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08/27/2004 Archived Entry: "CHOI-FM gets reprieve"

Posted by steve @ 12:33 AM EST [Link]

MY CANADIAN VALUES DON'T INCLUDE CENSORSHIP: Controversial Quebec radio station CHOI-FM received a reprieve from the CRTC on Thursday, one day before it was essentially going to go off the air. The CRTC -- Canada's version of the FCC -- had declined to renew the station's licence because it had used the airwaves to "protect Canadian values."

The CRTC's move to take CHOI off the air was a rare one. This was the first time since its creation in 1968 that it decided not to renew the licence of a Canadian radio station because of controversial comments by on-air staff.

In its ruling, the CRTC said the "station's hosts were relentless in their use of the public airwaves to insult and ridicule people."

CHOI has been the target of 92 complaints since it was purchased by Genex Communications in 1997.

Most were focused on a weekday morning show hosted by Jean-Francois Fillion that included a segment by controversial radio personality Andre Arthur.

Among the show's more explosive comments were remarks by the pair harassing a rival radio host implicated in a teen prostitution ring, making disparaging comments about African students at Laval University, and calling for the gassing of psychiatric patients.

Fillion may be a toad but I don't believe the government should have the right to determine what Canadian values are and whether they have been stepped on. And as the Western Standard reports in their August 30 issue, the CRTC's decisions in recent years have struck many as promoting an old boy network mentality, with rules and decisions handed down to benefit friends of the body's governing elite.

Read on.