OTTAWA – Despite already having made an on-air apology, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council said negative comments made by Sun News host Ezra Levant about Gypsies violate the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code.
Levant’s opening monologue on the September 5, 2012 episode was about the arrests of a number of individuals involved in a theft ring, all of whom appeared to be of “Gypsy” ethnicity. Levant made numerous comments, alleging that all Gypsies are criminals because it is part of their culture, reads the CBSC release.
The CBSC received a number of complaints about the broadcast and Sun News Network responded to the complainants, agreeing that the comments should not have been aired and noting that the station had aired a statement to that effect a few weeks following the broadcast. Levant himself apologized for the remarks on an episode of his show in March 2013.
“The CBSC’s National Specialty Services Panel found that the comments violated Clause 2 of the CAB Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code (EPC) because they were abusive and unduly discriminatory against an ethnic group, and violated other provisions of the EPC regarding negative portrayal, stereotyping, stigmatization and degradation. The Panel did not, however, find that the mere use of the term ‘Gypsy’ violated the EPC because it is not inherently pejorative,” reads the press release.
The CBSC did not require Sun News to announce its findings on air (as it usually does when broadcasters violate a code) because Sun had already broadcast two separate apologies.
Last year, Sun News was forced to apologize for Levant for swearing, albeit in Spanish, on the air.
(Ed note: Anyone know how Levant's push to abolish the CBSC is going? Anyone? We hear crickets, too…)
