QUEBEC SHOCK JOCK ORDERED TO PAY $300,000 IN SUIT CTV Controversial former Quebec City radio host Jeff Fillion is being ordered to pay more than $300,000 in a defamation lawsuit.
CHOI-FM's former radio shock jock Jeff Fillion quit his job after becoming embroiled in a lawsuit following on-air comments targeting a TV weather presenter, her sex life, and the size of her breasts.
A Quebec Superior Court judge ruled that Fillion should pay Sophie Chiasson more than $300,000 in moral damages, punitive damages, and also to cover part of her legal fees.
Fillion continued to talk about Chiasson and the case during the trial, CFCF's John Grant reported.
In his ruling, Grant reported the judge as saying that it was an obvious demonstration that Fillion "does not understand the seriousness of what he said about Madame Chiasson and it's also a lack of respect regarding the judicial process."
Grant also reported the judge as saying that there was evidence that Fillion "thinks he is above everything and above everyone."
Chiasson had been seeking more than $750,000 in the lawsuit. Fillion will pay about half the cost, while the radio station will pay the rest.
Fillion quit his job at the station last month in a tearful on-air announcement.
There is no word yet on whether Fillion will appeal the ruling.
Last year, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission revoked the station's broadcasting licence for repeatedly airing comments that insulted listeners, most of those from Fillion.
The station won a temporary reprieve to keep broadcasting. The court will hear an appeal in May.
Fillion once said psychiatric patients should be gassed and described most African students at Laval University as the children of cannibals and plunderers.
Meanwhile, bumper stickers championing "freedom" for Fillion and CHOI-FM have popped up all over Quebec City. |