Charles McVety starts Canadian Religious Broadcasters Association

In February of this year,      religiousbroadcasters.ca was registered. The organization is housed at Canada Christian College in Toronto.

This registration occurred shortly after Charles McVety’s program was kicked off Crossroads Television System and his show Word.ca was dropped by the ichannel.

CTS is a member of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council, which reviewed complaints about 14 of McVety’s programs.  A decision was issued  in June 2010. The council is a voluntary, non governmental organization which exists to administer standards set by its members.

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that the broadcast of various episodes of Word TV between July 19, 2009 and February 21, 2010 breached provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code.  By airing abusive or unduly discriminatory comments about persons on the basis of sexual orientation, CITS-TV breached the provisions of the Human Rights Clauses of both Codes.  By so doing, CITS-TV also broadcast material which had the effect of conveying an attack on gays and lesbians, contrary to the terms of the Religious Programming Clause of the CAB Code of Ethics and Negative Portrayal Clause of the CAB Equitable Portrayal Code.  In its observations about Gay Pride parades, CITS-TV also broadcast derisory comments about the practices of gays and lesbians, contrary to Clause 6 of the Equitable Portrayal Code.  By making inaccurate statements about various issues relating to human rights and hate speech, and by mischaracterizing the purpose of the revision of the Ontario school curriculum and Gay Pride parades, CITS-TV also breached Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics, which requires full, fair and proper presentation of opinion, comment and editorial.

CTS temporarily removed McVety from their line up, perhaps in hope that working with him on maintaining basic broadcast ethics would be productive. That of course didn’t turn out to be the case. I wrote about his initial reaction to the ruling in December: Crossroads Television System dumps Charles McVety. We are not talking minor ethical slip ups, his lack of compliance to basic codes was egregious and he went on the war path, sputtering to anyone listening. Being Charles McVety, he sputtered censorship. Efforts by CTS to help him comply with not only CBSC standards, but their own code of ethics failed, and they dumped his show, taking the rare step of issuing a statement repudiating McVety’s claims.
You can read about it here: This time CTS really dumps Charles McVetys Word TV show.

McVety went nuclear, and managed to get 12 friends to sign a petition about kangaroo courts and censorship called Protect Free Speech. If any of the 12 actually read the CBSC decision or the CTS statement or understand  the Canadian Broadcasting Act and the CRTC Religious Broadcasting Policy,  you can colour me surprised. One of the signees was Peter Marshall of Victory International Ministries/Peter Marshall Media Ministries:

Rev. Peter Marshall, Victory International Ministries, the censoring of Dr. Charles McVety unfortunately reveals that there are individuals and groups within our nation who are committed to removing our liberties and silencing the voices of those who may appose their philosophical, political, social and religious views.  This is something we cannot tolerate or accept. Action must be taken in order to preserve the freedoms that we have always enjoyed as a nation.

Oh. Marshall is the new president of the new Canadian Religious Broadcasters Association.
Hard to say where this reactionary effort is going, the domain name for the site was only purchased for a year, and the code of ethics reads like something a primary school student would write.   There are a couple of points I think need to be said, such as paying your bills, but the ‘code’ falls far short of serving the Canadian public. Works just fine for the US, because it is a cut and paste of the NRB Code of Ethics.

1. I will conduct my personal life, corporate ministry, and business affairs in a way that will not bring shame or reproach to the name of the Lord or the CRBA or its members. Rather, I will speak to bring glory and pleasure to our Lord and encourage others to do likewise. (I Peter 1:14-16, 2:12, 4:11)

2. I will speak the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:1-16)

3. I will recognize and respect what the Lord is doing through other individuals and organizations while refraining from unnecessary criticism of them. (I Peter 3:8-9)

4. I will not use the media to knowingly speak falsely against anyone. (Exodus 20:16)

5. When I believe a fellow member has sinned against me or the Lord, or has violated this Code of Ethics, I will follow the principles and procedures set forth in God’s Word and in Article I of the Bylaws. (Matthew 18:15-17)

I have no idea what Article 1 of the Bylaws are since the Canadian Association of Religious Broadcasters either haven’t written them yet, haven’t bothered to put them online, or don’t think it’s necessary to do so. (The CBSC lists it’s membership and full membership requirements).  Only evangelical Canadians need apply:

The end of the sentence above is not a snipping error on my part, that is exactly how the description appears on Facebook.

The Membership Benefits is a bit of a giggle, because, well because you get a discount if you want to go to the National Religious Broadcasters convention in the US. And supposedly someone will lobby for your rights in Ottawa.  Okay – who?

• Representing your rights and interests in Ottawa, Ontario.
• Maintaining important relationships with elected and appointed officials.
• Providing CRBA member access to those with influence and authority in government.
• Partnership with one of the most prestigious communications law firms on Capitol Hill.
• Access to legislative information on issues affecting Christian media.

If I want legislative information on issues affecting ‘Christian media’ I can use teh google. Membership fees are not posted. The last thing Canadians need is less transparency in religious media/broadcasting. The executive and Presidents councils are not listed.  I mentioned at the top of the post, this association/corporation is a reactive one. This is the legal page:

Canadian Religious Broadcasters Association plays an increasingly important role in defending and promoting communication rights in the legal arena. The fundamental liberty of Christian broadcasters to proclaim an unfettered Gospel of Jesus Christ to a troubled world is being threatened like never before. Whether before the Federal Communications Commission, or other federal agencies, or within the halls of Congress, or before the courts of this land including the Canadian Supreme Court, CRBA fights for the basic rights of religious freedom, free speech and freedom of the press as they impact Christian communicators.

Last I checked we had a parliamentary system of government, no Congress or FCC.

Over on the News page, there are a few items posted by SuperUser and a William.  One is about the NRB encouraging poor besieged Charles McVety, his wife Jennifer and Peter Marshall. I’m not making this up.:^)  Chilling News from Canada. No date, no reference points, just Canadian Chilling news. I’ll help SuperUser out, it was written by the NRB Director of Communications and posted August 17,2011. The word gullible comes to mind. Erroneous also works.

The last thing I noticed was the International page. It’s a chatty diary, no name. I had to go to the NRB to get the writers name. It was written by Ronald R. Harris Senior Vice President for Strategic Partnership, National Religious Broadcasters. Mr. Ronald R. Harris is in Texas.

So, who are the Canadian evangelical broadcasters jumping to join Charles McVety’s Canadian Religious Broadcasters Association? Darned if I know. The Miracle Channel and Grace TV aren’t carrying the CRBC logo. Vision TV and CTS are members in good standing with the CBSC, and are not likely to fall for this latest offering from McVety. Salt and Light can’t participate, they are a Catholic broadcaster.  Many of these Christian radio stations wouldn’t meet the fundamentalist requirements of Marshall and McVety. Churches doing their own streaming on their websites are a dime a dozen, perhaps some Canadian churches would see this new McVety organization as an opportunity. Some. A few. A few Canadians purchase time on CTS, Grace TV, Vision and independent stations. A few.

The Canadian Religious Broadcasters Association has grand ideas, and given what it has been birthed from, this is an organization that needs monitoring. It will be interesting to see who the Canadians are who believe there are benefits to essentially joining the NRB.