OTTAWA – Comments made by a guest regarding Haitians on the Le Show Tard broadcast by CHOI-FM (Radio X, Québec City) were ruled “unduly discriminatory, stereotypical and degrading” under the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code says the CBSC.
Psychiatrist Pierre “Doc” Mailloux was invited as a guest on Le Show Tard to provide advice to callers on April 20, 2012. In response to one young man who said he had had his first sexual experience at 13 years old, Mailloux twice exclaimed [translation] “Pathetic! […] You’re nothing more than animals! That’s worse than Haiti!” A listener complained that the remarks were racist towards Haitians. CHOI-FM argued that Mailloux had not directly stated that Haitians were animals and that, taken in context, the comments were not racist.
The CBSC’s Quebec Regional Panel examined the complaint under the Human Rights clauses of the CAB Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code, as well as the clauses regarding Stereotyping and Degrading Material of the Equitable Portrayal Code. The panel concluded that the comments did imply that Haitians were like animals and the comments were, therefore, abusive and unduly discriminatory and degrading towards Haitians and presented an unduly negative stereotype of that ethnic/national group contrary to all of the code’s provisions.
