CREDIT: Pierre Obendrauf, CanWest News Service
CBC chairman Guy Fournier recently told a French-language radio
station that bowel movements are better than sex. He also infuriated
Lebanese Canadians when he claimed that Lebanon permits bestiality.
Posted on 09/19/2006 1:02:57 PM PDT by GMMAC
CBC chairman facing ridicule in Quebec
Comments about bestiality and bowel movements cause uproar
Graeme Hamilton
National Post
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
MONTREAL - CBC chairman Guy Fournier has become the target of anger and derision in his home province after falsely claiming that Lebanon permits bestiality and for granting a lengthy interview on the joys of bowel movements.
CREDIT: Pierre Obendrauf, CanWest News Service
CBC chairman Guy Fournier recently told a French-language radio
station that bowel movements are better than sex. He also infuriated
Lebanese Canadians when he claimed that Lebanon permits bestiality.
On Sunday night, Mr. Fournier, appeared on one of Quebec's most-watched television shows, Tout le monde en parle, ostensibly to apologize for a magazine column he wrote making the unfounded bestiality claims.
In his Sept. 9 weekly column for the magazine 7 Jours, Mr. Fournier included the following nugget: "In Lebanon, the law allows men to have sexual relations with animals as long as they are female! Doing the same thing with male beasts can result in the death penalty."
The problem was that the information, gleaned from the Internet, was false. Montreal's Lebanese community was incensed, and a local university instructor of Lebanese descent began steps to file a lawsuit.
Addressing the audience of Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle, which regularly numbers more than two million, Mr. Fournier admitted he had not verified the information before publication.
"It was done to make people smile but it has shocked many people in the Lebanese diaspora, so I apologize to them," he said. He added that from now on he will stop all outside activities, including the 7 Jours column, and focus on his role with the public broadcaster.
The show's host, Guy A. Lepage, then moved the discussion along, digging up a little-noticed interview Mr. Fournier gave last May to a small French-language radio station in Toronto, during which the CBC/Radio-Canada chairman rhapsodized about defecation for more than 10 minutes.
Mr. Fournier recounted a train trip in the early 1960s during which a friend named Michel said going number two was as pleasurable as having sex.
"From that moment, I started paying closer attention -- and I have to tell you, I quickly realized that Michel was entirely right," Mr. Fournier said.
"And 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."
He also advised against distractions while on the toilet. "There are even people who push the heresy to the point of doing Sudoku or crosswords rather than concentrating on the pleasure that they would have doing the thing," Mr. Fournier told his radio interviewer. "It is just as heretical as if you read the National Post while making love. It is not to be recommended."
Writing in Le Soleil yesterday, TV critic Richard Therrien said Mr. Fournier's attempt at damage control backfired. "No, Fournier did not come off as more sympathetic but more foolish. How long is he going to survive on the board of directors?" Mr. Therrien asked.
Alain-Michel Ayache, a political science instructor at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, said he had not decided whether Mr. Fournier's televised apology was sufficient for him to abandon his planned lawsuit.
"A journalist is logically double-checking any information prior to any publication whatsoever," he said. "I was astonished to know that, despite this fact, he still wants to hold his position as chairman of CBC ... If any other journalist had made a similar mistake, he would have been definitely put aside."
Pascale Montminy, a spokeswoman for the CBC, said Mr. Fournier was not available for comment yesterday.
Veronique Bruneau, press secretary to federal Heritage Minister Beverley Oda, said the Minister was satisfied that Mr. Fournier had retracted his comments about Lebanon and had apologized. "As a journalist, he should have verified his sources and been accurate," she said.
Mr. Fournier, 75, was appointed to a five-year term as chairman by the Liberal government last September.
He is a well-known author, playwright and producer in Quebec.
ghamilton@nationalpost.com
© National Post 2006
Socialist human fecal mass. Literally!
Your tax dollars at work
PING!
He also advised against distractions while on the toilet. "There are even people who push the heresy to the point of doing Sudoku or crosswords rather than concentrating on the pleasure that they would have doing the thing," Mr. Fournier told his radio interviewer. "It is just as heretical as if you read the National Post while making love. It is not to be recommended."
Waxing sentimental anout taking a crap. Just damn.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
Amazing. And Canadians make fun of George Bush. HA!
They could create a couple of new portfolios in the Canadian Government. This guy would be quite qualified.
He is just obviously full of it.
Can you imagine sitting next to this guy at a dinner party? :o)
Mr. Fournier, if you look out the window tonight, you can see Uranus!
Some observations:
a.) Bestiality may not be legal in Lebanon, but if the choice came down to Helen Thomas or some cute little Baa-Baa-Baa, well let's just say that lambchops look a whole lot more appealing.
b.) As for this joker's moronic statements about the joys of defecation, this actually makes a great deal of sense, as the one and only true legacy of the Liberal Party was, is and always shall be a great big pile of *SH*T*!.
c.) If any more evidence is needed that the CBC should just quietly be shuttered and closed down, I cannot imagine what it might be, if this is any indication of the calibre of management that is running the operation.
I think Guy got himself into one too many bottles of Screech.
GEORGE: They made me buy it.. A hundred bucks this thing cost me. (Gesturing to the book) How dare they?! I got news for you, if it wasn't for the toilet, there would be no books.
JERRY: (Sarcastic) Yeah. I understand Guttenberg used to spend a lot of time in there.
GEORGE: They're selling coffee, bran muffins.. you're surrounded by reading material. It's entrapment!
JERRY: (Reading the cover of the book George was forced to buy) 'French Impressionist Paintings'?
GEORGE: I find the soothing pastorial images very conduc-
JERRY: (Cutting him off) Thank you very much.
This guy has obviously not had good sex.
I'll take an orgasm over a "voiding" anyday!
Sounds like M. Fournier would be just as happy shipping it in as shipping it out.
Must have been talking about Sweden.
Frenchmen!!!
What can one say!
We Canuckleheads have to put up with this nonsense 'regularly'.
Islam does permit sex with animals as long as the do not have cloven hooves.
Was in Khomeni's book.
Great side by side...
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