A new sustainability report published on Friday by Corus Entertainment, the parent company of Global News and other media properties, is chock full of woke initiatives including mutiple climate initiatives and mandated employee “diversity, equity and inclusion training” (DEI) sessions.
This comes only weeks after Global News executives testified before a federal Senate committee to state that their financial situation was so dire they were seeking to partake in the federal government’s $600 million bailout reserved for newspapers and other print media.
Corus Entertainment’s Sustainability Report 2022 seeks to align the company with “environmental, social and governance” (ESG) goals – a business practice closely aligned with the United Nations’ “sustainable development goals.”
“I am pleased to share Corus’ first Sustainability Report, an important milestone in our work to formally integrate environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals into everything we do,” wrote Corus CEO and president Doug Murphy.
Among the initiatives undertaken by the company include measures to “reduce carbon emissions”, “company-wide DEI-focused training”, “environmental sustainability sessions for employees”, among others.
“We continuously strive towards a culture of equity and inclusion in our workplace, our content and our industry. I love the transparent approach Corus has taken, providing quarterly updates to our DEI Action Plan, internally and externally,” said the company’s head of diversity, equity and inclusion Lenore MacAdam.
Critics of DEI initiatives have slammed the practice as ideologically-driven and destructive to social relations.
Renowned psychologist and author Dr. Jordan Peterson called the policy a “radical leftist” trinity.
“Wondering about the divisiveness that is currently besetting us? Look no farther than (DEI). Wondering — more specifically — about the attractiveness of Trump? Look no farther than (DEI). When does the left go too far? When they worship at the altar of (DEI), and insist that the rest of us, who mostly want to be left alone, do so as well,” wrote Peterson in an op-ed earlier this year.
Similar workplace policies have caused rifts in other media companies, including the CBC which saw the departure of producer Tara Henley over the public broadcaster’s “radical political agenda” which included vetting the race of show guests.
Part of Corus’ approach to improving equity and diversity at the company includes a designation system for four “designated groups”: “Indigenous Peoples, racialized people, persons with disabilities and women.”
It is yet to be seen whether the policy will improve Corus’ financial straits as the company has lost over 80% of its stock value in the past five years.
Former Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission vice-chair Peter Menzies recently told True North that giving the company more benefits as per their Senate committee request will make the news organization dependent on the Liberal government remaining in power.
“To give further financial benefits to already profitable and – some might say – pampered companies such as Global/Corus it will do so at the disadvantage of the more than 200 innovative and entrepreneurial news websites that have launched in recent years,” said Menzies.
“It would also be a step further towards the creation of a permanent co-dependence between the Liberal party being in power and Global/Corus’s ability to produce news.”
