Radio-Canada’s official and long-awaited response to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) satisfied me. And reassured.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
In an incisive text, the state corporation agrees to apologize to those who could have been injured (particularly the complainant) by hearing on the program a few times 15-18 the title of Pierre Vallières’ essay, white niggers of americabut tells the organism to take its equal gas and mind its own business.
The important sentence of this reply is the following: “We consider that the CRTC exceeded its powers with regard to the independence of the public broadcaster. »
A federal public company that restructures a federal public body… Let’s say that the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pablo Rodriguez, has his work cut out for him when he returns this fall.
For Radio-Canada, the CRTC’s decision is a “serious error” and represents a “threat” because it is trying “to give itself a power that compromises journalistic independence”. It is pointed out that those who made this decision “had neither the authority nor the jurisdiction” to make it.
And wham in the teeth!
Further, we can read: “We simply cannot accept this interference of the CRTC in the journalistic work in the country […] That is why, after having followed all the steps described above, we must appeal to the jurisdictional right of the CRTC to make decisions that should rest with our news chiefs. Journalistic independence is essential for all of us. »
If there was any doubt that this CRTC decision is the slip-up of the year in the world of communications, this confirms the error shown by the members who came to the conclusion that the mention of the title of a literary work containing the word beginning with an “N” had the same significance as a racial slur.
At the origin of this case, there is Ricardo Lamour, a social worker and black artist from Montreal, who filed a complaint against Radio-Canada upon hearing the exchange between columnist Simon Jodoin and host Annie Desrochers during which the title of Vallières’ book has been mentioned a few times.
The complainant complains that the title of the book was mentioned without prior warning or contextualization of the discussion. However, when we listen to the famous chronicle of August 17, 2020, nothing could be further from the truth.
Not only does the columnist judiciously place the work in its historical and sociological context, but he tells us that he chose to talk about this book following a column by my colleague Isabelle Hachey published two days earlier in The Press and which focused on the reactions to the use of this same title by a professor from Concordia University.
Do you have the impression, like me, that we are in front of a set of Russian dolls?
A newspaper columnist reflects on the injustice suffered by a teacher, a radio columnist reflects on this reflection and wonders if “certain ideas are becoming taboo”, and he is the subject of a complaint.
Wait, that’s not all. Simon Jodoin concluded his column by asking listeners not to stop just at the title and to read what is said in this work.
Obviously, the plaintiff stopped at the title.
That said, CBC – Radio-Canada senior management had to walk on eggshells when writing this letter. We know that the state corporation shows extreme caution when it comes to dealing with issues of inequality, racism and inclusion.
Radio-Canada must also produce a document by the start of the school year which will contain “best practices” in terms of programming in order to better deal with this type of situation. I’m curious to see what we’ll find there.
But rarely has a CRTC decision sparked so many reactions. There was a lot of pressure for the Crown corporation not to bow down. In Quebec, columnists, editorial writers and politicians were unanimous: the CRTC made a stupid decision devoid of nuances.
There was also this letter signed by about fifty personalities, including Céline Galipeau, Patrice Roy, Anne-Marie Dussault and Michel Desautels.
Radio-Canada had no choice but to stand up in the name of freedom of expression and journalistic independence.
The Crown corporation intends to appeal the CRTC’s decision. Let’s hope that by then, there will be a renewal within the committee responsible for studying this type of file. Because apart from two members who expressed an opinion going against the decision, the others have completely taken the path of complacency and ease, those who prefer to avoid the intelligence of citizens.
This is not the way to move a society forward.