Ottawa, June 7, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released two decisions concerning broadcasts of Black-out, a television talk show with a panel format, broadcast on Télévision Quatre Saisons (TQS). The Council received complaints concerning the first and second broadcasts of this show. The “debut” episode’s panel consisted of self-proclaimed welfare collectors by choice and the discussion was titled “Faring Well with Welfare”. The second episode discussed “gay culture” under the heading “The Good, the Bad and the Drag”.
The Quebec Regional Council considered complaints regarding the first episode under the Code of Ethics of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB). The complaints regarding this broadcast related to alleged discrimination against social welfare recipients. Considering first the issue of whether such discrimination could be said the violation of the human rights provision of the Code, the Council concluded that the state of being on social welfare was not a protected ground under Clause 2 of the Code of Ethics.
To borrow the words of Mr. Justice La Forest in Egan v. Canada, the Council must ask itself whether the nature of social welfare is so “unchangeable” that it ought to fall within the enumerated grounds of Clause 2 of the Code of Ethics. In so doing, it does not conclude that this is the case. Except for those cases in which the presence of individuals on the welfare rolls results from some physical, mental or related inability of those individuals to fend for themselves (in which case they might, on those bases, avail themselves of the enumerated grounds in Clause 2), there is, in principle, an ability to change their status, likely at less than the “unacceptable personal costs” noted by Mr. Justice La Forest in Egan. In such circumstances, the Council is unwilling to extend the enumerated grounds without the intervention of the codifiers.
The Council, however, did find that the broadcast violated the requirement for fairness in dealing with controversial topics. While the Council did “acknowledge the broadcaster’s attempt to focus the discussion on the case of persons choosing social welfare over gainful employment and possibly thereby abusing the welfare system”, it found that “[i]n general, the mocking tone of the show did not present sufficient differentiation of the two ‘faces’ of the welfare process and was consequently in breach of paragraph 3 of Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics.”
As to the second episode, the Council did not find that the broadcast contained any abusively discriminatory comment based on sexual orientation nor did it find that “discussion” was tainted with the same “unfairness” as had afflicted the first broadcast. The Council noted that, although “the complainants would rather not see such ‘pseudo-debates’ on issues they hold dear, it considers that the choice of topic comes entirely within the purview of TQS’s programming independence.”
Canada’s private broadcasters have created industry standards in the form of Codes on ethics, gender portrayal and television violence by which they expect their members will abide. They also created the CBSC, which is the self-regulatory body with the responsibility of administering those Codes, as well as the Code dealing with journalistic practices created by the Radio Television News Directors Association Canada (RTNDA). 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 (###) ###-####.