LGBTQ group asks CRTC to ban Fox News Channel over anti-trans comments

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An LGBTQ rights group wants the CRTC to ban Fox News from Canadian cable packages over “false and horrifying claims” made by host Tucker Carlson regarding transgender individuals.

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Egale Canada is in the process of filing a formal application with the CRTC, communications and marketing director Jennifer Boyce said in an email. The group published an open letter last week, following an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight in late March.

The letter said the Fox News “coverage aimed to provoke hatred and violence against 2SLGBTQI communities, particularly those who are Two Spirit, trans, nonbinary and gender non-conforming (2STNBGN).”

Egale said Carlson made false claims about those communities, including “painting them as violent and dangerous.” The segment aimed to provoke resentment and violence against 2STNBGN people through false claims and “malicious misinformation,” Egale Canada executive director Helen Kennedy said in the open letter.

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“During the segment, Carlson made the inflammatory and false claim that trans people are ‘targeting’ Christians. To position trans people in existential opposition to Christianity is an incitement of violence against trans people that is plain to any viewer.”

The letter also accused the segment of stoking resentment against 2STNBGN individuals through misinformation “including that trans people are given preferential treatment in employment and other opportunities.”

The CRTC maintains a list of international channels cable, satellite and IPTV providers can include in their packages. In March 2022, the CRTC removed Russia Today and RT France from the list, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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In its decision, the CRTC said the content of the Russian channels “appears to constitute abusive comment since it tends or is likely to expose the Ukrainian people to hatred or contempt on the basis of their race, national or ethnic origin.”

The letter from Egale said the CRTC must investigate whether Fox News violates the Television Broadcasting Regulations, and asked the regulator to hold public consultations on removing the channel from the list of authorized channels.

It argued non-Canadian broadcasters must be held to the same standards as Canadian broadcasters, which can be fined or lose their licence for broadcasting abusive content that “when taken in context, tends to or is likely to expose an individual or a group or class of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability.”

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Once a formal application is filed with the CRTC, the regulator decides whether to accept it. If it’s accepted, the CRTC will post the file on its website as an open “Part 1” application, with a deadline for the public and interested parties to submit their comments.

A spokesperson for Fox News did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

“Given the rising levels of anti-trans hate around the world and the potential for segments like the one recently aired on Fox News, there needs to be a serious Canadian conversation about the broadcasting of Fox News in Canada,” Kennedy said in the letter.

Egale said it experienced “firsthand the hate that is generated from a single segment aired on Fox News in Canada. We cannot begin to imagine the broader impacts and potential rise in hate that might result from allowing more content like this to air in Canada.”