OTTAWA – Comments made by the hosts of Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM about homosexuality were neither abusive, unduly discriminatory, or unduly sexually explicit, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) has determined.
The CBSC received a complaint from a listener who felt that comments made on the afternoon drive program Le Retour de Radio X were “hateful towards homosexuals and indecent” at an hour when children could be listening. Highlights of the program were also rebroadcast between 6:00 pm and 7:00 pm.
On the May 15, 2008 episode, the hosts were discussing the fact that the California Supreme Court had declared that disallowing gay marriage was unconstitutional. One host commented that there was a lot of [translation] “queerness” in San Francisco and that he did not like to see two men kissing in public, but that they could [translation] “do it up the ass all [they] want” behind closed doors. He also stated that he did not approve of gay couples adopting children because it involved someone else in their “queerness”.
The CBSC Quebec Regional Panel examined the complaint under Clause 2 (Human Rights) and Clause 9(b) (Radio Broadcasting) of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics. The Panel affirmed the host’s right to express his views on a wide range of political issues, including controversial matters such as gay marriage and adoption.
With respect to the use of the word “queerness” (“fifure” in the original French), the panel concluded that it was “discourteous, rude and on the edge of acceptability, but did not rise to the ‘sneering, derisive and nasty’ level [required to violate the Code].”
The Panel also determined that the single reference to sexual activity was “tasteless” but “it does not consider that the hypothetical ‘instruction’ is unduly explicit. There is no graphic or realistic description of sexual activity”, and therefore it did not breach Clause 9(b) of the Code.
