Kevin Raphaël demands the dismissal of Gilbert Delorme

The Super Bowl on Sunday continues to stir conversation this Thursday evening.

In fact, I should rather say: the halftime show of the Super Bowl continues to stir conversation.

Louis Lacroix has finally been suspended for writing on X Facebook that he wondered why the street gangs had taken control of his television during the Super Bowl.

I pointed out Monday at noon that if Jeremy Filosa had been suspended and then retrained on the definition of journalistic ethics, I was “looking forward” to seeing what Cogeco’s managers would decide to do with their parliamentary journalist.

If doubting that Man has ever walked on the Moon warranted a suspension, a several-month reassignment, and retraining for a sports journalist, a publication ridiculing Black culture made by a political journalist needed to be addressed.

Let’s call this the Filosa case law. By acting so firmly last fall, 98.5 FM somewhat painted itself into a corner: if you make a journalistic mistake, you must be punished with this new standard. If not, the injured parties will say there are double standards at Cogeco.

I spoke to several people from the Montreal Black community who expressed outrage that Cogeco defended Louis Lacroix so quickly, stating that they would not suspend him. In the end, they reversed their decision and suspended him.

I repeat, but the Filosa story has set the bar “high.” #CaseLaw #TooSeverePunishments? #EquivalentPunishments

Kevin Raphaël demands the firing of Louis Lacroix… and Gilbert Delorme
Kevin Raphaël and Pat Laprade released their latest episode of the podcast The Anti-Pods of Wrestling this noon.

At the eighth minute of the brand new episode, you can hear Kevin Raphaël demand the firing of Louis Lacroix… and Gilbert Delorme.

“What Gilbert said, and what he (Louis Lacroix) said, deserves for me to be thrown out. Because it’s terrible, what was said […] This kind of thinking, that’s garbage, my bad, that needs to go.” – Kevin Raphaël

I invite you to listen for yourself to get the full context: LINK.

Kevin Raphaël has a point: yes, fundamentally, we need to stop, as a society, making racist comments, exhibiting behaviors, and holding thoughts that are racist. And it must start with those who have a greater power of speech or writing than others.

The post by Louis Lacroix shocked me immediately. He was publicly attacking a culture I have immersed myself in for decades.

Except that I am white and was only partially targeted by Louis Lacroix’s comments. I can easily imagine how young Black individuals might have felt, listening to the excerpt.

As for Gilbert, the nuance is a bit more subtle. He doesn’t like rap and he says it loud and clear. He has the right; there aren’t many 62-year-old white men from the South Shore who listen to rap in their Buick Regal car.

But everyone who knows the man will tell you that he is ZERO racist. ZERO AND A BAR. Gilbert Delorme is, on the contrary, one of the best people I’ve had the chance to meet in the media world, and what he and his wife do for Quebec society – for all its cultural layers – is exceptional.

However, some individuals from the Black community confessed to me today that they were hurt by Gilbert’s remarks, especially towards the end of the excerpt below:

@blackmarketradio The halftime show is crap!!!#superbowlliv #tiktokquebec #nfl #football #bpmsports ♬ original sound – Black Market Fm

Who am I to question their discomfort?

What to do about all this?
Should we fire Louis Lacroix for his post? I don’t know. Some people are far better positioned than I am to judge that.

Should we dismiss Gilbert Delorme? Absolutely not… for all the reasons mentioned above. And don’t think I’m returning a favor to someone who owes me: Gilbert picked up the podcast that I host with Jean Trudel no later than last week on the airwaves of BPM Sports.

However, if we required Jeremy Filosa to return to school to get up to speed on journalistic ethics, I believe a little training on the various cultural communities present in Quebec, the particulars of each, and ways to understand others’ differences would certainly not harm some.

And at that point, perhaps we could also include the one who made the decision to cut the excerpt of Gilbert to share on the station’s social media in that training…