Louis Champagne is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 talk radio

Talk radio

Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...

 personality, who is hosts a morning daily program on CKGS-FM

CKGS-FM

CKGS-FM is a French-language Canadian radio station located in Saguenay, Quebec. The station serves the borough of La Baie.Owned and operated by 9202-1617 Québec Inc., it broadcasts on 105.5 MHz with an effective radiated power of 6,000 watts . The station has a hot adult contemporary format and is...

 in La Baie

La Baie, Quebec

La Baie is a borough of the city of Saguenay, Quebec, located where the Rivière à Mars flows into the Baie des Ha! Ha!, a bay of the Saguenay River. Formerly an independent city, its population in 2006 was 19,639....

, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

. He was, longtime host an other daily program on CKRS-FM until November 2008. He is best known for controversial remarks he made during the 2007 Quebec election

Quebec general election, 2007

The Quebec general election of 2007 was held in the Canadian province of Quebec on March 26, 2007 to elect members of the 38th National Assembly of Quebec. The Quebec Liberal Party led by Jean Charest managed to win a plurality of seats, but were reduced to a minority government, Quebec's first in...

 campaign, when he interviewed Lac-Saint-Jean Parti Québécois

Parti Québécois

The Parti Québécois is a centre-left political party that advocates national sovereignty for the province of Quebec and secession from Canada. The Party traditionally has support from the labour movement. Unlike many other social-democratic parties, its ties with the labour movement are informal...

 candidate Alexandre Cloutier

Alexandre Cloutier

Alexandre Cloutier is a Quebec politician and lawyer. He is the current Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Lac-Saint-Jean in the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region...

 on February 19, 2007.

Controversy

Sylvain Gaudreault

Sylvain Gaudreault

Sylvain Gaudreault is a Quebec politician and teacher. He is the current Member of National Assembly of Quebec for the riding of Jonquière in the city of Saguenay. He represents the Parti Québécois....

, the PQ candidate in the neighbouring riding to Cloutier's, and André Boisclair

André Boisclair

André Boisclair is a politician in Quebec, Canada. He was the leader of the Parti Québécois, a social democratic and separatist party in Quebec....

, the Parti Québécois' leader during the election campaign, are both openly gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

. During the interview, Champagne asked Cloutier,

When you show up during the campaign, listen, aren’t you going to face the question, "Is the Parti Québécois a club of fags?"

He also asserted that local factory workers would never vote for a tapette (the French language

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 equivalent to "faggot

Faggot (epithet)

Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a pejorative term and common slur used chiefly in North America against homosexual males. Its pejorative use has spread from the United States to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world through mass culture, including movies, music, and the...

".)

Aftermath

Both Cloutier and Gaudreault won their ridings on election night.

Champagne was suspended from the airwaves on March 6 pending an investigation by the station's owner, Corus Quebec

Corus Québec

The Corus Québec network, previously known as the Radiomédia network as it used to be called until May 2005, was a French-language Canadian news/talk radio network serving most of Quebec...

. He had also previously been the subject of complaints against the station by the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

Université du Québec à Chicoutimi

The Université du Québec à Chicoutimi is a branch of the Université du Québec founded in 1969 and based in the Chicoutimi borough of Saguenay, Quebec. UQAC has secondary study centers in La Malbaie, Saint-Félicien, Alma and Sept-Îles...

 and the Cégep de Jonquière.

On CKGS-FM La Baie

Longtime on CKRS, Louis Champagne is now host a new talk morning daily program on CKGS-FM in La Baie

La Baie, Quebec

La Baie is a borough of the city of Saguenay, Quebec, located where the Rivière à Mars flows into the Baie des Ha! Ha!, a bay of the Saguenay River. Formerly an independent city, its population in 2006 was 19,639....

, effective on November 22, 2010.