CPAC

The Cable Public Affairs Channel, better known by its acronym CPAC, is a Canadian specialty channel owned by a consortium consisting of Rogers Communications, Vidéotron, Cogeco, Eastlink, and Access Communications. The channel is devoted to coverage of public and government affairs, including carrying a full, uninterrupted feed of proceedings of the House of Commons of Canada, with three audio channels, one untreated feed and, with the assistance of interpreters, one in each of the official languages. Synopsis CPAC's main purpose is the broadcast of proceedings of the House of Commons. Other programming includes meetings of The House of Commons and Senate of Canada parliamentary committees, occasional Supreme Court proceedings, political conventions, conferences, committees and coverage of general elections. CPAC also airs the proceedings of certain Royal Commissions and judicial enquiries. CPAC is similar to services in other countries including C-SPAN (United States), EuroparlTV (European Union), La Chaîne parlementaire (France), Phoenix (Germany), BBC Parliament (United Kingdom), Arutz HaKnesset (Israel) and TV Câmara and TV Senado (Brazil), some of which (particularly C-SPAN) occasionally supply programming to CPAC. History Television broadcasting of the proceedings of the House of Commons began in 1977 after a motion approving it was adopted by the House, with broadcasts commencing in October of that year. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) allowed cable companies to carry the broadcasts on their specialty channels as an interim measure. In 1979, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was given a temporary network licence to begin live coverage of the proceedings (which had been airing on a tape delayed basis until then), leading to the creation of the CBC Parliamentary Television Network. A permanent licence was granted to the CBC the next year.