Ottawa, August 4, 2021 – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning the broadcast of an episode of Mon ex à moi on Noovo Montreal (CFJP-DT). Mon ex à moi was a comedic drama about the love lives of young adults. The CBSC concluded that an episode featuring explicit sexual scenes breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and the classification provision of the CAB Violence Code.
Noovo broadcast an episode of Mon ex à moi on February 22, 2021 at 7:30 pm. It was rated 13+ and had viewer advisories alerting to “mature scenes or themes”. The episode contained a number of sexual conversations and sex scenes between a couple, Mathieu and Charlotte, as Mathieu was doing research for an article about female ejaculation. There were scenes of Mathieu inserting his fingers into Charlotte’s vagina, performing cunnilingus on her, and intercourse resulting in Charlotte’s orgasm. Although the camera angles prevented the viewer from seeing genitalia, the sexual acts were obvious and demonstrative.
A viewer complained that the episode was too explicit for that time of day when children could be watching. Noovo pointed out that it had broadcast a viewer advisory and classification icon, but that it had decided not to rebroadcast the episode following receipt of this complaint.
The CBSC French-Language Panel examined the complaint under Clauses 10 and 11 of the CAB Code of Ethics. It concluded that the episode contained sexually explicit material which should only have been broadcast after 9:00 pm as required by Clause 10 of the code. It also concluded that the advisories should have specifically mentioned sexual content as required by Clause 11. With respect to the 13+ classification, the Panel concluded that it should have been 16+ under the categories outlined in the CAB Violence Code. Noovo failed to display the classification icon for a full 15 seconds as required by the code.
The Panel noted that the codes are not intended as censorship tools. Noovo did not need to eliminate the episode from rotation, only to schedule it appropriately and provide viewers with information in accordance with the codes.
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 5 codes which deal with ethics, equitable portrayal, violence, news and journalistic independence. Around 800 radio stations, satellite radio services, conventional and discretionary television services across Canada participate in the Council.
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All CBSC decisions, codes, and related information are available on the CBSC’s website. For more information, please visit www.cbsc.ca.