Toronto (LHJ)
CBC President Robert Rabinovitch announced today, that due to inadequate government funding, and severe weather patterns nationwide, the CBC has "run out of allotted uses of the words 'torrential' and 'stifling'."

"CBC's annual budget includes such items as programming development, staffing, and production costs," explained Rabinovitch. "Many people don't realize, though, that vocabulary expenses are a huge burden on a national broadcaster. Words are licensed by the Oxford English Dictionary on an annual basis, and we have used 'torrential' to describe the rain in Western Canada, and 'stifling' to describe the heat in Eastern Canada one too many times."

CBC faced a similar situation earlier this year after the 'in camera' testimony of Jean Breault to the Gomery commission. The testimony, which was under a media publication ban, could only be described as 'explosive', and was done so at every available opportunity. CBC subsequently hasn't used the word since, not even to describe a recent spectacular plastics factory fire in Sarnia.

Rabinovitch went on to say that while the CBC is grateful for the extra funding allocations made by the federal Liberals in this year's budget, he feels they did not free up more 'vocabulary dollars' due to the CBC's overuse of the term 'dither'.

Rabinovitch stated that the CBC is actively seeking replacement words, but is having some difficulty convincing them to cross picket lines.