A Canadian broadcasting complaint has been filed against Punjabi radio host Harjinder Thind, who has long hosted a talk show on the RED-FM radio station in Surrey. The complaint concerns comments Thind allegedly made about mothers “abandoning babies” at Surrey Memorial Hospital. Pitt Meadows-based Indo-Canadian artist Jag Nagra, who was recently featured in the documentary about Gay South Asians-Indo-Canadians in lower mainland, has filed a complaint with the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council (CBSC) over comments made by Thind during a broadcast on Thursday, February 24 on which Nagra appeared. “The ‘uncle complex’ is that senior men in our community who have, through patriarchy, created positions of both privilege and power for themselves [but] have not reciprocated with younger people to understand their lives and to make changes in their own thinking,” Satwinder Kaur Bains, director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, said about Thind’s comments. Bains said Thind should publicly apologize for his comments and make efforts to change his viewpoint.

By DESIBUZZCanada Staff With News Files

SURREY –A Canadian broadcasting complaint has been filed against Punjabi radio host Harjinder Thind, who has long hosted a talk show on the RED-FM radio station in Surrey. The complaint concerns comments Thind allegedly made about mothers “abandoning babies” at Surrey Memorial Hospital.

Pitt Meadows-based Indo-Canadian artist Jag Nagra, who was recently featured in the documentary about Gay South Asians-Indo-Canadians in lower mainland, has filed a complaint with the Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council (CBSC) over comments made by Thind during a broadcast on Thursday, February 24 on which Nagra appeared.

Nagra, a member of the non-profit Punjabi Market Regeneration Collective, was scheduled to talk on Thind’s show that day to promote the organization’s search for new board members, reported CBC News.

While waiting to go on air, Nagra heard Thind claim there was “breaking news” that numerous South Asian mothers at Surrey Memorial Hospital were giving birth and “abandoning” their babies by giving them up for adoption, reported CBC News.

“He asked if there are any doctors or nurses who work at Surrey Memorial Hospital who are listening. He wanted them to call him … he was like, ‘Who are these women who are abandoning their babies?'” Nagra told CBC News.

“The tone of voice and the language he was using came across [as] very intimidating … it just didn’t sit right with me, obviously, that he was asking for these women to be exposed.”

Nagra says she did not bring up the topic with Thind immediately because she was flustered in the moment, and talked with Thind on air as scheduled. 

Afterwards, Thind did not respond to several emails Nagra sent, she says, including requests she made to return to his show to address his comments.

The next day, Nagra wrote a Twitter thread about the incident, saying Thind’s on-air remarks contributed to a stigma against women’s reproductive rights and were reckless in nature.

“Putting up a baby for adoption is not an easy or light thing,” she said. 

“It’s also frustrating that he’s constantly blaming women for this … It takes two people to get someone pregnant. How come it’s, ‘A woman has given up a baby for adoption’? How come you’re not questioning where the fathers are?” 

Nagra subsequently filed a complaint with the CBSC, the broadcast regulator for private media organizations, on Monday.

Thind and RED FM’s program director, Pooja Sekhon, declined to comment on the CBC story to their reporter but in a follow-up broadcast this Monday, Sekhon addressed the comments with RED FM president Kulwinder Sanghera, however no RED FM representatives have addressed the topic on social media.

Nagra told CBC News that South Asian parents are often reluctant to discuss abortion rights and safe sex with their children, and that Thind’s comments could further stigmatize women with pre-marital sexual relationships — which can be seen as taboo — as well as rape victims.

Satwinder Kaur Bains, director of the South Asian Studies Institute at the University of the Fraser Valley, told CBC News Thind’s broadcast remarks were reflective of a wider attitude among certain older South Asian men.

“The ‘uncle complex’ is that senior men in our community who have, through patriarchy, created positions of both privilege and power for themselves [but] have not reciprocated with younger people to understand their lives and to make changes in their own thinking,” she said.

Bains says Thind should publicly apologize for his comments and make efforts to change his viewpoint.

“[The incident] should convey that issues around women’s lives are not the purview of men to make light of,” Bains said.

“The journalistic platform has ethical responsibility, has a moral responsibility, has a regulatory responsibility.”

Previous complaints

Thind and RED FM have been the subject of previous regulatory complaints. 

In 2011, the Surrey Women’s Centre said they had filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) against Thind and RED FM, stating that Thind had made inflammatory comments about domestic abuse.

Thind’s remarks came a day after a murder case in which a man fatally stabbed his estranged wife in Surrey.

In 2008, Thind was forced to issue an on-air apology following a CBSC complaint which said he breached ethical codes. The CBSC found Thind did not perform his duty during a show which saw callers make disparaging comments about gay people.

The CBSC is a self-regulatory body of Canada’s private broadcasters. It does not have the ability to issue fines or strip a station of its broadcasting licence. However, it can compel broadcasters to issue on-air apologies and follow up with complainants.