In its search for distinctiveness, the CBC need look no farther than its information programs. The schedule is filled with shows reflecting the fascinating and often brutal reality of events taking place in Canada and around the world. News, current affairs and documentaries dominate every Tuesday and Wednesday night, covering nearly every primetime slot on those evenings.

Witness, the fifth estate and The Nature of Things are arguably The West Wing, Law & Order and ER for the public broadcaster. For over 25 years, the fifth estate has been Canada’s leading program in the often-controversial field of investigative journalism. Tough and tragic stories have been revealed on the program, which has gone behind the scenes to delve into the psychology of wife abusers, assassins and serial killers. The show, now hosted by Linden MacIntyre, Hana Gartner and Anna Maria Tremonti, is still as provocative as ever, continuing in a tradition that has garnered the fifth estate more than 200 awards including an Oscar for John Zaritsky’s Just Another Missing Kid and three international Emmies.

Witness, the network’s documentary showcase, is hosted by the eminent broadcast journalist Knowlton Nash. This year’s season included the first broadcasts of such incisive fare as Subway Elvis, about a street musician who was railroaded into prison on false charges; City of Dreams, on the brutal murders of young women in the Mexican border town of Juarez; and Barry Stevens’ unique Offspring, which took the filmmaker on a personal journey to discover the anonymous sperm donor who was his biological father.

Although Witness continues to program outstanding films, it must be noted that only 13 new shows were broadcast this year, a decline of 10 from a memorable 1993/94 season that included such works as Manufacturing Consent, a profile of Noam Chomsky, and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, on the Oka crisis.

The Nature of Things, now in its 42nd season, is one of the longest-running television shows in the world. When it first ran on Nov. 6, 1960, John Kennedy was about to beat Richard Nixon in the U. S. presidential election and John Diefenbaker held a convincing Conservative majority in the Canadian Parliament. Over the years, and particularly since David Suzuki took on the position of host in 1980, the show has concentrated on environmental issues.

Recently, five works from The Nature of Things were featured in an Environmental Film Festival in Washington, DC, which was cosponsored by the Smithsonian Institute, Johns Hopkins University and the Canadian Embassy. It’s recognition by the kind of prestigious event that rarely occurs to a television show, particularly one that is dedicated to the sciences.

While executive producer Michael Allder is delighted with the response from Washington and points with pride to the show’s ongoing garnering of industry awards for documentary excellence, he is more than willing to push the program’s sober mandate. This year’s Cyberman, which Allder produced, is a case in point. Directed by non-fiction auteur Peter Lynch, the film profiles Steve Mann, a University of Toronto professor and self-confessed cyborg, who uses his ‘eye-tap’ computerized visual recorders to confront the police, bureaucrats and operators of conglomerate-owned retail stores. It’s science, but with an aesthetic and political edge to it.

Next season, Allder will broadcast Up Close and Toxic, a hybrid show, set up like a sitcom, but with an environmental punch. While a happy suburban family go about their daily lives, scientists, who are invisible to them but perfectly visible to the home viewer, comment on their unhealthy, chemically based, lifestyles.

As a producer, Allder is content with ‘a job that involves working with independents across the country and striking coproduction deals both in Canada and abroad. That’s how the industry has evolved.’ And he seems pleased with the challenge of making deals as well as films. That’s not the case with Mark Starowicz, who traded in the role of executive producer, documentaries at the network to concentrate solely on the creation of in-house docs for the CBC.

Speaking of his colleague Jerry McIntosh, who now heads the documentary units at the CBC and Newsworld, Starowicz comments, ‘He’s in the commissioning business; I’m back producing.’

Following up on the phenomenal success of Canada: A People’s History, Starowicz is in the process of creating a new series of history films. The Canadian Experience, modeled on PBS’ The American Experience, concentrates on tales that happened here, like the story of the pioneering writing sisters Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail and the making of the first documentary, Nanook of the North, which, of course, was shot in this country by Robert Flaherty.

Starowicz plans on making six Canadian Experiences, six Life & Times and one miniseries a year. His object is to ‘build inventory for the CBC. We not only want to rebuild documentary production here but, frankly, we also want to invade the international market. Why should the CBC buy a two-hour film on the Pope from the BBC when we can make it ourselves and sell it abroad? First, though, we’ll make our own stories.’

While Starowicz was frustrated with commissioning documentaries, McIntosh appears to be in his element. ‘At Newsworld, with Rough Cuts, I found that independents could make a mark, even with a low budget. The CBC has so many platforms and doorways that producers can go through – it’s an exciting and explosive time.’ And an excellent time for non-fiction filmmaking in this country.