers and Shaw said in a release Monday that work continues to fully divest Shaw’s wireless business, Freedom Mobile, as part of the proposed merger and that the agreement with the Commissioner will allow the parties to focus on addressing the Competition Bureau’s concerns with the transaction in order to reach a settlement.

The Edward R. Murrow Awards winners for Region 14 have been announced, including 24 Canadian wins. CTV Vancouver picked up five awards, including Overall Excellence, Breaking News, Investigative Series, News Series and Newscast for CTV News at Six. Global Toronto and CBC Toronto each won two awards in the Television (Large Market) category. In Radio, Rogers’ CityNews branded radio stations picked up four honours, including recognition for CityNews 1130 (CKWX-AM) Vancouver for its Digital and Newscast submissions, and an Overall Excellence award for CityNews 680 (CFTR-AM) Toronto. Newstalk 1010 (CFRB-AM) Toronto captured four awards, including a nod for its news documentary on Gordon Lightfoot.

RTDNA Canada has announced the finalists for its National Awards of Excellence, recognizing excellence in digital and broadcast journalism. This year’s winners will be revealed at the RTDNA Awards Gala on June 11 in Toronto. By network, CBC goes into the awards with a leading 36 nominations, followed by CTV News with 15 nods. Global secured seven nominations, while CityNews, TSN, and Narcity Canada each make the list twice. Find the Best Local News finalists here.

The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has announced the winners of the 2021 CAJ Awards for outstanding investigative journalism. The Narwhal claimed a leading four awards, including the CWA Canada/CAJ Award for Labour Reporting, and the Environment and Climate Change Award. Freelance photographer Amber Bracken won in the Photojournalism category for her Wet’suwet’en crisis portfolio, published by The Narwhal, while Stephanie Kwetásel’wet Wood won the JHR/CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award for her portfolio feature, also published by the not-for-profit environmental journalism site. Other winners include The Globe and Mail, TVO, and CBC Podcasts.

The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has awarded its Charles Bury Award to the Canadian lawyers who have generously provided pro-bono legal services to help uphold journalists’ rights to report on matters of significant public interest. Sean Hern, a Victoria, B.C.-based lawyer who represented the CAJ and a coalition of independent media in the Fairy Creek case, accepted the award on behalf of all lawyers being honoured at the CAJ’s annual awards gala dinner in Montreal. The Charles Bury Award, formerly called the President’s Award, is given under circumstances of exceptional merit to people or organizations that have made a significant contribution to Canadian journalism. 

Unifor is launching a new website to help journalists and media workers seek help to deal with online harassment. More than 60% of Unifor journalist members have reported being harassed, with almost a quarter reporting daily harassment. The site will offer counselling advice for Unifor members, non-members and freelancers, including tips on documenting abuse, reporting harassment to employers and police, and protecting personal information. The site was developed in conjunction with media members on the front lines and bargaining units that have addressed the issue in their workplaces. Besides the new site, Unifor is developing draft collective agreement language for bargaining and training for union leaders. 

Unifor members at Bell Technical Solutions (BTS) have voted to ratify a new collective agreement that includes significant improvements in benefits, RRSP contributions, and wages for members across Ontario. Quebec members will vote on ratification June 10. The agreement includes 13% wage increases over four years for members with more than seven years’ service. Members on the progression scale will also see an increase of 2.5% on top of their current bi-annual increase. In addition to wage and benefit improvements, the new collective agreement will grow the unit by 307 new full-time positions, aiming to make jobs better for workers with consecutive days of rest, scheduling and work-life balance improvements. The union also secured the creation of a Racial Justice Advocate, a new union program that seeks to combat racial discrimination and support workers experiencing racism.