Vancouver: Advocates for a West Coast multilingual tv station have an ally in Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who has asked the crtc to say by Feb. 28, 2001 how it will establish an over-the-air multicultural licence despite the commission’s recent snub of such an application.

Local activists, such as lawyer Mobina Jaffer, call the request, made through an order in council, a first step.

‘At long last, we [the multilingual community] will be treated equally to communities in Montreal and Toronto,’ she says.

lmtv, an application by Rogers Media’s multilingual Toronto station cfmt, was denied in the July 6 round of applications that granted a Victoria licence to chum and a Fraser Valley-specific licence to religious station Trinity Television.

‘Canadians in the Greater Vancouver area share rich cultures and languages,’ says Copps, who is using Section 15 of the Broadcasting Act to grant the appeal. ‘They deserve access to Canadian programming that reflects that diversity.’

Likely the only option the crtc has is to call for competitive bids – which means Rogers Media will be back for its third try. ‘We’re the perennial applicant,’ says Leslie Sole, the Toronto-based executive vp of television for Rogers Media, conceding that there is no guarantee that third time will be the charm. ‘We’ll be there with bells on.’ *

-www.rogers.ca