The Facts of the Case

On January 19, 1995, during its 7:00 am newscast, Canada AM included a segment relating to the hazing practices of the since-disbanded Airborne Regiment of the Canadian Armed Forces.

Canada AM's regular newscaster, Wei Chen, began her reading of the 7:00 am newscast with the Airborne Regiment story. She said:

Good morning, everyone. We begin this morning with another horrifying look at the ugly side of the Canadian military, from a home video that can only be described as a vulgar record of some very repulsive and racist acts. The video was shot in the summer of 1992 during a hazing ceremony for new members of the Canadian Airborne Regiment. You may not want to see this or hear this. It shows drunk soldiers being smeared with human feces, urine and vomit. Again a warning. You will find these pictures shocking and offensive.

The entire news segment was 1:10 seconds long and the video clip used, (which began 33 seconds into the item), was 15 seconds long. The announcer's tone, visual cues and words made it apparent from the end of the first sentence that the news item would be unpleasant. Her explicit warnings were given before the video clip ran. Ironically, it would have been very difficult to determine from the poor quality home video most of what was happening but for Wei Chen's introductory description.

The viewer provided her complaint to the Coalition for Responsible Television on the day of the broadcast. It was only re-submitted by the Coalition to the CBSC two months later, namely, on March 20 and received by the Council on March 29. While this is customarily well beyond the delays during which the broadcaster is required to retain logger tapes and, thus, beyond the time when the CBSC can be expected to deal with a matter, the record-keeping and co-operation of the broadcaster permitted the CBSC to deal with the citizen's complaint.

In the transcript of the complaint, the viewer described her reaction to the news item in the following way:

The scene of the Canadian military eating vomit and the acts of violence against the other members of the armed forces ... and the black man being abused ... I have been gagging. It was far too explicit. This was disgusting. I gagged three times.

The Vice-President of CTV News, Eric Morrison, responded to the complainant on April 28. He stated:

Please believe that I understand your concern and I ask you to accept my assurance that we debated this story thoroughly before playing the tape. It is unfortunate that horrible events, such as the dehumanization and degradation of human beings, occur, but to shy away from the reality and not make the facts available to the public only makes matters worse. CTV does have a policy of warning viewers about upcoming footage that may be disturbing, and this was effected in connection with the hazing video.

Just by way of information, the tape in our possession contained a number of segments that were even more disgusting than those shown on the News; these were omitted out of concern for our viewers' feelings.

The viewer was unsatisfied with this response and requested, on May 5, 1995, that the CBSC refer the matter to the appropriate Regional Council for adjudication. She also sent an accompanying letter addressed to the CBSC in which she commented:

I found Mr. Morrison's response somewhat cavalier at the least. I cannot recall a more disturbing display of "facts" in television news. It was beyond explicit. I am a little alarmed at CTV's apparent option to "censor" what is seen by television viewers. I remain concerned about the victims' privacy. I was appalled by such an exposure. ... I hope I, and my children, can continue to use television for information on local/national/international events.

With her letter to the CBSC, the complainant enclosed a copy of her letter replying to Mr. Morrison's letter, which elaborated on certain aspects of her letter to the CBSC.

Do not the victims have some right to privacy ... I remain very concerned at the exposure of these particular victims, specifically, an Airborne member of "colour." Efforts were not taken to conceal the identities of the victims of this debasement. What about these men's families and communities? ... [Y]ou go beyond what is necessary to convey acts of injustice and I ask you to step back.

In his covering letter of August 16, 1995, enclosing the logger tapes which members of the Ontario Regional Council ultimately viewed as a part of this adjudication, Mr. Morrison pointed out that

we did warn viewers of the disturbing footage, and that even without sanitizing, we were sensitive as to what could be shown on a morning program.

He referred to two clauses of the Violence Code and asserted that

in this case CTV maintained the balance between the reality of degradation, cruelty and racism in the Airborne, while not exaggerating the situation, and we did use editorial judgement within the newscasts.

In addition, CTV has a policy, as set out in our Style and Journalistic Policy Manual, which advises us to question whether our coverage is likely to serve any constructive purpose beyond simply engaging the audience's attention, that our news judgement must hinge on what is important, and that there be no place in the news for exploitation or sensationalism. The story on the Airborne Regiment, together with the story about the incidents in Somalia, led to an independent public inquiry and the disbanding of the Regiment. Contrary to what [the complainant] feels, we did not go beyond the threshold of what the facts showed. The racism shown in a division of the Canadian military is something that warranted the discomfort we all felt with the images.