Chair, members of the committee,
Thank you for the opportunity to appear today.
My name is Sheila Gunn Reid.
I am the President of the Independent Press Gallery of Canada and Editor-in-Chief of Rebel News.
The Independent Press Gallery supports independent journalists across the country with legal training, mentorship for young reporters, and security resources as working conditions for journalists in Canada become increasingly hostile.
Because in Canada today, if you don’t take the money or join the club, you get shut out.
I’m here on behalf of independent, reader-funded journalists who are being pushed out of Canada’s media landscape, not by the market, but by their own government.
Canada already has a two-tier media system.
On one side are government-subsidized outlets.
On the other are independent journalists who rely entirely on their audience.
And we are increasingly denied equal access to both government and the public square.
Federal departments have decided who gets answers and who does not.
An independent journalist was told by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada that his organization “doesn’t qualify for these services.”
Global Affairs Canada has done the same.
The message is clear: if you are not approved, you are not entitled to answers.
The same pattern exists at the political level.
We have seen elected officials refuse to answer questions from independent outlets.
We have seen reporters arrested while attempting to question ministers.
We have been denied access to federal leaders’ debates and forced to go to court, successfully, just to do our jobs.
And increasingly, independent journalists are not just excluded. They are treated like a problem to be managed.
This discrimination does not stop at Parliament Hill.
Our journalists are routinely blocked from political events, not because we are disruptive, but because we are independent.
At the Liberal convention, our journalists were refused accreditation.
When they conducted walk-and-talk interviews outside the venue, security was called on them at least twice.
Outside. In public. Talking to people.
And in Edmonton, at Mark Carney’s campaign kickoff, police were called on independent journalists simply for trying to ask questions.
No disruption. No threat. Just questions.
This is the pattern: deny access, treat reporting like trespassing, escalate it into a security issue.
Meanwhile, legacy outlets are waved through.
And when independent journalists are shut out, it is not just reporters who are excluded. It is the millions of Canadians they represent.
The distortion goes deeper.
The federal government has spent hundreds of millions subsidizing legacy media.
That money overwhelmingly flows to outlets that already receive preferred treatment.
This creates a closed loop: subsidized media get access, and access reinforces their dominance.
Independent media, who reject government funding as a matter of principle, are left to compete in a tilted market.
We do not want these subsidies.
We reject them.
Because government money in journalism is political contamination.
Government policy is also interfering with how we reach our audience.
Legislation like the Online News Act has disrupted how news is shared online.
When platforms blocked news links, independent outlets lost a critical connection to their audience.
And then there is Parliament Hill itself.
The Parliamentary Press Gallery, a taxpayer-supported institution made up largely of our competitors, controls access to the Hill.
Independent journalists are routinely denied membership, blocking us from press conferences and daily government proceedings.
So let’s be clear about what this system produces.
Government decides who counts as a journalist.
Government funds those it prefers.
Gatekeepers control access to power.
And policy limits how the rest of us reach the public.
That is not a free press.
According to Reporters Without Borders, Canada has fallen from 8th place in 2015 to 21st in 2025.
Independent journalists are not asking for special treatment.
We are asking for equal treatment.
End discrimination in media access.
Ensure no journalist is blocked from public institutions by their competitors.
And stop using public policy to interfere with how independent media reach their audience.
A free press is not funded, filtered, and approved by government.
It is free to challenge it.
Right now, that freedom is under pressure.
And it is time to restore it.
Thank you.