Ottawa, June 22, 2000 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning an episode of the morning show hosted by André Arthur and Martin Paquette on CKVL in Montreal. During the broadcast in question, the hosts bantered about current affairs, specifically the murder of a black man by a Hindu which had occurred in Montreal the preceding day. The hosts diminished the significance of the murder by comparing it to a settling of accounts between biker gangs, a type of murder not generally viewed as a matter of societal importance since the perpetrator and victim are both seen as acting outside the limits of the law. A listener complained that the comments constituted “a lack of respect for cultural communities and an incitement to racial intolerance that are absolutely unacceptable on the part of CKVL.”
The Quebec Regional Council considered the decision under the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics. It found the comments abusively discriminatory and in breach of the human rights provision of the Code. The Council stated that, in its view,
while the hosts’ off-the-cuff quasi-comedic presentation of the facts surrounding the murder was extremely tasteless, the comparison of this murder to a settling of accounts between biker gangs was both derogatory and abusive. By making this comparison, the hosts achieved two results: they minimized the value of ethnic persons in society, taking them down to the level of bikers/criminals and may even have left the implication that ethnic groups, like bikers/criminals, are more prone to the commission of such violent acts.
The Council also noted that the so-called “comedic defence” put forward by the broadcaster as a justification, did not excuse the hosts’ comments:
In the end, the hosts’ intentions to be funny cannot be relevant. The Council has, after all, rarely, if ever, seen a purposeful example of malevolent intention in such cases. Absent some clear intention to the contrary, the Council assumes good intention and the desire to make people laugh. Where that result is achieved at the expense of an identifiable group which is being abusively targeted, the comment will be in breach despite the contrary intention of the host.
Canada’s private broadcasters have themselves created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect the members of their profession will abide. In 1990, they also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those professional broadcast Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices first created by the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada (RTNDA) in 1970. More than 430 radio and television stations and specialty services from 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 World Wide Web at www.cbsc.ca. For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ron Cohen, at (###) ###-####.