After having shunned it for more than a year, the municipal administration of the Capitale-Nationale returns to Radio X. The City of Quebec is preparing to resume the purchase of advertising space on the airwaves of CHOI, a station. very critical of the management of COVID in Quebec – and very criticized for its positions.
No date has been set for the return of the City’s advertisements to Radio X.
Mayor Bruno Marchand explains that “when the City needs to broadcast a message to people who listen to Radio X, public service announcements, we will do it”. A desire that contrasts with that of his predecessor, Régis Labeaume, who ended on September 28, 2020 all business ties between the City and CHOI.
The former mayor made it a principle of public health, accusing the station and its star hosts of spreading false information about the pandemic and of downplaying its severity.
People known for their adherence to conspiracy theories of all stripes, including actress Lucie Laurier and former union leader Ken Pereira, marched at the station’s microphone. Dan Marino, owner of the Mega Fitness Gym known after becoming the cradle of an outbreak that led to nearly 700 cases of COVID-19 in Quebec, was also a regular at the house.
At the time of withdrawing its advertising placement, the City of Quebec was broadcasting two campaigns totaling $ 9,000. The loss of income had however greatly exceeded this amount for CHOI, a dozen companies having decided to follow suit and in turn withdraw their advertising from the air.
A new administration took power in Quebec and with it a new philosophy now dictates decision-making. Mayor Marchand’s position has not changed since the election campaign. For him, “public money cannot become political money. “
The day the mayor uses public money to hold political debates, I think we have a democratic problem.
He emphasizes that the media can disseminate content “with which he can totally disagree. According to him, the City does not have to censor opinions.
“That does not prevent that I am for the sanitary measures, I am pro vaccination, I wish that people go to be vaccinated, that people apply the measures of distancing”, insists the mayor of Quebec.