This year’s federal budget makes one thing painfully clear: Ottawa would rather fund a contestant for the Eurovision Song Contest than address the growing crisis in Canadian local and multicultural media.

For two years, there were talks with the Department of Canadian Heritage about the collapse of independent third-language community television — programs that serve audiences in Ukrainian, Punjabi, Mandarin, Farsi, Russian, Italian, and more than 75 other languages. We’ve spoken with the minister’s top advisors, shared research, and proposed solutions

Yet, the government continues to claim there’s “lots of support” already in place. In reality, there isn’t — unless you count the money now going to promote a single Canadian singer in Europe as a substitute for sustaining a vital part

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