Ontario public broadcaster under fire for funding, then pulling Russian war documentary
The ongoing controversy surrounding the documentary “Russians at War” has caught the attention of Ontario’s public broadcaster, which has said it will not air the film it helped fund.
According to a media expert, TVO is suffering “the worst of the worst scenarios” by investing in a project that can no longer be broadcast or monetized.
“TVO created something that its audience doesn’t see, that other audiences will see, and they paid the bill for it without receiving any reward,” Chris Arsenault, chair of Western University’s master’s program in journalism and communication, said in an interview.
“I can’t imagine a worse outcome for a network than what happened.”
“Russians at War,” a film criticized by the Ukrainian community and some Canadian politicians, was on the Toronto International Film Festival schedule until organizers suspended all screenings this week due to “significant threats” to the festival’s operations. The film, which recently screened at the Venice Film Festival and will be shown at the Windsor International Film Festival next month, shows the disillusionment of some Russian soldiers on the front lines of the war in Ukraine.
TVO had planned to air the documentary in the coming months, but the network’s board of directors withdrew its support for the film on Tuesday, citing criticism it had received. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian consul general in Toronto and others have called the film Russian propaganda and a “whitewashing” of Russian military war crimes in Ukraine — accusations rejected by the film’s producers and TIFF.
The announcement from TVO’s board comes just days after the network defended the film, calling it “pacifist.” The Documentary Organization of Canada said the move “poses a serious threat” to media independence and raises questions about political interference.
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TVO did not respond to requests for comment, and board chair Chris Day declined to provide further details on the decision to pull the film.
“Suffice it to say, we have heard significant concerns and we have responded to them,” Day wrote to The Canadian Press in an email response to an interview request.
Arsenault, who has not seen the documentary and cannot comment on its content, said he is nonetheless concerned about the specter of board intervention in independent editorial decisions, which he said “opens the door” to further interference in the production of documentaries and journalism.
“Russians at War,” a French-Canadian co-production, was financed in part by the Canada Media Fund, which provided $340,000 to the project through its broadcast envelope program. A spokesperson for the fund said TVO chose to use the money independently to support the documentary’s production.
Cornelia Principe, one of the film’s producers, said TVO also had to pay broadcast rights to air the documentary. Those rights can range from $50,000 to $100,000, she said.
Principe, who defended the documentary and its Canadian-Russian director Anastasia Trofimova, said she was shocked by the TVO board’s decision.
“Anastasia and I have been working on this project with TVO for two and a half years… I was kind of out of it for hours. I couldn’t believe it.”
What happens next, she said, is “uncharted territory” for TVO.
“To my knowledge, this has never happened before,” said Principe, who has worked with the television network on various documentaries over the years.
TVO’s board said the network would “review the process by which this project was funded and our brand was enhanced.”
Charlie Keil, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Institute for Film Studies, said TVO’s board needs to explain why it used “a kind of sledgehammer” on a film that appears to have been properly vetted editorially.
“It seems to me that if TVO executives were honest, they would say, ‘There’s a lot of pressure now. We don’t really like it. … We’re just going to walk away,'” Keil said in an interview.
Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop said in a statement that the decision by the TVO board “was the right thing to do,” but did not provide further details.
As a non-profit government agency, TVO has a mandate to distribute educational materials and programs, but the ministry is not involved in its broadcasting arm due to CRTC licensing rules.
Another public broadcaster, British Columbia’s Knowledge Network, confirmed that it had contributed $15,000 in licensing fees to “Russians at War” so it could serve as a “second window” broadcaster for the film.
Asked whether the documentary would still air at some point in British Columbia, a network spokesperson said it was “working on a public response.”
Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has denounced the use of public funds for “Russians at War,” saying she shares the “grave concerns” raised by Ukrainian officials and community members in Canada about the film.
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress said it would continue to protest “Russians at War” after TIFF said it would still screen the documentary at some point. A peaceful march and protest that headed to the TIFF Lightbox Friday afternoon saw people place sunflowers and photos of Ukrainians killed in the war on the sidewalk.
The documentary “Russians at War” will screen at the Windsor International Film Festival, which runs from October 24 to November 3. The festival announced Friday that the documentary is among 10 nominees for the $25,000 WIFF Canadian Film Award.
“We hope that all of our nominees – and all of WIFF’s films – will spark meaningful, critical and intelligent discussions in a safe, respectful and civilized environment,” festival organizers said in an emailed statement.
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