Radio-Canada’s ombudsman says the way a caller’s disparaging comments about Jews made on a television show were handled did not comply with the public network’s standards.

In a Sept. 15 report, Pierre Tourangeau responded to a complaint by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) concerning the Aug. 4 episode of La période des questions, a public affairs program on the TV news network ICI RDI.

CIJA initially complained about the remarks, which it considers anti-Semitic, to Radio-Canada management, and when it wasn’t satisfied by the response, to the ombudsman.

Tourangeau agreed the caller’s remarks were “clearly excessive and anti-Semitic.” The program’s host, Christine Fourner, was reproached for not objecting to the caller’s comments at the time.

He concluded that the responsibility to “reject certain comments [by viewers] or to underline their excessive character [is] entirely and uniquely that of those responsible for the program and the host,” especially the latter.

CIJA was troubled that Fournier failed not only to interrupt the caller, or at least point out the “inflammatory” nature of her words, but commented afterward that her remarks were “interesting.”

The subject of the episode was the federal election. The caller, Marie Fontaine of Quebec City, said she wanted to know if New Democratic Party leader Tom Mulcair is “pro-Zionist” and what his foreign policy is.

“If he is pro-Zionist, well, he can pack his bags and leave. We don’t want people like that here,” she said.

She continued more vehemently: “Our best friend, it’s not [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, madame, not at all. We should have disinfected the place when he left. When we know about all the murders happening over there… in Israel. They are stealing, just now, land from West Bank residents.

“What’s the problem? The United States, now Canada, we are in the claws and tentacles of those people, who want to become masters of the world.”

Fournier, a veteran broadcaster, thanked Lafontaine “very much” and then commented to the show’s in-studio guest, Alain-G. Gagnon, a political science professor at the Université du Québec à Montreal, that the caller’s remarks were “interesting.”

In a letter to Radio-Canada dated Aug. 6, David Ouellette, CIJA’s deputy director of Quebec public affairs, described Lafontaine’s comments as “clearly excessive and anti-Semitic” and liable to incite hatred against Jews.

In particular, her opinion that Jews seek world domination is reminiscent of “Jewish conspiracies in classic anti-Semitic literature,” he wrote, including The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and other propaganda that depicts Jews as “octopuses or other monstrous figures taking over the world with their tentacles and claws.”

Ouellette also complained about Gagnon’s references to the “Jewish lobby” and the “many financiers” attracted to the Canadian government’s pro-Israel policies. He said Lafontaine is “right to be worried.”

Tourangeau concluded: “Certain comments from the public heard on the program La période des questions, broadcast on ICI RDI on Aug. 4, 2015 infringed on the value of equality and the guidelines on the ‘respect and absence of prejudice’ of the Normes et pratiques journalistiques of Radio-Canada.”

In his earlier response to the CIJA complaint, Luc Simard, Radio-Canada’s director of diversity and relations with citizens, said La période des questions, which is live, is a tribune for public opinion and, therefore, it would be “out of place [for the program’s staff] to censure what the public says under the pretext that certain opinions displease them.

“Our country identifies the freedom of speech as a fundamental freedom and citizens are allowed to exercise it.”

However, Simard agreed that Lafontaine’s comments about Jews seeking world domination are reminiscent of classic anti-Semitism.

“Our team did not have the intention of relaying these prejudices.” He wrote that Lafontaine did not express anti-Semitic views when initially screened by a researcher, or she would not have been permitted to go on air.

Simard said Fournier acted correctly in ending Lafontaine’s intervention “after a few seconds.”

Simard defended Gagnon’s remarks about “financiers” being attracted to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s policy on Israel. He wrote that the “Jewish lobby” is a term for groups whose “activities are documented and the effect of their actions is known.”

He said it is “a shame that [Lafontaine’s] anti-Semitic remarks were not counterbalanced by other participants. After her intervention, 20 minutes remained in the show. The tribune was open to everyone: if someone wanted to express a contrary opinion, there is every indication that they would have had access to the line… We deplore that a voice rejecting anti-Semitism was not heard that day.”

Ouellette rejected that explanation and took the complaint to the ombudsman.

Tourangeau differed with Simard that it was up to another member of the public to point out the inacceptable nature of a previous caller’s remarks.

“It is true that Radio-Canada must give voice to the largest possible range of opinions, but anti-Semitism is not a legitimate opinion, it’s a racist belief, it is a scourge that has dogged humanity for centuries and has led to… the horrors that we know.”

Tourangeau said he discussed the matter with Fournier, who he describes a “a great professional,” and other members of the crew, notably the show’s director, Nathalie Demers.

His impression is that no one was listening attentively to Lafontaine when she veered into anti-Semitism. Fournier claims she did not fully grasp what the caller was saying.

He “strongly suggest then that the management of ICI RDI attentively analyze the functioning of their telephone tribunes and do what is necessary to prevent that same situation from being repeated.”

Radio-Canada’s standards prohibit stereotypes or generalizations “that feed prejudices or expose people to hate or misunderstanding,” he noted.