Communication Canada was an agency of the Department of Public Works and Government Services in the Government of Canada

Government of Canada

The Government of Canada, formally Her Majesty's Government, is the system whereby the federation of Canada is administered by a common authority; in Canadian English, the term can mean either the collective set of institutions or specifically the Queen-in-Council...

. Its responsibility was primarily for keeping federal government departments and their agencies connected with Canadian citizens. Responsibility for developing the federal government's web presence and primary web site rested with Communication Canada.

The agency was created in the mid-1990s following the 1995 Quebec referendum

1995 Quebec referendum

The 1995 Quebec referendum was the second referendum to ask voters in the Canadian province of Quebec whether Quebec should secede from Canada and become an independent state, through the question:...

, ostensibly to promote federal government communications with all of Canada, however many Canadians viewed it as a government propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

 agency. Communication Canada became linked to the Sponsorship Scandal

Sponsorship scandal

The sponsorship scandal, "AdScam", "Sponsorship" or Sponsorgate, is a scandal that came as a result of a Canadian federal government "sponsorship program" in the province of Quebec and involving the Liberal Party of Canada, which was in power from 1993 to 2006...

and was disbanded in a federal government reorganization at the end of the fiscal year, effective March 31, 2004.