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On June 8th, the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the regulatory board of all broadcasting in Canada, will close the public comment window for Al-Jazeera's bid to join the airwaves. In what has become a highly contentious issue, Al-Jazeera Arabic and English stations have found themselves embattled in the traditionally receptive Canadian political terrain. A similar bid by the Arabic station in the summer of 2004 resulted in a heated and highly public tit-for-tat between advocates and critics, the prior being Arab and Muslim associations and the latter pro-Israeli, Zionist and conservative groups. The outcome was bittersweet for the news station when the CRTC, in an attempt to strike a compromise, slapped cable providers willing to carry Al-Jazeera with the unrealistic, laborious and costly requirement of monitoring and excising out all content that they deem "inciteful" or "abusive." So at the end, CRTC's so-called approval of Al-Jazeera Arabic turned out to be a lemon for the network's Canadian fans as the airtime never came.

Today, it's Al-Jazeera's English (AJE) that is facing a similar review, as the CRTC solicits public opinion on the station's bid over the next three and a half weeks. Yet unlike its predecessor and partner, AJE is aided with a far broader arsenal of weapons against critics. AJE is an English-language global broadcaster (hence it is comprehensible to Canadian audiences and not subject to slipshod/selective/politicized translation à la MEMRI) operating out of 4 international centers and tens of bureaus, it employs the crème de la crème of international journalism (of whom many are Canadians including former CBC head Tony Burman and host Avi Lewis), its available in 100 countries, and the Doha office is pouring some serious dough into this bid. Recently, the station launched a site to advocate and support localized North American activism in support of AJE which was made available as a free online stream from Livestation and whose programs were made available on a Youtube.com channel. Since its blackout in North America (all but two cable companies--Buckeye in Toledo and Burlington in Vermont), the station has seen its American and Canadian online viewership soar especially during the Dec/Jan Israeli war on Gaza. While viewers seem to be its prime advocates, AJE's politically-connected critics are aplenty including Daniel Pipes.

There is no way of predicting how this application will pan out, but it may come down to the two camps' ability to recruit their "masses." That is if those masses even exist! Several petitions opposing the approval of Al-Jazeera in Canada have been initiated at petitionsonline with total signatures still under 100. Conversely, the facebook group "I want Al-Jazeera English in Canada" has a mere 142 members. Doesn't seem like the pro/con camps are going populist. Perhaps it's a result of CRTC's ostensibly public invitation has been flying under the radar, barely appearing in the major press, and instead getting ink as small capsules in the Metro newspapers.

When AJE head Burman made the case for his station over the past few months, the bid got some press, e.g. the Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, Maclean's. However, the chatter has subsided just ahead of the public comment phase of the application which could hurt the station's chances significantly. To add to the drama and fodder controversy, the ENTIRE CRTC online portal (which houses the instructions for submission of comments about Al-Jazeera's bid) has been down all day today. Was it a hacking job or routine maintenance? How could the CRTC website be down for an entire day without even a peep in the Canadian media? Could it affect public responses? If so, will the deadline be extended to compensate for lost time? Overall, this should nudge public attention in the coming days. As the clock ticks on AJE's bid to break into the prized North American market, expect the debate to reach a crescendo as Judgement Day, June 8, nears.