OTTAWA – The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) said that the misidentification of protesters made by Sun News Network host Ezra Levant violated the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Code of Ethics.
On January 23, 2013, the public affairs discussion program The Source, which is hosted by Levant, showed videoclips of a protest that had occurred outside the Sun’s Toronto office. The protestors objected to Sun Media’s coverage of the ‘Idle No More’ movement. A few days later, Levant replayed the clips, saying that, following their initial broadcast, he had received information from viewers about who some of the protestors were. He identified one couple by their names, and said that they were “professional protestors” who had engaged in other protest activity.
The CBSC received a complaint from the identified woman, who asserted that she was not the person in the clip, had not attended the Sun Media protest, and had not even been in Toronto at the time. She also complained that Levant had tarnished her reputation and that of her husband by accusing them of being professional protestors and using the Aboriginal movement to cause a “ruckus”.
The CBSC’s national specialty services panel concluded that Sun News Network breached Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics for including inaccurate information in the talk show. The CBSC did not, however, require the station to make an announcement on air because Levant had already acknowledged the error in the February 8, 2013 episode of The Source.
