Controversy
In 2007, former Toronto Maple Leafs player Tie Domi filed a defamation lawsuit against Derringer and Q107, seeking $950,000 in damages. The suit claims that in a broadcast on October 2, 2006, Derringer falsely said that Domi charges fees to appear for charities. Derringer denies making the statement attributed to him in the suit. As of 2009 there has been no outcome in this case.
In 2003, Justice Richard Schneider of the Ontario Court of Justice filed a lawsuit against Derringer seeking $3 million in damages for libel. On the May 29, 2003 episode of Tool of the Day, Derringer criticized the Judge's ruling in a child pornography case involving a 20-year-old man. Justice Schneider sentenced the man to 9 months house arrest, with no jail time, a sentence Derringer declared too lenient. Derringer called Justice Schneider a "supposed Judge", and a "disgrace to our justice system". He went on to say sterner penalties for child pornography would not come about until "a Justice like is gonna have evidence brought into court in a case like that of Yong Jun Kim, and it’s gonna be his kid being forced to perform fellatio on a man and sent around the world on the Internet." The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) ruled that Derringer "made improper personal attacks on the judge," and that " Derringer commentary also sanctioned or promoted possible personal attacks on the children of the judge."
In response to the lawsuit and a complaint lodged with the CBSC by Justice Schneider's ex-wife, the radio station acknowledged Schneider's concerns while defending Derringer's actions as "without actual malice". In a letter to Schneider, CILQ-FM stated that "the Program, like many radio shows, can sometimes be controversial in nature and not for everyone's taste. However, many of Q107's core audience, which is mainly adults in the 25-54 year old age group, in particular, men, find the Program humorous ." Derringer issued an on-air apology and, following the CBSC's ruling, the station was required to broadcast a series of announcements regarding the contentious statements.
Derringer was criticised for supporting the Ontario chapters of the Hells Angels in an August 31, 2005 column for The Toronto Sun. In it, he dismissed recent media reports about the Hell's Angels as "filled with innuendo, lies, half-truths and complete fabrications."
Read more about this topic: John Derringer (commentator)
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