Guy Fournier & Lebanon's Gay Laws

[August1991]

Who is Guy Fournier? He's the Chairman of CBC/Radio-Canada and also a prolific writer/journalist.

Anyway, he also writes a column in a Quebec weekly gossip/grocery store magazine. (It's a challenge in Quebec to keep up with two worlds of gossip just by looking at covers... )

So, in his latest column, he wrote:

« Au Liban, la loi permet aux hommes d'avoir des relations sexuelles avec des animaux à la condition qu'il s'agisse de femelles! Faire la même chose avec des bêtes mâles peut entraîner la peine de mort! »

Needless to say, Quebec's Lebanese community is utterly offended and lawyers are preparing legal briefs.

Fournier's reaction?

Interrogé par La Presse, il s'est amusé de la controverse. «Il ne faut pas partir en guerre pour rien. Je ne comprends pas que ça puisse insulter des gens. Dans n'importe quel contexte, c'est plutôt drôle», a-t-il dit.

You can read about it here.

[M.Dancer]

That is just so wrong. Another case of the double standard. Men get camels but women are left, without their donkeys.....

Poor poor Guy......

That being said, this was in the BBC.......

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4748292.stm

[watching&waiting]

I guess my French is not up to snuff to read this for myself, but if what has been posted in English is true, then all I can say is sick, sick sick.

[kimmy]

What a rip-off. It used to be that 15,000 dinars could buy a whole cow.

As for Mr Fournier, he should watch his back: Theo Van Gogh got killed for less.

A startling display of bad sense, I would say. He had to know that writing something like that would be controversial. And most people have learned by now that stuff that circulates by email is not necessarily very factual. Putting something controversial in his column without actually checking the facts seems like something a typical laundromat newsletter columnist might do, but one might expect the chairman of the CBC to have better judgment.

Still, it might be amusing to see the Lebanese community go on the offensive by explaining exactly what sexual practices will or won't get you put to death under their laws. That would no doubt clear up many misconceptions about their beliefs.

But mostly, I find myself wondering what Stephen Colbert might say about this controversy.

-k

[Charles Anthony]

Will this episode lower the reputation of the gossip journal or raise the reputation of Radio-Canada?

[M.Dancer]

I guess my French is not up to snuff to read this for myself, but if what has been posted in English is true, then all I can say is sick, sick sick.

My Translation......

In lebanon it's okay for a man to have sex with an animal if the animal is female.....he knows this casue a friend e-mailed him.....montreal lebanese are angry at him

[August1991]

Guy Fournier has resigned as chairman of the CBC after controversial comments made last week in a newspaper column.

Fournier "has increasingly lost the confidence of Canada's new government," Canadian Heritage Minister Bev Oda said in announcing the resignation in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

CBC

Fournier is an original. It's kind of sad his career should end this way.

Argus, if they offer you the job, refuse it. You'd last even less time than Fournier.

[fellowtraveller]

It will be interesting to see who Harper appoints as Chairman. I do know one thing for sure - it won't be David Dingwall.

I'm guessing he'll surprise us with somebody sympathetic to the CBC, a lifer in the Canadian arts community.....are either Wayne or Schuster still alive?

The time to gut the MotherCorp is not yet here, a majority government will be required.......