OTTAWA – A June 2005 episode of Fun Radio broadcast on CKOI-FM (96.9, Montréal) violated the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ human rights clause, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said today.
On June 22, 2005, host and comedian Cathy Gauthier did a segment on “things she was a bit ashamed to admit.” Among other things, she admitted that she was unable to differentiate people of various Asian nationalities, more precisely, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Thais. "She then went on to make some mocking comments in a pseudo-Asian accent and to give ‘reasons’ for which Asians were physically small in stature. She also asserted that Asians would take over Canada by their numbers, so that “[translation] in a hundred years, the country will be called ‘Lakanadai’,” says the CBSC release.
A majority of the CBSC Quebec Regional Panel Adjudicators concluded the comments were abusive and unduly discriminatory and thus in violation of the Human Rights clause of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics. A minority on the panel, however, considered that the comments did not violate that Code provision, says the release.
"The majority… find the co-host’s refuge in her own shame that she cannot tell Asians apart the springboard for her humour at their expense… The humour in the routine was not, in the view of the Panel majority, trivial or harmless. Unduly discriminatory comments may take many forms. These include derision, stereotyping and mockery, which were all present," says the panel.
CKOI-FM is required to: 1) Announce the decision, in the following terms, once during peak listening hours within three days following the release of this decision and once more within seven days following the release of this decision during the time period in which Fun Radio was broadcast; 2) Within the 14 days following the broadcast of the announcements, to provide written confirmation of the airing of the statement to the complainant who filed the ruling request; and 3) At that time, to provide the CBSC with a copy of that written confirmation and with air check copies of the broadcasts of the two announcements which must be made by CKOI-FM.
