Fox News could soon be banned in Canada

America’s most popular news network could soon be banned in Canada after a Toronto activist group launched a complaint over inflammatory comments made on Fox News by Tucker Carlson before he was ousted. 

On May 3rd, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) said it was asking for public input on whether or not Fox News should be removed from Canada. 

According to CTV News, the move for public consultation was prompted by a complaint from Egale Canada about how the LGBTQ2 community was portrayed on Fox News.

In an April 4th letter, Egale Canada asked Canada’s media regulatory body to remove Fox News from Canadian programming services after prominent Canadian trans rights leaders were featured negatively during a news segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight. 

“The coverage aimed to provoke hatred and violence against 2SLGBTQI communities, particularly those who are Two-Spirit, trans, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming,” read the open letter, which was addressed to CRTC Chairperson Vicky Eatrides. 

“This programming is in clear violation of Canadian broadcasting standards and has no place on Canadian broadcasting networks,” the letter added before explaining the issue. 

According to Egale, Tucker Carleson made several false claims about 2STNBGN people within Canada and did so in a way that showed them as violent and dangerous. 

The programming from Carlson positioned the trans community in Canada as a group “in existential opposition” to Christianity and framed them as a threat that Egale wrote could only be interpreted as an “incitement to violence” against the trans community. 

The activist group also argued that the segment contained several false claims about the trans community, particularly that they received preferential employment treatment as well as other opportunities. 

“This is clearly an attempt to stoke resentment against 2STNBGN people,” Egale wrote, which the activist group said obliged the CTRC to investigate the possibility of removing Fox News for not being in line with Canada’s Television Broadcasting Regulations. 

According to Global News, Tucker Carlson's news segment aired just days after the mass shooting at Nashville’s The Covenant School, which saw a transgender person at the center of the tragedy that killed three children under ten as well as three adults. 

Global News noted that “stations and services” outside of Canada are not held to the same regulatory and broadcast standards as those operating within the country. 

However, this has not stopped Canada’s regulatory agency from banning non-Canadian broadcasters from the country’s airways in the past according to Global News, which cited the removal of Russia Today from the country's airwaves after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. 

More than 160 comments regarding the removal of Fox News from Canada have been submitted so far according to CTV News, many of which are in favor of the move or deeply oppose the idea.

"Why would we want a broadcaster spreading falsehoods and damaging our democracy in the way that it has done to the U.S.," one commenter wrote as quoted by CTV News. 

"Eliminating sources of information containing alternative thoughts to whatever your personal agenda may be is un-democratic and against free speech," another person wrote according to CTV News, in support of not banning Fox News in Canada. 

Canadians will have until June 2nd to voice their opinion on whether or not Fox News and its programming should be removed from the airways in Canada.