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July 29, 2015 11:28 pm  #1


Federal Court of Appeal puts AVR on Life Support

Talk about pulling a rabbit out of the hat. Lawyers for AVR have convinced the Federal Court of Appeal to keep four of the AVR radio stations across Canada - including the one in Toronto - on the air until the Court can hear AVR's application to appeal the the CRTC's decision to shut them down and revoke their licenses.The AVR stations In Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver were supposed to be off the air as of Saturday July 25th.

This is only the first step in the legal challenge. AVR has to win the right to appeal the CRTC decision. If they don't, than the CRTC can pull the plug on AVR. If they do win the right to appeal, AVR still has to convince the Federal Court that the CRTC is wrong to revoke the licenses of the four stations because they are not in compliance with CRTC regulations. No one is objecting to the Ottawa station not being in compliance. It has been off the air for months.

Here is part of the ruling by Justice Wyman W. Webb about AVR's leave to appeal the CRTC ruling:

"While counsel for the Crown pointed to admission made by AVR at the CRTC hearing that it was not complying with the condition of the other licenses, the exact nature of the failure to comply with the conditions of each one of the other licenses in relation to the Broadcasting Regulations of such licenses is not clear. Whether it was appropriate to revoke all five broadcasting licenses in the circumstances of this case is a serious question that should be considered in the application for leave to appeal. As noted above, at this stage it would not be appropriate to determine whether leave to appal should be granted. Rather the analysis should only determine whether there is serious question for determination at the application for leave to sppeal.

"I am satisfied that AVR has raised at least one serious question to be addressed at the application for leave to appeal. Whether leave to appeal will be granted is a matter to be determined when the application is addressed."

No date has been set for the hearing. 

 

Last edited by kowchmedia (July 29, 2015 11:31 pm)

 

August 1, 2015 10:11 pm  #2


Re: Federal Court of Appeal puts AVR on Life Support

Same thing happened with CKLN a few years ago. After the CRTC pulled the license the station got a last minute stay from the Federal Court so that they could seek leave to appeal the decision. In the end, they were denied the actual leave to appeal and went off the air. The difference here is AVR might be able to argue that there's a "national interest" in the court hearing their case because a) they're not just located in one city but in several across the country and b) there's arguably a national interest to have an aboriginal broadcaster. It'll be interesting to see what the court does however I think there've been several attempts in the past to get courts to overturn CRTC license revocations and all have ultimately been turned down. 

 

August 2, 2015 12:44 am  #3


Re: Federal Court of Appeal puts AVR on Life Support

Hansa wrote:

The difference here is AVR might be able to argue that there's a "national interest"

That would trigger anyone else interested in running an Aboriginal network or radio station to speak up against them.
Who owns the Aboriginal TV? Maybe they would like to run the radio side?

There's no complaints on the TV side. CRTC  seems happy there.


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

August 2, 2015 2:30 pm  #4


Re: Federal Court of Appeal puts AVR on Life Support

On behalf of thousands of grateful Don Andrews fans, thank you Federal Court of Appeal for this decision

 

August 23, 2015 3:06 am  #5


Re: Federal Court of Appeal puts AVR on Life Support

Did Rogers cable (Toronto) remove CKAV from the Digital box? 
It looks like they've recently made some changes in the 900's and added a bunch of channels
(TravelXP HD & other multicultural channels) that have nothing to do with radio or audio sound.
but no sign of CKAV...

Last edited by Radiowiz (August 23, 2015 3:08 am)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.