The Dean Blundell Show finally breaks one regulation too many

Here’s an interesting thing about Dean Blundell‘s morning show on 102.1 The Edge: it’s the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council‘s best customer. No other single show has generated so many judgments from the industry regulator over the past two years (not even this). And yet, the Blundell formula remains mostly unchanged, for two reasons: one, it’s popular; and two, the CBSC is run by the broadcasting industry, not the government, so it lacks the ability to penalize code-of-ethics violators in any meaningful way.

Except now it seems like Blundell’s morning zoo may actually have violated laws that matter.

A remarkable Star article summarizes the situation: Derek Welsman, who appears regularly on Blundell’s show, was the foreman of a jury charged with deciding the fate of Joshua Dowholis, a man who was accused of sexually assaulting men he met at a downtown bathhouse. During the trial, and even after helping to deliver a guilty verdict against Dowholis, Welsman joked with Blundell about the case, on-air. (The prison-rape gags were as vulgar as you probably imagine.) He even discussed the jury’s deliberation process, which is against the law. The incident could result in a mistrial.

As of yesterday, Welsman hadn’t been charged with any crimes. There’s a chance The Edge will have to make a quick on-air acknowledgement of Blundell’s mistake, but that will likely only happen if someone complains to the CBSC first.