Radio host Jeff Fillion fired by Bell Media over tweet
Quebec City shock jock mocked Quebec businessman over son's suicide
Quebec City shock jock Jeff Fillion has been fired over controversial statements about the suicide of the teenage son of a well-known Quebec businessman.
Énergie 98.9 FM in Quebec City, a Bell Media affiliate, tweeted news of its announcer's dismissal on Wednesday, saying simply "Jeff Fillion no longer works for Bell.'
Nous annonçons que Jeff Fillion ne travaille plus pour Bell.
—@energie989Alexandre Taillefer, the founder of Téo Taxi and, spoke openly about his teenage son's recent suicide on Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle last Sunday.
He said the suicide of his son Thomas, 14, was his "greatest failure" and that it was the worst experience a parent could go through.
Taillefer mentioned Thomas had been chatting about suicide in an online forum run by Amazon. He told the show he wished companies had a method to detect certain words, the same way it can detect when a user wants to buy a certain type of shoes.
Fillion mocked Taillefer on Twitter — saying the businessman blamed Amazon for his son's suicide.
<a href="https://twitter.com/jefffillion">@jefffillion</a> Je suis profondément offusqué par ce message. Attaquez mes taxis tant que vous voulez. Mais mon fils??? Vous êtes odieux.
—@atailleferIn his response on Twitter, Taillefer called Fillion's comments hateful.
Fillion deactivated his Twitter account following backlash.
Bell Media promptly suspended Fillion, saying his comments were not in line with the company's code of conduct.
It isn't the first time Fillion, who has a reputation for making inflammatory comments, has gotten into trouble.
A Quebec Superior Court judge ordered Fillion to pay $340,000 in damages to a weather presenter in 2005 for "sexist, heinous, malicious, unfounded, hurtful and abusive" comments about her.