Le5 Communications is a Canadian media company. Based in

Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario (official name; the city continues to be known simply as Sudbury for most purposes) ** Sudbury (electoral district), one of the city's federal e ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, the company operates radio stations and newspapers in the

Northeastern Ontario Northeastern Ontario is a secondary region of Northern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario, which lies north of Lake Huron and east of Lake Superior. Northeastern Ontario consists of the districts of Algoma, Sudbury, Cochrane, Timiska ...

region. The company operates the only

francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

commercial radio stations in Ontario which originate their own programming; with the exception of one station in Eastern Ontario which primarily rebroadcasts a station from

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

with only a few hours per week of original programming, all other francophone stations in the province are

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial and public broadcasting. Community stations serve geographic communities and communities of interest. They broadcast content that is popular ...

stations operated by non-profit groups or

Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

. Owned and operated by Paul Lefebvre, at the time a lawyer with the Sudbury firm of Weaver, Simmons, the company was incorporated in 2008 after Lefebvre reached a deal with

Haliburton Broadcasting Group The Haliburton Broadcasting Group was a Canadian group of FM radio stations, located primarily in smaller markets in Ontario. The company was purchased by Vista Broadcast Group in 2012.Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

for $425,000. The deal was approved by the

CRTC The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcasti ...

on October 31, 2008. The company's name is a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophonic ...

on Lefebvre's surname. If the numeral 5 is pronounced as in English (i.e. "five" rather than "cinq"), the company's name is very close to the French pronunciation of Lefebvre.

History

Although originally established by separate owners in the 1950s,

CHYC-FM CHYC-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 98.9 FM in Sudbury, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the city's Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as ''Le Lou ...

in Sudbury and

CHYK-FM CHYK-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 104.1 FM in Timmins, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the city's Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as ''Le Lou ...

in Timmins had been under common ownership since their acquisition by

Mid-Canada Radio Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario. MCTV Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1 ...

in 1985. The stations were acquired by the

Pelmorex Radio Network The Pelmorex Radio Network was a system of Canadian radio stations in Northern Ontario, owned and operated by Pelmorex. History In 1989, Pierre Morrissette founded his own communications company, Pelmorex Media Inc., and acquired several French ...

in 1990, and subsequently by Haliburton in 1999, before Le5 acquired the stations in 2008. On August 4, 2010, Le5 Communications applied to operate a new French-language FM radio station in

West Nipissing West Nipissing is a municipality in Northeastern Ontario, Canada, on Lake Nipissing in the Nipissing District. It was formed on January 1, 1999, with the amalgamation of seventeen and a half former town, villages, townships and unorganized communi ...

, operating at 97.1 MHz with an adult pop-music format. The company received approval to operate the new station on January 6, 2011. On March 28, 2015, Lefebvre was chosen as the

Liberal Party of Canada The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...

's candidate for the

riding in the 2015 federal election. He won the seat in the 2015 election. The company subsequently operated in a

blind trust A blind trust is a trust in which the trust beneficiaries have no knowledge of the holdings of the trust, and no right to intervene in their handling. In a blind trust, the trustees (fiduciaries, or those who have been given power of attorney) h ...

, for compliance with parliamentary

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

regulations."Le Loup-FM ne diffusera plus à Hearst et Kapuskasing"

Ici Radio-Canada ICI or Ici may refer to: Companies and organisations * ICI Homes, builder, Florida. US * Former UK Imperial Chemical Industries ** ICI Australia, later Orica * Independent Curators International, New York City, US * Indian Concrete Institute * I ...

, June 8, 2016.

Holdings

Radio

Timmins Timmins ( ) is a city in northeastern Ontario, Canada, located on the Mattagami River. The city is the fourth-largest city in the Northeastern Ontario region with a population of 41,145 (2021). The city's economy is based on natural resource ext ...

CHYQ-FM CHYQ-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts at 97.1 FM in West Nipissing, Ontario. It broadcasts a francophone hot adult contemporary format for the local Franco-Ontarian community. It is owned by Le5 Communications, and branded as ''L ...

All three stations are branded as Le Loup, and air common programming for the most part. Each station formerly produced its own distinct morning show, but for the remainder of the day each station was the host studio to at least one daypart within a shared region-wide simulcast, though the three stations aired separate identifications and commercials. Programming has since been centralized so that all three stations now broadcast virtually identical programming at all times, predominantly produced in Sudbury except for some syndicated programming; as of 2020, the only locally targeted programming that remains separate on the three stations is local weather updates. The Timmins station CHYK-FM formerly operated rebroadcasters in

Kapuskasing Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another railw ...

and Hearst, which were decommissioned in 2016, and a community group holds a separate license to rebroadcast the Sudbury station in Chapleau.

Newspapers

The company launched ''L'Express de Timmins'', a weekly francophone community newspaper in Timmins, in 2010. In 2011, it also purchased Sudbury's existing francophone community newspaper ''

Le Voyageur ''Le Voyageur'' is a weekly community newspaper in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, serving the city's Franco-Ontarian community. The newspaper was launched on June 12, 1968, shortly after the demise of the region's earlier francophone community newsp ...

''. In 2013, ''L'Express de Timmins'' and ''Le Voyageur'' merged to form ''Le Voyageur La voix du Nord'', with expanded coverage throughout the

region.

Controversy

Although it was not opposed to Le5's application to take over ownership of CHYC, ''Le Voyageur'' published an editorial in 2008 criticizing the CRTC for its handling of the application process. The paper took issue with the fact that the CRTC's original notice of hearing was not published in any of the region's local media, but only in the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

newspaper ''

Le Droit ''Le Droit'' is a Canadian French-language daily newspaper, published in Gatineau, Quebec. Initially established and owned by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the paper was published by Martin Cauchon and his company, Capitales Médias ...

'', a publication with very limited readership in the Sudbury or Timmins areas — thereby giving the region's

Franco-Ontarian Franco-Ontarians (french: Franco-Ontariens or if female, sometimes known as ''Ontarois'' and ''Ontaroises'') are Francophone Canadians that reside in the province of Ontario. Most are French Canadians from Ontario. In 2016, the Government of On ...

community little notice of either the pending transaction or the deadlines for reviewing and submitting comments regarding the application."Le CRTC au service des gens, vraiment?". ''

'', September 24, 2008.

References

{{reflist, 2 Radio broadcasting companies of Canada Companies based in Greater Sudbury Mass media companies established in 2008 Privately held companies of Canada Newspaper companies of Canada French-language media in Ontario