Ottawa, August 6, 2015 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning comments made on Dupont le matin broadcast on CHIK-FM on January 16, 2015. The hosts made a comment about women that a listener found offensive. The CBSC found no violation of the broadcast codes.
Dupont le matin is a morning show on which the hosts discuss current events and other social and political topics. During the January 16 broadcast, they were discussing how gender roles have evolved in society. Host Stéphan Dupont repeated what his friend had said: [translation] “When girls started giving blowjobs, they took control.” A listener considered this comment sexist. The station explained that the comments were not intended to be offensive, but that it would put measures in place to ensure that similar comments were not made in future broadcasts.
The CBSC’s Quebec Regional Panel examined the complaint under provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code regarding human rights, stereotyping and degrading material. The Panel concluded that the remarks did not violate any of those code provisions. The Panel acknowledged that the comment was somewhat vulgar, but it was made in the context of a broader discussion about the evolution of gender roles, including how women have achieved success in the paid workforce and how men have learned to do domestic tasks. Overall, the conversation was not abusively discriminatory on the basis of sex, nor did it promote negative or degrading stereotypes about women in general.
The CBSC was created in 1990 by Canada’s private broadcasters to administer the codes of standards that they established for their industry. The CBSC currently administers 7 codes which deal with ethics, equitable portrayal, violence, news and journalistic independence. Nearly 900 radio stations, satellite radio services, television stations and specialty and pay television services across Canada are members of the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, Codes, links to members’ and other web sites, and related information are available on the CBSC’s website at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the CBSC National Chair, Mme Andrée Noël CBSC Executive Director, John MacNab