Federal leaders' debates set for Sept. 8, 9

Datesand venues for two election debatesbetween the leaders of Canada's federal parties have been set.

A French-language debate will be held on Sept.8 from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT, and an English-language event will be held the next day from 9 to 11 p.m. EDT. Both debates will take place the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que.

The debates are being produced by a coalition of media outlets:CBC News and Radio-Canada, APTN News, CTV News, Global News,L'actualit,Les coops de l'information,Le Devoir,Noovo Info andLa Presse.

Patrice Roy of Radio-Canada will moderate the French event andjournalists Hlne Buzzettiof Les coops de l'information, Guillaume Bourgault-CtofL'actualit, Paul Journetof La Presse,Le Devoir'sMarie Vasteland Nomi Mercierof Noovo Infowill also participate.

Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, will moderate the English event, along with participation from CBC chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton andMelissa RidgenofAPTN News, Evan Solomon of CTV Newsand Mercedes Stephenson ofGlobal News.

Topics for the debates will be announced three days before they take place.

The Debate Broadcast Group was selected to produce the debates by the Leaders' Debates Commission, the independent agency tasked with setting up two debates per election campaign.

Participation criteria already set

The commission alreadyhas announced the criteria for the leaders' participation in the events. Parties must meet at least one of three of the following requirements:

• They must be representedin the House of Commons by at least oneMP initiallyelected under the party banner.
• They must have won at least four per cent of the national vote in the 2019 election.
• They must show they draw at leastfour per cent of the nationalvote five days after the election is called, as demonstratedby public polling.

The Liberals, Conservatives, NDP, Bloc and Greens all meet at least two of those requirements. Maxime Bernier's People's Party of Canada will need to show it is receiving at least fourper cent of publicsupport in polling if it wants to be represented in the two September events.

The commission said in June it wouldannounce which political parties will participate in the debates no later than six days after the general election is called.

Like the debates organized by the commission in 2019, these events will be free to broadcast by other media organizations. The Debate Broadcast Group has already partnered with OMNI Television and CPAC.

The debates willbe simultaneously translated intoAmerican Sign Language (ASL) and Langue des signes qubcoise (LSQ), as well as six Indigenous languages. OMNI will translate the debate into Arabic, Cantonese,Mandarin, Punjabi and Tagalog.