Government-funded trans rights organization Egale Canada is calling on the CRTC to begin consultations on banning conservative television channel Fox News after host Tucker Carlson called out their response to the Nashville school shooting.
The group, which describes itself as “Canada’s leading organization for 2SLGBTQI people and issues,” currently receives millions of dollars in government funding.
In a letter to CRTC Chairperson and CEO Vicky Eatrides, Egale says there needs to be “a serious Canadian conversation about the broadcasting of Fox News in Canada” amid “rising levels of anti-trans hate around the world.”
The organization says Fox News host Tucker Carlson has made “false and horrifying claims about 2STNBGN people” in a March segment on radical trans activism titled “the trans movement is targeting Christians.” His segment aired after a shooting at a Nashville Christian school by a transgender person, which saw six people killed, including three children.
“Carlson made the inflammatory and false claim that trans people are ‘targeting” Christians,'” says Egale in their letter. They claim this is “an incitement of violence against trans people that is plain to any viewer.”
Carlson had also called out Egale in the March segment over their response to the Nashville shooting. The organization published a statement titled “All Levels of Government in Canada have a Responsibility to Combat the Rise in Anti-2SLGBTQI Hate” the day after the tragedy, where it did not mention it or offer condolences for the families of the victims.
The organization believes that Fox News’ programming “is in clear violation of Canadian broadcasting standards and has no place on Canadian broadcasting networks.” It wants to see the CRTC “begin public consultations on the removal of Fox News from the List of non-Canadian programming authorized for distribution in Canada.”
Egale has received millions of dollars in funding from federal and provincial governments.
The Government of Canada alone says it committed over $5 million dollars worth of grants and contributions for Egale Canada last year, including $3,618,090 over two years to “program supports to participants who have pledged to increase the diversity of their boards and senior leadership”, $336,310.00 over two years for “Anti-Racism, Indigenization and Faith in the 2SLGBTQI Community”, and $77,000.00 to “develop a national bilingual social media awareness campaign about conversion therapy”.
Egale also has partnerships with several organizations and corporations, including the World Bank and TikTok.
In addition to calling for Fox News to be banned, Egale wants to see restrictions on anti-drag protests, a fostering safe spaces in schools for “2SLGBTQI students”, and gender-neutral screening at airports among other things.
The organization notes that its staff live and work “on stolen land across Turtle Island.” It also currently has openings for positions that are restricted to non-white people, amid a dedication to “taking proactive steps to overcome historical patterns of discrimination in work opportunities which have created barriers of race, colour, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, language, class, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression.”
True North reached out to Egale Canada for comment, but they did not respond in time for publication.
