Fondé en 1983 --Unis pour la diversité et l'égalité raciale

CRARR HAILS CRTC’S DECISION BLAMING RADIO-CANADA FOR BROADCASTING RACIALLY OFFENSIVE STATEMENTS


Montreal, September 29, 2006 --- CRARR is pleased that the Société Radio-Canada (SRC) has been found to have violated federal anti-discriminatory regulations for having broadcast racially discriminatory and offensive statements by Doc Mailloux in the September 25, 2005 show of Tout le monde en parle.

On that particular show, Doc Mailloux, one of the invited guests and a member of the Quebec Order of Physicians, stated that according to “American studies” (which he could not specify), Black and Aboriginal peoples have a low IQ and that Blacks living in America “are the product of an artificial selection process and consequently are slightly disadvantaged intellectually.”

After the broadcast of the pre-recorded show, CRARR and other groups filed a complaint to the CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission), stating that the SRC has violated a specific provision of the 1987 Television Broadcasting Regulations that forbids, among other things, the broadcast of “abusive comment or abusive pictorial representation that, when taken in context, tends to or is likely to expose an individual or a group.. of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion.... ”

In its decision released yesterday, the CRTC held that the SRC breached that provision for broadcasting Doc Mailloux’s offensive and contemptuous comments. It also held that the SRC “could have easily avoided broadcasting the abusive comments by requiring that they be removed from the final edit, which it did not do.”

Since the segment of the show in question was considered a “set-up”, the CRTC also found that “the controversy was provoked intentionally by the program’s host and/or producer” as this was not the first time that Doc Mailloux voiced such discriminatory opinions. Furthermore, other guests on the show, who challenged Doc Mailloux’s opinions, did not have “the necessary expertise or qualifications to contradict or even discuss Doc Mailloux’s statements in an informed manner.”

This is CRARR’s third complaint against Doc Mailloux that was upheld by the CRTC. In June 2005, the CRTC ruled that CKAC violated broadcast regulations by airing, in 2003 and 2004, Doc Mailloux’s anti-Black and offensive statements on the air.