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The Duffy Affair: Duffy allegedly lobbied CRTC for Sun News

A source has told CTV News former Conservative senator Mike Duffy tried to lobby the Canada's Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission to aid Conservative news company Sun News in their bid to force Canadians to pay for their channel.

A reliable source told CTV News that former Conservative Senator Mike Duffy approached a Conservative insider with connections to the CRTC. The purpose: help right-wing channel Sun News become "mandatory carriage" of all service providers offering the channel a huge boost in revenue.

"You know people at the CRTC," the insider quoted Duffy as saying. "This is an important decision on Sun Media. They have to play with the team and support Sun Media’s request."

Liberal Deputy Leader Ralph Goodale compared Duffy's actions as "tantamount to saying: 'Let’s go have a private little visit with a judge.'"

"That is direct political interference with a quasi-judicial tribunal," Goodale said.

NDP MP Olivia Chow said this recent news is clearly unacceptable.

“Helping insider friends to get access to power -- this is just unacceptable,” she said.

Many questions face Duffy who resigned the Conservative caucus because of the growing housing allowance scandal but Duffy has secluded himself in his PEI cottage house and refuses to answer questions.

So it turns out Duffy tried to help the Conservatives get their propaganda station, Sun Media, onto every basic cable package, or part of "mandatory carriage." What do you think of the recent allegations? Is it acceptable that Duffy tried to help his friends gain access to power and influence? What do you think of any government official's attempt to get any opinionated media to be come "mandatory carriage"? Share this article and join the discussion and let us know what you think: Facebook, Twitter, Google+.

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