Canadian Broadcast Standards Council rules that giving women as prizes is A-OK – another “Win a Bride” contest emerges.

I must say, I’m really sad to be writing this post. I wrote my first post for the Feministing Community Blog in October of last year when a Canadian radio station hosted a contest entitled “Win a Wife” in which they offered one winner the chance to go to Russia to meet a number of women signed up with what is colloquially known as a “mail-order bride” company. A petition was run on change.org that gathered close to 10,000 signatures, and numerous complaints were lodged with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC), but nothing was done. The contest went ahead, and I recently heard back from the CBSC regarding my complaint: it was decided that this complaint would not even be granted adjudication because the contest was not deemed to violate any part of the CBSC code, despite the obvious connotation inherent in this contest that women are worth so little that they can be given away as prizes. The attention drawn to the troublesome nature of “mail-order bride” companies with regards to the women participating in them (did they make the choice freely? Are they driven by social or economic hardships? Have they been coerced?) has been largely ignored.

So here I am again. Another contest–this time in Halifax, Nova Scotia, has been launched by Q104FM. This time, it’s called “The Male is in the Czech” and it promises the winner a vacation to the Czech Republic to meet “mail-order brides.” This one, might I add, chooses its winner on March 8^th–International Women’s Day.  Once again, the radio station claims that this is no different than offering the winner a vacation and a membership to a dating website, and yet will not address why–if they truly believe this to be the case–they don’t simply give the winner a membership to Lavalife or eHarmony.

Here’s a link to the petition against this deplorable contest.

Thus far, I’m aware of three such contests of this kind that have recently taken place–the first in New Zealand, the second in Alberta, and the third in Halifax. They seem to be becoming a trend, and they seem to be getting less media attention and pushback as each one surfaces. Please, if this bothers you as much as it bothers me, take the time to sign the petition. Or even better, lodge a complaint with the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council or write to the station’s general manager–his name is Ron Ryan, and his email address can be found here.

Also, if you have any suggestions for organizations to write to about this but don’t have the time to write to them yourself, I’d love to hear them. Thanks in advance for any help you have the time to give.