.....but I don't have any more right to interfere with his making a living than I do with a doctor in an operating room. That is basically what hecklers are doing and they have to accept the consequences.
Human rights complaint over comic's lesbian remarks
Updated Thu. Jun. 26 2008 5:23 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
A Toronto comedian facing a B.C. Human Rights Tribunal hearing says rude comments he made to two Vancouver lesbians were only an attempt to stop them from heckling.
"I don't hate anybody based on their sexual orientation, or whatever, but I do hate hecklers and sometimes I get a little vehement," Guy Earle says in a radio interview posted on YouTube.
Earle said he was hosting a weekly open-mic night in a restaurant on March 22, 2007 when the moved up to the front of the audience and began swearing at him.
Earle said he asked them to stop and be quiet, but they refused. That's when he responded.
"I said, 'Come on, you're fat and ugly -- you're not even lesbian,'" the comedian said, adding he then made some remarks that had to do with oral sex and the use of a sex toy.
"If anybody has seen my comedy, don't heckle me -- I get rude," Earle says in the interview.
The comedian says his comments were simply jokes, but most of the audience members left and started booing him.
Earle said when he got off the stage and walked past the women, one of them splashed a drink in his face.
He got back up on stage later to say goodnight, he said. Then when he walked past their table a second time, the same woman splashed another drink in his face and then stood in front of him as if she wanted to fight.
"I lost it for two seconds, and this is the part I do apologize for ... I pulled her sunglasses off her head, and right in front of her face, I broke them in half," says Earle, who admits he was "half-drunk" on vodka.
The comedian said when he showed up at the usual time the following week, there were picketers outside the restaurant, some holding signs that read, "Hate speech, not free speech."
Earle says Canadians are too politically correct.
"They pissed me off so I said some rude things. Does that mean I should go to court because ... they were based on some kind of minority or discrimination or something-something?"
The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal will decide whether Earle's comments, which the complainant Lorna Pardy claims were "homophobic," violated the Human Rights Code.
A preliminary decision released this week says both parties are far apart in their recollections of the incident and the amount of alcohol involved.
Please Add Comments(9)
GK
It's all part of the risk you take when you scream out loud at a comedian. If you don't like what their saying, it's easier to leave. When you confront someone you should at least somewhat expect a response and chances are if it's a comedian at a night club, you won't like what they're going to say. Freedom of speech. Whatever happened to it, especially for a comedian whose job is to mostly make fun of and "rib" others.
Downey
Canadians are becoming worse and worse!!! Bring a comedian to course for being offensive! Come on! These people REALLY need to get a life and stop trying to ruin others. Shameful! I really hope this is not considered by the Human Rights Tribunal. It will make them an even bigger joke.
js
this is crazy. if you go to any comedy show and you heckle the comedians, expect the comedian to say something back and most will be rude remards. the canadian human rights should stay out of this. it happened at a club. i can if it was at work. what happened to free speech? so he called them names. big deal!! canadians have no sense of humour and run to the courts for any little thing. pathetic.
Vince M
The things we waste money on for people with hurt feelings.
Time to shut these wasteful witchhunts down for good.
KD
They better not waste any tax dollars on this.
Brock
This is rediculous. If you're going to heckle, then expect the comic to say something rude in return. I've been to many comedy clubs and none of the patrons who were picked on by the comic complained. They just went along with it and laughed. These women should grow up and the Human Rights should stay out of this.
RM
Here we go again with the Human Rights complaints. When are we going to rein in these commissions and stop punishing thought crimes.
Jj
"...Canadians are too politically correct."
Please. Canadians are not "too politically correct". Most of us are simply about not lower themselves through using below-the-belt-type comments just because someone angers them.
It's one thing to insult in general or to scream at a person. It is, however, an entirely different thing to draw out someone's sexual orientation and insult it.
Truth be told, there isn't a topic in the world that cannot be talked about and laughed at. But real comedians know how to deal with them. Earle needs to learn from the pros.
This is like Michael Richards redux.
Wayne
These human rights tribunals are turning into some sort of orwellian thought police and I for one think we should start getting rid of them as we have a criminal code let's start using it instead and if there is no crime involved well guess what folks there is no crime involved. Outlawing hate sppech is ridiculous I hate Human Rights Tribunals = is this legal?
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