MONTREAL – Award-winning broadcaster Ted Bird came under fire after posting controversial comments on his blog Tuesday.
The veteren radio host wrote an opinion piece about the boycott of Russian products in the wake of the country’s violent treatment of gays.
Several Montreal journalists posted their reaction to the blog post on Twitter, causing what one journalist dubbed a “tweetfight.”
Read more: Activists angered by Russia’s anti-gay laws launch vodka boycott, pressure Olympic VIPs
The vodka boycott has received some criticism, including a reaction from one of Canada’s most prominent gay Olympians.
“I don’t believe in boycotts,” Mark Tewksbury said in an interview last Tuesday.
“The athletes would pay the price, not the host country. I think the best thing is to be present and continue to live your life.”
According to his blog post, Bird agreed that a boycott would be ineffective, He noted that calls to boycott all things Russian “because Bill can’t hold Bob’s hand at the Olympic Village in Sochi” were impractical.
“On the scale of human rights abuses, it doesn’t compare to Chinese-occupied Tibet.” Bird wrote.
“Beyond the futility of a boycott, there’s this: gay rights have evolved into a political issue in North America, but in many parts of the world it’s still a moral issue, and it’s no one’s place to impose their moral standards on someone else’s culture.”
Take a look at the start of the debate here:
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