July 18, 2022
SHARE
CANADALAND
#798 Pardon My French
What's in a word? Especially when that word carries with it the pain of hundreds of years of racism? This week we talk about how the controversy over the public use of the N-word plays out differently in French and English in this country.
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Sarah Lawrynuik
Senior Producer
Jonathan Goldsbie
News Editor
Tristan Capacchione
Audio Editor & Technical Producer
Kieran Oudshoorn
Managing Editor, Podcasts

When a CBC host used the N-word in pre-production meetings, she was taken off the air. When the French arm of the public broadcaster, Radio-Canada, had a program just months later where the N-word was used four times in both languages, the broadcaster dismissed charges that there was anything wrong with the program. That is, until the CRTC stepped in and said an apology was in order. 

Why two different responses at the same company in two languages? And why does the 1968 book by Pierre Vallières always seem to be at the heart of the controversy?
 

Featured in this episode: Emilie Nicolas, host of Canadaland’s French-language show Détours and columnist at Le Devoir

Further reading:

Support Canadaland at canadaland.com/join

Sponsors: oxio, CFUV, Calm, Article, Hover

More from this series
A former police chief was arrested in Thunder Bay on April 12, 2024. But there’s more to this story than meets the eye.
April 22, 2024
Has journalism been left holding the bag for Big Media’s bad bet? 
April 15, 2024
What is behind the near complete collapse of Canada’s role in peacekeeping around the world?
April 8, 2024
The story that no one asked for, but must be told. The story of one of Canada’s most popular entertainment exports ever. An oral history of the hit show, Just For Laughs Gags.
April 1, 2024
Of all the private intelligence firms in the English-language world, there appears to be just one whose speciality is tracking activists. And it has a branch office in Calgary.
March 25, 2024
Andy Mills’ podcasting work for The New York Times won a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize citation. Then he lost it all.
March 18, 2024
Twenty years of school gets you what… An unpaid internship? An e-bike to deliver ramen? And some sort of side hustle? How did we get here? Today we look at work in Canada.
March 11, 2024
If the polls are anywhere near correct Pierre Poilievre is on track to be our next Prime Minister. And he may be in that job for a long time. So today we’re going to dare to speculate: what would years of Conservative rule look like?
March 4, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND