Ottawa, July 8, 1999 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning comments made during a broadcast of “Psychedelic Sunday”, a radio show broadcast on CJKR-FM (Winnipeg) dedicated to hits from the “psychedelic” era of the ’60s and ’70s. A listener complained about a short conversation between the host and a caller which included references to smoking marijuana. In the conversation, the caller stated that he would “roll a big one” for the host, to which the host responded with the inquiry as to whether it would be in honour of Easter, being celebrated that day.
The Prairie Regional Council considered the complaint under the human rights provision of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics. It found no breach of the Code. The Council noted that there was “only a relatively oblique reference to Easter” in the suggestion that “pot be smoked “in honour of’ the holiday”. The Council was of the view that “at worst, there is a question of bad taste in drawing any association between drugs and Easter” but concluded that “this is a matter only for the on/off personal regulatory approach”. Quoting from a decision of the Ontario Regional Council, the Prairie Council stated
Religion is not, after all, immune from farce, sarcasm or parody. The issue to determine is whether the barb has become a poison arrow, and whether, in other words, the humoristic device has stepped over the farcical threshold and into the bitter and nasty territory of abusively discriminatory comment.
The Council concluded that the CJKR-FM had not overstepped its boundaries in this case.
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.
– 30 –
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 (###) ###-####.