Liberal CBC Head Who Insulted Lebanese Ousted

And rightly so, it would seem. Good grief, what was he thinking?

Liberal appointed Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) chair Guy Fournier has resigned amid a somewhat bizarre controversy. The move will allow Canada's Conservative Party to fill the position. There's some speculation as to whether or not such a move will result in a somewhat more conservative look to Canadian broadcasting.

However, that development is being ignored because of the unfortunate nature of the controversy surrounding Fournier. Evidently he upset the Lebanese community in Canada by suggesting that Lebanon endorses bestiality, so long as it's with female animals. He went on to note that sex with male animals was, however, illegal. Neither of those assertions appears to be true.

Fournier then went on, perhaps too long, to extol the wonder of bowel movements at his age. No, I am not making that up.

However, Fournier raised eyebrows recently with an article in the popular magazine 7 Jours in which he wrongly suggested that bestiality was accepted in Lebanon as long as it was with a female animal. Fournier subsequently apologized for the comments, saying he had been mistaken.

Fournier once again raised eyebrows when a lengthy interview he granted last May to a Toronto community radio station, CHOQ-FM, came to light.

In it, he extolled the pleasures of defecating.

"The most extraordinary thing is that, in the end, as you grow older, you continue to go poop once a day if you are in good health, while it is not easy to make love every day.

"So finally, the pleasure is longer lasting and more frequent than the other."

Fournier further exacerbated the problem by talking about the incidents Sunday during the Radio-Canada television show Tout le monde en parle, one of the most popular shows in Quebec.

Yesterday's resignation came only a day after a spokeswoman for Oda told the National Post that the minister was satisfied that Fournier had retracted his comments about Lebanon. Yesterday, Veronique Bruneau refused all comment, sticking stubbornly to Oda's four-sentence response in the House and refusing to even confirm or deny reports that the minister and Fournier had spoken yesterday morning.

Politicians of all political stripes were quick to react yesterday, saying Fournier had chosen the right course.

"I think he was the victim of his own turpitude," Liberal MP Denis Coderre said. "He flushed himself."

Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, who had called for Fournier's resignation after the comments on Lebanon, welcomed his resignation.

Comments

[Terry Gain]

Poor Mr. Fournier. All this for a slip of the tongue. Clearly he meant to say "people in Louisanna", not "people in Lebanon".