Source : Regina Leader-Post

OTTAWA -- Well-known Quebec author, playwright and producer Guy Fournier resigned Tuesday as chairman of the board of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. amid controversy over comments he made about bestiality in Lebanon and the joys of bowel movements.

"Mr. Fournier was appointed as chair of CBC Radio-Canada by the previous Liberal government," Heritage Minister Bev Oda said during question period Tuesday in response to a question posed by a Conservative backbencher.

"He has increasingly lost the confidence of Canada's new government. I inform this House that I have received the voluntary resignation of Mr. Fournier effective today."

Fournier's departure provides the Conservatives with an opportunity to begin putting their own stamp on Canada's public broadcaster.

"This will enable this new government to make an appointment that reflects the importance that we put on the role of the chair of CBC Radio-Canada," Oda said.

Fournier's appointment by Liberal heritage minister Liza Frulla in September 2005 was widely welcomed.

With a successful 50-year career to his credit, Fournier came into the job with dynamic plans for everything from increasing the presence of visible minorities on the airwaves of Radio Canada to increasing the level of co-operation between CBC and Radio Canada.

However, Fournier raised eyebrows recently with an article in the popular magazine Sept Jours in which he suggested that bestiality was accepted in Lebanon as long as it was with a female animal. Fournier subsequently apologized for the comments, saying he had been mistaken.

Fournier once again raised eyebrows when a lengthy interview he granted to a Toronto community radio station, CHOQ-FM, last May came to light in which he extolled the pleasures of defecating.

"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."

Fournier exacerbated the problem by talking about the incidents Sunday during the Radio-Canada television show Tout le Monde en Parle -- one of the most popular shows in Quebec.

The resignation came only a day after a spokeswoman for Oda told the National Post the minister was satisfied Fournier had retracted his comments about Lebanon.

Veronique Bruneau refused all comment, sticking stubbornly to Oda's four-sentence response in the House and refusing to even confirm or deny reports that the two spoke Tuesday morning.

Politicians of all political stripes were quick to react, saying Fournier had chosen the right course.

"I think he was the victim of his own turpitude," Liberal MP Denis Coderre said. "He flushed himself."

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, who had called for Fournier's resignation after the comments on Lebanon, welcomed Fournier's resignation.

"At least, he took one good decision."

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton said there were a number of reasons for Fournier to resign -- not just his recent controversial comments.

"We believe it is appropriate that Mr. Fournier resign. There's been a lot of dissatisfaction. We have certainly raised some of these key issues at the hearings of standing committees whether it had to do with local coverage, whether it had to do with a long lockout that should never have happened, whether it's had to do with some of the other policies. Clearly, a change in direction was needed and we accept that decision."

While the CBC has often been a favourite target of Conservatives who have called for a major overhaul, Ian Morrison, spokesman for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said he doubts the Conservatives will try to take advantage of Fournier's resignation to gut the public broadcaster.

"I don't think that a Conservative government that is running 30-something in the polls would think of this as an opportunity to weaken the CBC. They would be thinking more about how do we behave in such a way that we increase our popularity, how do we increase confidence in Canadians who are not perhaps our natural supporters."

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