MONTREAL – TQS, the self-proclaimed “mouton noir” of Quebec television, has decided there are limits that even the black sheep of the airwaves must impose.
The network fired Stéphane Gendron, co-host of its one-hour morning TV talk show, “L’Avocat et le Diable” (The devil and his advocate), late Monday, citing his inability to tame his tongue despite numerous warnings.
The network said it gave Gendron ample opportunity to modify his behaviour in recent months. However, “Gendron’s decision to persevere down his chosen path is no longer acceptable for TQS, which has obligations and responsibilities to respect under terms of its broadcasting licence,” it said in a statement.
In just over a year on the job, Gendron’s on-air conduct has sparked six official complaints to the CRTC. In October, Quebec Finance Minister Michel Audet served legal notice of a lawsuit.
A month before that, Gendron, a lawyer by training, was severely reprimanded by the Quebec Bar Society for his on-air comments last May about a judge, whom he called a “national disgrace” for a ruling she made about the sentencing of a convicted pedophile.
After he was called before the Bar’s disciplinary committee, he tore up the document on air and pretended to use it as toilet paper. He also called the Bar Society “a band of fascists”.
Several complaints concern allegedly racist remarks, and most recently, he went after Quebec’s Director-General of Elections, saying he deserved to be booted into the rapids of a river.
Gendron, who is also mayor of the small town of Huntingdon southwest of Montreal and hosts an afternoon show on Montreal radio station 98.5 FM, told his radio listeners Tuesday that he wasn’t made aware of the complaints filed with the CRTC.
TQS however says he was told on numerous occasions of its dissatisfaction with his behaviour and told to shape up, but that they seemingly didn’t share the same definition about the meaning of freedom of expression.
A replacement won’t be named until after the holidays.
Glenn Wanamaker is Cartt.ca’s Quebec Editor, based in Quebec City.
