Ottawa, August 11, 1994 — In its unanimous decision, the Ontario Regional Council of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) announced that CJCL-AM (The Fan 1430), Toronto, failed to respect one of its conditions of membership in the Council
The Council had received a complaint concerning an open-line program hosted by “Stormin’ Norman” Rumack on October 30, 1993. A listener wrote to complain that the host had made “offensive” comments that suggested that people born outside Canada were unqualified to criticize hockey or other Canadian activities. The station alleged that these comments were not intended to be racist and that it attempted to present balanced views of issues.
Generally, the Council uses relevant industry Codes to decide on complaints. In this case, the Regional Council would have looked to the “Human Rights” clause of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics. When the Council asked the station for tapes of the open-line show, however, the station responded that the tapes had been recycled, in error. Without these tapes, the Council could not determine whether the Code had been breached. Since the station’s failure to retain tapes was a breach of one of the CBSC’s responsibilities of membership, the Regional Council decided against the broadcaster. CJCL must therefore announce the decision, within 30 days, during peak listening hours.
The Ontario Regional Council consists of three representatives of the public, including its Chair, Marianne Barrie, Susan Fish and Robert Stanbury. It also includes three broadcaster members, including Vice-Chair Al MacKay (not present for this decision), Don Luzzi and Paul Fockler.
The CBSC was created by the CAB in 1990 to provide private sector broadcasters with a mechanism of self-regulation. In addition to the CAB’s Code of Ethics, the CBSC administers the Sex-Role Portrayal Code, the Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming, and the Radio Television News Directors Association’s Code of Ethics.
The decision is attached.
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For more information, please contact the National Chair of the CBSC, Ronald I. Cohen, at (###) ###-####.