MP files complaint over Allen's immigrant rant
Updated Tue. Sep. 25 2007 10:33 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
ctv.ca
A complaint against music promoter Bruce Allen has been filed with the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, after he ranted about immigrants seeking special treatment.
Liberal MP Raymond Chan filed the formal complaint
Tuesday, and accused Allen of making discriminatory remarks.
Allen made his comments on B.C. radio station CKNW on Sept. 13.
"It seems more and more that we are being pilloried by special interest groups that just want to make special rules for themselves," he said. "This is easy to solve: these are the rules, there's the door. If you don't like the rules, hit it. We don't need you here. You have another place to go -- it's called home. See ya."
He specifically mentioned RCMP officers who wear turbans instead of the traditional hat, and a decision by Elections Canada to allow women to wear burkas to vote, "when it's clear voters have to be able to be identified at the polls."
Allen said, "We have laws in this country. They are spelled out and they're easy to get a hold of. If you're immigrating to this country and you don't like the rules that are in place then you have the right to choose not to live here."
But he also said there had been a lot of "immigrant-bashing going on in recent months," and chided Passport Canada for declining passports to three Sikh boys because their photographs showed them with knotted hair covered by a handkerchief.
Chan, a former minister of multiculturalism, said he found Allen's comments troubling.
"I find Mr. Allen's commentary very deceptive and inaccurate and for him to use that kind of deceptive inaccuracy, to make inflammatory remarks, discriminatory remarks, is unacceptable," he told reporters.
"This is why I asked the CRTC to make a full investigation on his comments and report to the public as soon as possible. This is not only an issue of visible minority groups. This is a Canadian issue."
Allen represents such successful Canadian artists as Michael Buble and Bryan Adams.
Last week, the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics appointed him to help organize the event's opening and closing ceremonies.
On Radio 1550 Sher-e-Punjab, callers said the committee had made the wrong choice and Allen should be removed from the position.
"The Olympics is about uniting people, about equality, whereas the decision taken doesn't reflect that," said one caller.
Meanwhile, B.C. Attorney General Wally Oppal, who is the current minister for multiculturalism, defended Allen.
"There are misunderstandings and we should try to understand one another," he said.
According to a spokesperson for the CRTC, the commission has already received several complaints about Allen's comments. |
