Tongue in cheek, the host responded that the viewer was correct and that everyone should stand for Canada's national anthem. The segment served to highlight through satire Volt 's ongoing theme during the weeks surrounding the national election about society's apathy towards the political process, patriotism and national affairs in general. The segment served to highlight TFO's willingness to employ absolutely any means to shock and disturb its audience through the depiction, without warning and at an early broadcast hour, of gruesomely detailed scenes of animal violence. The fact that the segment requires this much post-facto explanation is proof of its gratuitousness and the intent of the program producers to shock and horrify their audience without even incidental regard to broadcast standards. This may especially be true of comedy programming geared to young people, and indeed, of Volt .
Comedy is no defense against complaints of improper airing of violent content.
Neither is drama. We apologize if this particular segment caused you undue discomfort, and hope that we've responded to your concerns. Thank you once again for your comments. The apology is delivered by rote and after a thorough evasion of the important policy issues at hand. Ms McKhool's response to an exhaustively-documented complaint of serious violation of broadcast standards borders on the smug and dismissive and, moreover, ignores virtually all the facts of policy documented in the original complaint.