MONTREAL – Another day, another Quebec talk-show host in trouble.
After André Arthur, Jeff Fillion and Gilles Proulx, all with lengthy CRTC “priors”, the latest to stir the pot of public indignation is Dr. Pierre Mailloux, better known as Doc Mailloux. And once again the CRTC is being asked to investigate.
Last week Mailloux, a psychiatrist by training, went on Radio-Canada’s highly-rated Sunday evening TV talk show “Tout le monde en parle” (“Everybody’s talking about it”) and argued that IQ tests show that black and native peoples are less intelligent than white or Asian populations. He had made similar comments earlier on his daily CKAC radio talk show in Montreal.
The response was swift. The Montreal St. Jean-Baptiste Society and the Black Coalition of Quebec denounced the comments as racist and called upon the CRTC, as well as the Quebec College of Physicians, to investigate.
Leaders of several native organizations also expressed their outrage, though they directed some of it at Radio-Canada.
“Giving a platform to a psychiatrist-crowd entertainer so that he can toss out tidbits of information about studies…without explaining the purpose of the studies and their context or the environment in which their subjects live, is more like disinformation than a debate,” wrote Michèle Rouleau, Édith Cloutier and Pierre Cloutier in an open letter to Radio-Canada.
“We deplore the fact that Radio-Canada officials are not capable of making the distinction between a public spectacle and a public forum for discussion and reflection.”
Mailloux defended himself by saying his comments were based on U.S. scientific studies, though he was unable initially to cite them.
“I am not racist at all,” he said. Asked if he would make the same comments again, he replied: “For the same pay, yes.”
Mailloux was chastised earlier this year by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) for comments he made about immigrants, such as:
“…to those who want immigration, I say open Quebec’s doors to Scandinavians, to western Europeans, to individuals who come from relatively civilized countries. But now we’re opening our doors to individuals from backward countries, wacko countries, Third World countries…Well, first off, you’ll have to civilize all those people. You’ll get your fill of different coloured skin.” (CBSC translation)
In June, the CRTC rapped his knuckles twice, first for his radio comments about the level of blacks’ intelligence, which the CRTC called “disparaging, insulting, and abusive”, and then for comments about the behaviour of U.S. performers Janet and Michael Jackson, which he said was “typical of African or black peoples who do not know how to behave even though they left Africa many years ago”. The CRTC also called those remarks “disparaging and insulting”.
Corus Entertainment-owned CKAC has not sanctioned him for his latest comments, though station management told him to use his daily show to better explain his comments.
The U.S. studies to which he referred date back to 1994 and have been widely criticized in the scientific community.
Mailloux said the studies’ results are the outgrowth of the slave trade.
“Those blacks who were too intelligent, too clever, they were slaughtered…It’s the consequence of an artificial selection. They can run faster, they’re stronger, but their IQ’s are consistently lower.”
“Tout le monde en parle” kept the controversy going last night with guests Luck Mervil, a popular Quebec singer of Haitian origin, and TV host Philippe Fehmiu, whose father is from Bénin.
Mervil embraced the controversy, saying it offers an opportunity to confront the “reality” of racism. While he said he feels warmly accepted wherever he goes in Quebec, he also regularly receives hate mail. He read excerpts of one he just received, which called him a “filthy dog” among a string of other slurs and telling to “get out of here before you’re killed”.
Fehmiu, co-host of the TV reality show “Loft Story”, has told his employer TQS that it’s “either Doc Mailloux or me”.
Mailloux offers personality and behaviour analysis of the show’s participants, but Fehmiu says he cannot in good conscience work alongside him anymore. The show brings together 12 young, single men and women, who live together for two months under the constant eye of a TV camera.
TQS management has not yet responded to the ultimatum. The next season begins in January.
Last month, TQS, which calls itself “the black sheep” of Quebec TV, suspended its morning talk-show host Gilles Proulx after he made comments about the rape of a 14-year old girl. He suggested the girl was in part responsible for the assault because of the way she dressed, calling her a “little tart” among other things.
Proulx, often in hot water with the CRTC over the years, has since resigned his TV gig, as did Jeff Fillion this summer from Quebec City radio station CHOI-FM. The station is fighting a legal battle to hold onto its licence.
André Arthur, the original radio provocateur in Quebec City with dozens of CRTC citations and lawsuits to his credit, remains on the air on a small suburban radio station.
Glenn Wanamaker is www.cartt.ca’s Quebec Editor.
