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Thousands protest shutdown order against Quebec radio station
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| Jayx1 |
Now our government is shutting down radio stations because they dont like the content? WTF? Seriously, all signs point more and more to us becoming a dictatorship and it scares me.
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Thousands protest shutdown order against Quebec radio station
Tue Aug 10, 5:48 PM ET
TERRY PEDWELL
OTTAWA (CP) - Thousands of music fans, free-speech supporters and a few teenage rock bunnies turned Parliament Hill into an outdoor concert Tuesday to protest a shutdown order against popular Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM.
Chants of "Liberte, liberte" could barely be heard at times over the deafening sound of a rock band entertaining a festive crowd estimated by police at upwards of 5,000.
The demonstrators - ranging from families with young children to grey-haired seniors to teens in tight black CHOI-FM T-Shirts - took to the front lawn of Parliament to demand that CHOI, which was broadcasting live, be allowed to stay on the air.
The radio station is due to be yanked off the air at the end of the month after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decided not to renew its licence.
The federal regulator decided to close the station after it repeatedly aired insulting and offensive comments in violation of broadcasting rules.
"Hopefully today is a good test for this minority (Liberal) government," said Quebec City resident Jean-Francois Seguin, who along with his wife Marie-Claude Gagne brought two of their three children to the protest.
"We want our children to make their own decisions," said Sequin as he pushed a stroller carrying his three-year-old daughter, Dominique, through the crowd.
"It's important to show values to our children," added Gagne, clutching her 18-month-old son, Marc-Antoine.
"We think freedom of speech is very important and we don't want to see the government telling us what we have the right, or not the right, to listen to."
Hundreds of people came from Quebec City in buses.
"(The CRTC) did not have the right to do this," said Daniel Guy, 54. "Nobody can decide for us what we should listen to."
Patrice Demers, owner of Genex Communications which operates the station, called on the prime minister to intervene.
"We want Paul Martin to send back the decision to the CRTC and ask them to revise the decision."
Demers said his company would seek an injunction this week in federal court to delay the shutdown, which is scheduled for Aug. 31.
Thousands of listeners have expressed support for the station in recent weeks, including Quebec Premier Jean Charest and federal NDP Leader Jack Layton.
New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, the party's heritage critic, said the heritage minister "should immediately recommend to her cabinet colleagues that the CHOI-FM decision be suspended pending a full review of the mandate and authority of the CRTC."
Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, who is responsible for the CRTC, said Tuesday that she can't get involved in the decision to close the radio station.
"This agency is an independent agency," she said. "If I get involved in this agency, I have to resign."
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper called in to the live broadcast to say that the CRTC decision was heavy-handed and unprecedented.
He contended that Frulla and the Liberals passed the buck too quickly and failed to explore all their options.
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| starsearcher |
| What did they say that offended them so much? |
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| Jayx1 |
Who knows? But i did read in another article awhile back that they made a lot of anti-liberal comments during the election and that many at the radio station feel that this is "pay back"
If thats true than this is even scarier than it appears.
I dont know about this country. We have laws that say that people like micheal moore cant comment on elections without getting charged for it. We have the CRTC shutting down radio stations they dont like and telling us which channels we are allowed to watch. We throw people in jail because they dont tell the correct version of history (ernst zundel)... although let me add that zundel is a scumbag but even scumbags should be allowed to say what they think is the truth without being persecuted for it.
Now i realize that one can never have absolute freedom of behaviour however freedom of speech should be without prejudice. |
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| St_Andrew |
| Don't you have a constitution preventing things like that? :conf: |
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| Jayx1 |
yes, or so i thought. But our constitution seems to be quite weak and not absolute like most countries. Many think it needs to be redrafted.
A town in Quebec has also implemented a curfew for anyone under 18. These are scary times folks. If we dont stand up for our rights we will wake up in 10 years and realize it's too late |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
Don't you have a constitution preventing things like that? :conf: |
Freedom of expression is an urban myth, just like freedom of mobility (licensing/insurance), freedom of assembly (raves), and freedom of religion (don't even get me started on that one).
The Bill of Rights is mostly just an antique to remind us of the time our country was on the world's top 10 list. |
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| Jayx1 |
Except that we dont have a "bill of rights"
Ours is the Charter of rights and was implemented in 1981.
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The "nothing is absolute" arguement works to a point, but when the government switches from being a passive entity in extolling justice to an intrusive one controlling behaviour, then we start to get totalitarianism.
BTW Here is a great quote taken from the canadian civil liberties association website.
| quote: | "First they arrested the Communists -- but I was not a Communist, so I did nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then they arrested the trade unionists -- and I did nothing because I was not one. And then they came for the Jews and the Catholics, but I was neither a Jew nor a Catholic and I did nothing. At last they came and arrested me -- and there was no one left to do anything about it."
- Rev Martin Niemoller (Nazi Prison Survivor)
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| malek |
its not a liberal vengence thing. That radio insults anyone and everyone. Sometimes even broadcasting racial slander. And these guys have been warned so many times about their defamatory bull.
the CRTC gives a permet to broadcast in exchange of an acceptance of a defined sets of rules.
When you break those rules, its only normal that the CRTC doesn't renew your permit.
Jayx1, why are you defending them when you don't even know what they were broadcasting or saying?:rolleyes: |
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| starsearcher |
| quote: | Originally posted by malek
Jayx1, why are you defending them when you don't even know what they were broadcasting or saying?:rolleyes: |
Yeah that's what I'm curious about...what were they saying anyway? |
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| malek |
jayx1, you are wrong again, the crtc is a tribunal, it is independant. The govt has nothing to do with it.
Its so true, that when the provincial liberals asked the federal liberals to do something about it, the latter just refused because the CRTC isn't a partisan body of the govt. |
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| St_Andrew |
| okay, then it all make sense :) |
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| malek |
| quote: | Originally posted by starsearcher
Yeah that's what I'm curious about...what were they saying anyway? |
its a pure trash radio, taking any regional news and amplifying it while calling people every name you could imagine.
Its in French and even if I had extracts, you wouldn't undersand, its ing low level slang. |
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