CTV sorry for airing non-consensual kiss
Woman in video kissed on camera while she was being interviewed
CTV News has issued an apology for broadcasting a video that featured “non-consensual behaviour.”
CTV Toronto News anchor Nathan Downer told viewers Friday that it was “wrong” to air the video, saying what occurred was “unacceptable.”
A video posted on Twitter Friday morning by CTV News Toronto reporter Sean Leathong that subsequently went viral showed a man interrupting a woman — who was being interviewed on camera — and kissing her on the lips. He had met the woman a few minutes prior while she was walking her dog in Trinity Bellwoods Park, according to the report.
Leathong did not respond to a request for comment.
In a voice-over on the sincedeleted clip, Leathong refers to it as, “a spontaneous kiss from someone that she doesn’t know.” He was interviewing the woman about what she thought about wearing masks in public when the stranger swooped in without warning, or consent.
The reporter asked the woman if she was OK, to which she responded — obviously in shock — “Yeah, he’s so hot!”
Leathong then went on to interview the kisser who he identified as Jack Ring, after she left, asking him if he is aware of all the risks of kissing a person you don’t know during the pandemic.
Sabrina Scott is a consent activist and though she doesn’t know anyone involved in this incident, she tells the Star in a call, that though it may seem harmless, the action is not OK, especially when there’s a TV camera there. “To me it shows that the guy’s interest and entitlement was more important than basic consent practices.”
Scott says the man put his own desire to connect with the woman first, and also took away her moment of being interviewed by the media.
“It’s him performing entitlement and it’s not a dialogue. This man is expressing his entitlement to consume her body in that moment and the idea is that ‘the woman just has to receive it,’ ” Scott said.
Scott says that there’s a chance that over time the shock of the violation may hit her. “A lot of women will tell themselves these stories that are forms of self-delusion in order to avoid the uncomfortable truth that all feminine people are susceptible to this type of violence and this type of violation,” Scott said. “Her reactions are also limited because of being in front of the camera.”
Scott says in terms of reactions, you can’t fully express in real time when something violation-related happens. “There’s a shock that can happen with consent violations where the victim is too shocked to actually react. They freeze or don’t fight back in order to keep themselves safe, people just smile and nod,” Scott said.
There are many other layers to this clip, including the reporter who — though he did ask the woman after the fact if she was OK — didn’t do anything to stop it.
Karen Craggs-Milne is the founder and CEO of Conscious Equality Incorporated in Toronto where she delivers training on diversity, gender equality and inclusion. She tells the Star in a call that though CTV posted an apology on Twitter, the fact that it was aired on CTV before anyone realized it was problematic shows the need for more education and a stronger lens when screening stories.
“The fact that they pulled it down and issued a public apology is important because it shows that they take this seriously. I think it is important to also be informed of what steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again in the future,” Craggs-Milne said.
So how can we prevent this from happening?
“Things go wrong because people don’t intervene. From a gender perspective we’ve been taught to mind our own business, and that needs to change,” Craggs-Milne said. “Here are grown adults watching this unfold and then asking if they are OK, instead of staying stop.”
“You don’t need sexual harassment training to take this moment and ask yourself: if I am a woman what would I do differently? If I was a man, what can I do differently? What can I take away from this and what can I learn? Ask yourself ‘How can I be more in control and more respectful in the role I’m playing in situations like this moving forward.”