Friday, March 31, 2006

Due to hate crimes legislation, EWTN Canada self-censors

Got this through email...

Hi all,

Are any of you familiar with a show on EWTN called Life on the Rock? It's a talk show aimed at a young adult crowd, and I watch it religiously :-) every week.

A couple of weeks ago, they announced that the next episode would be on same-sex attraction. I tuned in as usual, but saw that instead, they showed a repeat of a previous show, on a completely different topic. The week after there was a new show, and they mentioned that the last week's show had indeed been about same-sex attraction.

I e-mailed them, to find out why the show never aired here. I knew it was EWTN's decision and not Roger's Cable blocking out the show, because it was still a Life on the Rock Episode that got aired. I told them that the only reason I could possibly think of, was Canada's hate crimes legislation, never thinking that it would really be the reason. Guess what? It is.

Here's the response I received from EWTN.

God Bless,
G-

Dear Mr. G-,

I apologize that you didn't get the show that you were expecting. Due to the new hate crimes regulations in Europe and Canada, it is against the law for us to air shows whose main topic deal with same sex attraction. I would encourage you to purchase the dvd copy of the show through our EWTN Religious Catalogue. You might want to show it to your friends or family and maybe your parish as well. Here is the link to the page that sells past episodes (Stephen and Irene Bennett's show is on page 2).

https://www.ewtn.com/vcatalogue/index.asp?category=liveshows In the future, if you see a show with that topic advertized, feel free to purchase it through the internet. We really appreciate your interest in this topic.

God Bless you, and keep on watching Life on the Rock!
Amalia C. Zea
Life on the Rock Producer
Eternal Word Television Network