Montreal Host Suspended for ‘Annoying’ Jews Remark
A Montreal radio host was suspended for indulging a caller who made anti-Semitic statements on the air.
Jacques Fabi on his show last week on CHMP 98.5 FM did not criticize the woman during her four-minute call for comparing Israelis to dogs and saying that the Holocaust was “the most beautiful thing that happened in history,” the QMI news agency reported.
After the caller made the Holocaust comment, Fabi replied, “I wouldn’t dare say something like that.” Later he said, “You know that in this democratic country, you can’t ever say anything offensive toward Israelis because it could cost you dearly. You can’t ever have negative views of any nature toward the Jewish people, or there will be serious consequences. That’s how it is.”
A few minutes later, Fabi said that one must “wear white gloves when talking about this nice Jewish population of Montreal.” According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., he also said, “If you asked me if the Jewish population can sometimes be annoying, I would say yes.”
At no point did Fabi reproach the caller for making the anti-Semitic remarks or denounce the remarks themselves.
David Cote, a CHMP spokesman, told the QMI news agency that Fabi’s comments were “unacceptable” and that the station has issued “sanctions” against him.
QMI reported that Fabi has been suspended, but it was unclear for how long.
B’nai Brith Canada is demanding an apology from the station and has sent letters of complaint to broadcast regulators.
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