Come to Canada for the natural beauty, stay for the ... propaganda?
In a reversal of the usual scenario, a Chinese talk show host claims he’s being censored by Ottawa’s tourism promotional arm
A leading talk show host claims Canada’s tourism promotion agency is trying to prevent him from airing episodes on the mainland that touch on politically sensitive topics in the North American country, calling the obstruction censorship.
Gao Xiaosong, the Chinese answer to Simon Cowell, made the allegations in a series of posts on his Weibo account starting on Saturday.
On first state visit to China, Canada’s Trudeau expected to put ties on ‘more even keel’
The first episode aired on Iqiyi, a distribution channel similar to Netflix, and attracted 4.68 million views, but the second instalment, was not released on Friday as scheduled.
Why would its overseas organisation, especially the ones in China, expose its prejudice and arrogance?
According to Gao, Destination Canada, the national tourism marketing organisation, wants content removed that deals with the First Nations people, as the country’s aboriginal population is called, as well as the long-running separatist movement in French-speaking Quebec province. “While freedom of expression is well protected back home in Canada, why would its overseas organisation, especially the ones in China, expose its prejudice and arrogance?” Gao wrote.
He said the agency threatened to use legal, diplomatic and political means to stop the episode from airing.
Gao said he did not partner with the agency to produce the show, but Destination Canada suggested they had.