OTTAWA – A radio host who recommended vigilante justice in response to a news story about a controversial Twitter post was found to have breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC).
On October 19, 2016, the morning show hosts of Énergie le matin on CKMF-FM (Énergie 94.3, Montreal) discussed a news story about a controversial tweet on Twitter. Following the release of the book Les Superbes, which is about women who have risen to positions of power, a man posted a tweet referencing the killings at the École Polytechnique in Montreal and saying that with the publication of this book, the killer would have a new list of feminists to target.
The hosts were critical of the tweet, provided the name of the tweet’s author, and noted that the Sûreté du Québec had opened an investigation on the matter. Sports commentator Martin Lemay took it further, adding that this was not enough and that the man should be beaten up, a view he repeated several times. One of his co-hosts disagreed, emphasizing that it was better to let the police do their job.
A listener complained that, although the tweet itself was unacceptable, Lemay should not have incited violence against an identified individual. The complainant’s view was that these comments constituted threats, and expressed concern that some listeners might physically hurt anyone writing an inappropriate or offensive message on Twitter. The radio station agreed that the host had gone too far.
The CBSC’s French-Language Panel examined the complaint under Clause 9(a) of the CAB Code of Ethics which prohibits radio content that sanctions or promotes violence. The Panel found a breach of that clause because the host clearly advocated violence and did so repeatedly; the disagreement of his co-host did not suffice to mitigate the comments.
