The ends doesn't justify the means, I'm afraid, including in this instance. I should hope that something similar to the situation over there would never fly here. I believe it's an overt enough and a hot-button item that would see immediate backlash. But unfortunately many other issues of taxation, levies and loss of freedoms aren't and the Canadian populace is slowly becoming very passive and apathetic.

You can't know for sure the BBC wouldn't have done equally well or better with some other form of funding structure. I'm not speculating it would have, but that the format for funding, while it has allowed the BBC to flourish, is far from what I'd consider ideal. It would be interesting to look at the financial statements to see how it's all played out actually. I imagine there's been some time of serious wastage with the licensing scheme. Do they still employ people to spy on citizens to make sure they've paid the license fee?