Edmonton: A number of well known community, labour, academic, arts and municipal leaders have signed an open letter to Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, urging her to use her influence to end the lock-out of the 5500 employees of the CBC and to commit to provide the financial support CBC needs to fulfill its mandate.

“This open letter is a strong message from a number of Edmontonians saying that Minister McLellan has an important responsibly and the influence to bring an end to the lock-out,” says Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour. “When you see a list of Edmontonians ranging from City Councillor Mike Nickel to the Managing Director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Elaine Calder, the Minister needs to pay attention to the message.”

“We feel very strongly that the lock-out of the CBC workers and support for CBC programming is an urgent public interest issue that requires political action,” says Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. “Albertans need to speak out and say that it is unacceptable that the federal government has failed to end the lock-out and that they must commit to support CBC’s mandate to deliver local programming.”

The open letter will be published in the Edmonton Journal on Friday, September 30th and Vue Weekly. Albertans are also being asked to go to www.pialberta.org to sign-on to the letter and send an automatic e-mail to the Deputy Prime Minister and their Member of Parliament.

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For further information contact:

Bill Moore-Kilgannon
Executive Director, PIA @ (780) 420-0471

Gil McGowan
President, AFL @ (780) 483-3021 / (780) 915-4599 (cell)