Canada's birthday is on Saturday. In most Canadian municipalities, large or small, there will be some kind of celebration. A parade, perhaps, or a free picnic in a civic park with some local entertainers on a little stage, a white-and-red cake with lots of sticky icing that will get under kid's fingernails for days to come that is gleefully sliced by locally elected officials, and some fireworks to end the day.

And, traditionally, local media would proudly cover such an event. From big city TV broadcasts to small town weekly newspapers snapping pictures, local media would be there.

Enjoy that while you can. Because another large and imminent threat to local media is brewing in corporate boardrooms.

Bell Media, owned by Bell Canada, (BCE Inc. in corporate terms), has applied to the CRTC for permission to eliminate local news. As the Toronto Star put it, to "drop requirements for spending on local news and regarding the number of hours per week that stations are required to broadcast locally-reflective news in major and smaller markets".

Bell Media recently laid off 1,300 of its employees, including likely some from your coverage area. Some prominent names and experienced reporters from CTV were among the cuts. Nine radio stations were closed or sold.

In its application, Bell stated that its broadcast operations are under attack from new media—specifically the financial pressures felt by all traditional media from the shift of advertising dollars to Google and other big tech companies, and that is true. However, the Canadian news media industry has not distinguished itself in its anticipation of the shift of ad dollars and in providing a superior product for Canadian media consumers to increase their own audiences.

Why I am raising this issue now is because local media have traditionally gone to their local governments for support when they apply or reapply to the CRTC. That would be routinely given by city councils. There has always been an implied agreement that local licensees will provide local coverage.

Local politicians should not underestimate the dreadful implications of losing their local media. There should be outrage from Canadians about this betrayal of local communities by this giant and profitable corporation. If Bell gets this permission, expect the rest of the industry to get it as well. That would mean the cutting of local broadcast news coverage for many, probably most, Canadian towns and cities.

This has been coming for a while. I have written about this before and warned of the dangers. Now they have arrived. Effective and open municipal government needs independent and critical local news coverage. And if you think that a few, scattered big city TV stations are going to care about or cover small communities, stop kidding yourself. It will not happen. Bell has also indicated it is going to consolidate its news gathering. That will simply eliminate most local news bureaus outside of metro markets. As a former newsman, that horrifies me.

Democracy is not easy. It is worth fighting for and defending. And part of what makes our system of government effective is scrutiny by the fourth estate.

Local governments across Canada can make that point by filing objections to the CRTC about this Bell plan to kill its local media.