A pro-LGBTQ activist organization filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to ban Fox News from cable television in the country.
The organization, Egale Canada, said in April that it would file an application to ban the network over the alleged “false and horrifying claims” made about transgender people by Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson, according to its website. In a March letter, the group accused Fox News of producing “coverage aimed to provoke hatred and violence against 2SLGBTQI communities, particularly those who are Two Spirit, trans, nonbinary and gender non-conforming (2STNBGN).”
The group accused Carlson of depicting transgender people as “violent and dangerous” after a transgender individual entered a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee and fatally shot six people, including three 9-year-olds, with an AR-15-style rifle in late March. The liberal media and figures, including the White House, labeled transgender people as victims following the attack.
Egale Canada is calling on @CRTCeng to begin public consultations on the removal of Fox News from the list of non-Canadian programming authorized for distribution in Canada.
Read our open letter to the CRTC: https://t.co/mhBuyUcHG9 pic.twitter.com/5huroyt78n
— Egale Canada (@egalecanada) April 4, 2023
“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,” Egale Canada executive director Helen Kennedy wrote. (RELATED: Tucker Carlson Says Merrick Garland Is ‘Lying’ About Nashville Shooter’s Motive)
Kennedy also lamented against Carlson for disputing the organization’s claim that there is a “existential rise in anti-2SLGBTQI, hate-fueled movements and protests.”
“Egale has experienced firsthand the hate that is generated from a single segment aired on Fox News in Canada,” the letter continued. “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. The CRTC is obligated to investigate whether the continued broadcasting of Fox News on Canadian television is in line with the Television Broadcasting Regulations. People in Canada deserve to know that the news broadcast on Canadian airwaves is reliable and objective, and marginalized groups must be protected from malicious propaganda. ”
The CRTC has opened a public consultation on the complaint and will allow parties to submit information regarding the matter on its website until June 2, the National Pulse reported.
The CRTC has the power to remove networks from airing on cable television in the country. In March 2022, the agency removed Russia Today and RT France following the invasion of Ukraine, according to the National Pulse.