Concordia University Television (CUTV) is Canada's oldest student-run

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth's s ...

. CUTV was founded as TVSG (TV Sir George) in 1969 in the

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

area on the campus of

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

. CUTV has a strong focus on media literacy and training. The station was under the umbrella of the Concordia Student Broadcasting Corporation (CSBC), along with CJLO and the Concordia Amateur Radio Club (CUARC, callsign VE2CUA). Concordia University Television (CUTV) was a member owned and operated subsidiary of the non-profit corporation Concordia Student Broadcasting Society (CSBS) and whose primary purpose is to operate a TV station and video production facilities. CUTV distributes in-house, collaborative and external independent content through its closed-circuit TV network, DVD releases, internet-based distribution networks and

Public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

channels. CUTV is a Campus/Community TV and video production studio that provides an essential service to those in the Concordia and Montreal communities whose needs are not met by mainstream commercial TV stations and video production facilities. CUTV also serves as a viable community resource by providing the space, equipment and know-how of video production to student and community populations that are interested in producing content that accurately represents them and their interests.

2012 Quebec student tuition boycott

CUTV gained visibility during 2012 for its live coverage of

protest A protest (also called a demonstration, remonstration, or remonstrance) is a public act of objection, disapproval or dissent against political advantage. Protests can be thought of as acts of cooperation in which numerous people cooperate ...

s held against Plan Nord, as well as the 2012 student protests held in the Greater Montreal area pertaining to the planned post-secondary tuition hikes. The station used a broadcast system that allowed them to send images live over the cellular phone network, allowing for coverage of events that traditional television network news journalists could not access with their

satellite truck A satellite truck or SNG truck is a mobile communications satellite ground station mounted on a truck chassis as a platform. Employed in remote television broadcasts, satellite trucks transmit video signals back to studios or production facilities ...

s. Additionally, their images went out live, rather than with a timing delay, and offered an alternative perspective on the events.

2020 Vote of No Confidence

In 2020, CUTV’s

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

underwent a

vote of no confidence A motion or vote of no confidence (or the inverse, a motion or vote of confidence) is a motion and corresponding vote thereon in a deliberative assembly (usually a legislative body) as to whether an officer (typically an executive) is deemed fi ...

. A

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to an officia ...

signed by 50 members expressed that did not feel adequately represented by the administration. The members claimed the newly elected board members stacked the board

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

with friends and colleagues to accumulate votes. The petition also highlighted the potential

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple wikt:interest#Noun, interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates t ...

between the chair of the

annual general meeting An annual general meeting (AGM, also known as the annual meeting) is a meeting of the general membership of an organization. These organizations include membership associations and companies with shareholders. These meetings may be required ...

due to his personal relationship with three elected board members. The removal vote failed by a margin of 10 votes at a special general meeting.

Controversy involving ''The Breach''

In October 2024, a former board member leaked a memorandum of understanding between CUTV and Canadian news website ''The Breach'' along with their resignation letter to Concordia student media. The document outlined an incubation deal where CUTV would transfer 360,000$ in annual increments from 2021 to 2025. These transfers equated to between 13.3% and 25.9% of CUTV’s annual income. The resignation letter also outlined potential

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in whi ...

including Dru Oja Jay’s dual role as CUTV’s Executive Director and

Publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

of ''The Breach''. Other potential conflicts of interest included former CUTV board members who served as editors or board members of ''The Breach''. At the 2024 annual general meeting, a CUTV member proposed a

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

for CUTV to opt out of the memorandum of understanding. Following this motion, another member called for quorum to be counted and left the room with several other members, forcing the

adjournment In parliamentary procedure, an adjournment ends a meeting. It could be done using a motion to adjourn. A time for another meeting could be set using the motion to fix the time to which to adjourn. Law In law, to adjourn means to suspend or postp ...

of the annual general meeting.

References

External links

*
Concordia University Records Management and Archives: Concordia University Television fonds
Television stations in Montreal Concordia University Student television stations in Canada Television channels and stations established in 1969 1969 establishments in Quebec 1969 in Montreal {{Canada-tv-station-stub