CBC Ombudsman blasts O’Leary for racist remark

Kevin O’Leary, co-host of The Lang & O’Leary Exchange and head of O’Leary Funds, has been chastised by the CBC’s ombudsman for being “unambiguously offensive” in using a racist term during a broadcast last year. During a televised exchange with his co-host Amanda Lang on October 4, 2010, O’Leary called her “an Indian giver with a forked tongue” in a discussion of BHP Billiton’s bid to take over PotashCorp. Lang immediately rebuked O’Leary by saying “that [term] came from the 19th century and I do not approve.” Neither did Alex Jamieson, an aboriginal man who filed a complaint to the CBC in December 2010. While the CBC will likely make an on-air apology for the incident, O’Leary is not required to express regret because he is a contract commentator.

The National Post