Updated:
C B S
C ordered the station to make a public apology
CKAC-FM presenter
Pierre Mailloux
- OTTAWA, April 15, 2005: The Canadian Broadcast Standards
Council said the item on Montreal's CKAC-FM was "abusive
and unduly discriminatory" and ordered the station
to make a public apology
Canadian
radio station rapped for anti-Sikh insults
Sikhs
of northern India were "a gang of bozos".
OTTAWA, March 31 2005
Reuters
A Canadian radio station was formally reprimanded
on Wednesday after one of its presenters insulted
immigrants to Canada and then said the Sikhs of northern
India were "a gang of bozos".
CKAC-FM presenter Pierre Mailloux
Immigration is a sensitive issue in Canada, one of
the few western countries that still accepts large
numbers of immigrants each year.
In a show broadcast in December 2003, CKAC-FM presenter
Pierre Mailloux told listeners that immigrants who
came to Canada should abandon their habits and traditions.
- "You cultural communities come from a wacko
country. You live a wacko culture. Don't bring it
with you. That's the message to convey," he said.
- Later in the show he remarked: "I flee northern
India because the Sikhs are a gang, a gang of bozos,
and then I bring all that with me. No, no, you really
don't get it. If you flee your country because it
makes no sense, then don't bring those senseless things
with you."
The standards council said that while freedom of
expression laws entitled Mailloux to express his opposition
to wide-scale immigration, he had gone too far with
his anti-Sikh comments.
"(We) consider that the host is entitled to
espouse his chauvinistic intolerance until such time
as his disrespect leaks into individual races and
nationalities, as it did when he referred to the Sikhs
as 'a gang of bozos'," it said.
The radio station said Mailloux had shown "manifest
ignorance of the immigration policies and procedures
in Canada" and said it had told him to "show
more compassion and reserve concerning immigrants".
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