[MRRiley]

You know where I stand on the issue Wheatfield. Yes, we have a problem here and it seems to be getting worse. I hope it doesn't get worse in Canada. Regardless... the only way to fix it is to publicize every occurance and to complain loud and clear.

Mike

p.s. I was going to make a similar comment as your initial one about how ironic it would be to restrict "freedom" at the site of the "Freedom Tower." LOL

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Last edited by MRRiley; 07-12-2010 at 10:40 AM.

[Wheatfield]

You know where I stand on the issue Wheatfield. Yes, we have a problem here and it seems to be getting worse. I hope it doesn't get worse in Canada. Regardless... the only way to fix it is to publicize every occurance and to complain loud and clear.

Mike, you and I stand pretty much side by side on the issue.
I suspect, were I an American, that I would be a Libertarian.

[Ira]

Can a Canadian here please explain Canada's broadcasting laws?

The country seems to have a serious problem with free speech, and when I hear the pot calling the kettle black, I feel compelled to ask.

I'm particularly interested in Canadian-content laws, and your restrictions and definition of "hate speech."

I happen to believe that the world will not crumble by the uttering of ethnic slurs, regardless of the intent behind it, but this seems to be illegal on Canadian airwaves.

Freedom?

[Wheatfield]

Can a Canadian here please explain Canada's broadcasting laws?

The country seems to have a serious problem with free speech, and when I hear the pot calling the kettle black, I feel compelled to ask.

I'm particularly interested in Canadian-content laws, and your restrictions and definition of "hate speech."

I happen to believe that the world will not crumble by the uttering of ethnic slurs, regardless of the intent behind it, but this seems to be illegal on Canadian airwaves.

Freedom?

One of our more contentious laws, passed for the right reasons, and applied mostly for the wrong ones.
We had a loony here named Jim Keegstra, who decided that the Holocaust never happened.
Rather than just let the nut bar rave like a lunatic, the government, at the behest of a few special interest groups (primarily the B'Nai Brith and a few other Jewish groups for the most part) passed a law limiting freedom of speech if it was decided that said speech was inciting hatred and possibly violence against an identifiable group of people.
In practice, if you are a minority, you can pretty much say whatever you like, but if you are one of the (WASP) majority, you need to be pretty careful about what you say.
It's a bad law, but we are stuck with it because anyone who speaks out against it gets branded as a closet bigot.
I'm not sure what part of CanCon you are referring to, if it's the broadcast laws, they were put in place for all the right reasons, which was to promote Canadian culture in the 60s and 70s when we we being flooded with music from England and the USA.
By forcing a certain % of broadcasts to be of Canadian origin, we saw a lot of very good music (and, sadly, both Anne Murray's "Snowbird" and Terry Jacks "Seasons in the Sun") getting airtime that they would probably not have gotten otherwise.
Like a lot of laws laws, it has hung around for too long.

[Ira]

we saw a lot of very good music (and, sadly, both Anne Murray's "Snowbird" and Terry Jacks "Seasons in the Sun") getting airtime that they would probably not have gotten otherwise.

HAH! Those songs did great in the states too!

And yeah--I was referring to the content laws, the reason why Conan O'Brian's new show on TBS won't be allowed to be broadcast before like 1AM on the regular airwaves. Which brings me to the point, what if he was Canadian?

I was a huge fan of SCTV before most people knew about it, and a lot of the skits--the Great White North as an example--were goofs on the Canadian content laws. (I think I remember reading that.)

Anyway, thanks for explaining it to me. This thread is timely because a Federal Court here just struck down the FCC's indecency provisions.

[Wheatfield]

And yeah--I was referring to the content laws, the reason why Conan O'Brian's new show on TBS won't be allowed to be broadcast before like 1AM on the regular airwaves. Which brings me to the point, what if he was Canadian?

Were he Canadian, he would have moved to the States and done really well as a quirky looking talk show host, but since his show is coming out of NYC, it would be subject to CanCon.
The alternative would be unthinkable, which would be him hosting a late night show on the CBC.....