Ricardo Lamour, a social worker and artist, filed the complaint with the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority after hearing a journalist and a commentator repeat the offending word several times on air in 2020. About 50 Radio Canada personalities said in an open letter published Monday in La Presse that the CRTC’s decision in favor of Lamour threatens journalistic freedom and independence and “opens the door to the dangers of censorship and self-censorship.” “Also, if we are concerned, it is not just for us, at Radio-Canada, but for all communications companies regulated by the CRTC,” wrote the signatories, which include prominent news anchors such as Celine Galipeau and Patrice Roy and Guy. A. Lepage, the host of the talk show Tout le monde en parle. Radio-Canada’s former ombudsman, a Quebec cabinet minister and groups representing journalists also denounced the decision as a blow to freedom of expression or freedom of the press. When asked if he was surprised by the backlash, Lamour quoted American author and activist James Baldwin, who wrote: “The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the definitions of the white world.” Lamour noted that most French-speaking Quebec media figures are white and questioned how many of the letter’s signatories are black.
Use of the word “offensive and annoying”: complainants
He said he was motivated to file a complaint two years ago after hearing two radio personalities repeatedly use the full name of a book by Pierre Vallières that has the N-word in the title, “without adequate warning and contextual discussion.” Lamour was waiting to go on air to discuss his work mentoring black youth and listened to the comments in the Radio-Canada studio through a pair of headphones. He said he was troubled by the “careless and careless” use of the word. “I found it offensive and disturbing,” he said. He filed a complaint with the CRTC after first being told by Radio-Canada’s ombudsman that using the word in that particular context—quoting a book title—was not against the public broadcaster’s journalistic standards and practices. The CRTC sided with Lamour. While it acknowledged that the word was not used in a discriminatory manner, it found that the public broadcaster nevertheless violated the goals and values of Canadian broadcasting policy. Radio-Canada did not do enough to mitigate the effect the word could have on its audience, “particularly in the current social context and given its status as a national public broadcaster,” the CRTC said in its ruling. In addition to a written apology to the complainant, the broadcaster must also implement internal measures and planning to ensure it better deals with similar issues in the future, the CRTC said.
“Dangerous Precedent” Ruling: Journalists’ Association
The signatories of the open letter to La Presse acknowledged that the N-word is “loaded” but said it is rarely used on air and only in a factual context “that is neither insulting, offensive nor dehumanizing, that respects journalistic standards and practices of Radio-Canada but also the intelligence of our institution and its employees”. The province’s professional journalists’ union, the Federation professionnelle des journalistes du Quebec, denounced the decision as “a dangerous precedent that imposes on the media a censorship that is both excessive and unjustified.” Quebec’s culture minister also expressed concern over the decision, writing on Twitter that it was a serious violation of freedom of expression. This decision of his < a href=“https://t.co/dS9YPVIrq2">https://t.co/dS9YPVIrq2 —@NathalieRoyCAQ Lamour says he sees the backlash against the N-word ruling in part as a fight “to assert some rights to not be held accountable” by broadcasters who resist making the necessary changes to better reflect an evolving society. “We’re not seeing some form of introspection here; we’re seeing offensive things,” he said. Instead of fighting, he said, broadcasters should read the reasoning behind the decision and try to do better. In an email, a Radio-Canada spokesperson said the broadcaster was aware of the “wide range of views” on the CRTC’s decision. “Radio Canada recognizes that the use of the ‘N’ word is offensive; therefore we have restricted its use on our radio stations,” the statement said. The broadcaster said it was still studying the decision and considering how it would react. In 2020, former CBC News anchor Wendy Mesley was suspended from hosting and disciplined after an internal investigation found she used offensive language on two separate occasions during editorial meetings. In a long statement On Twitter, Mesley said she used the N-word while citing Vallières’ book as part of discussions about racism and discrimination and said she was “deeply sorry and ashamed”. Mesley retired from CBC last summer.
