OTTAWA – In the fourth such decision in recent weeks, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has told a broadcaster that graphic violence and very coarse language must air only after the ‘watershed’ hour of 9 pm.
When the Quebec television station V was still known as TQS, it aired two episodes of Les Experts: Manhattan, which is the French dubbed version of the English-language crime drama series CSI: New York, at 8 pm. The episodes included scenes that showed, for example, a woman being stabbed in the stomach with a sharp hook, a man being struck in the mouth with the muzzle of a rifle, and a woman being pushed onto the hose of a liquid nitrogen tank with the result that the hose penetrated her chest and killed her. There were also close-ups of dead bodies and wounds as the investigators examined the bodies and performed autopsies.
A viewer complained that the previous season of Les Experts had been rated 13+, but TQS had lowered the rating to 8+ even though the violent content remained at the same level.
The CBSC’s Quebec Regional Panel agreed, finding that the program contained “graphic, explicit, realistic and vivid detail” in the violent scenes, which meant that they were intended exclusively for adult audiences. The program was thus relegated to a post-9:00 pm time slot, as required by Article 3.1.1 of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ violence code. It was also missing viewer advisories, as required by Article 5 of the violence code. The Panel also found that 16+ was the appropriate rating level and so found a breach of Article 4 of the violence code for the 8+ rating provided by TQS.
The second decision dealt with the 8:30 pm broadcast of a reality program called Scrap Metal that followed the host and his colleagues as they restored old vehicles. The episode in question contained numerous instances of coarse language in both English and French, such as the f-word, “tabarnac”, “chrisse” and “calice”. Based on previous CBSC decisions, the Panel concluded that these words constituted language intended exclusively for adult audiences and found TQS in violation of Clause 10 of the CAB Code of Ethics for scheduling the episode before 9:00 pm.
The Panel concluded that the absence of viewer advisories coming out of every commercial break, (though there was one at the very beginning), also violated Clause 11 of that code. It also found that the program should have carried a classification icon at the beginning, and that 16+ would have been the appropriate level.
In addition to the coarse language, lack of viewer advisories, and use of an inappropriate rating, the complainant also suggested that the program demonstrated a disrespectful attitude towards women. The car repairmen attending a Supercross event ogled the women who were working there or spectating. Upon seeing one attractive woman, the host commented, in English, “smells like sweet pussy”. The Panel acknowledged “the crudeness and poor taste of [the host] and the bikers" and said that it "finds nothing redeeming in that aspect of the program", but it did not conclude that the behaviour reached “the levels needed to breach the degradation or exploitation provisions of Articles 7 and 8 of the CAB Equitable Portrayal Code.”
