Radio station's win-a-Russian-bride contest panned
CBC News
Posted: Sep 7, 2011 12:50 PM ET
Last Updated: Sep 7, 2011 2:15 PM ET
Critics are tuning out Edmonton radio station The Bear for promoting a contest to win a Russian wife. (CBC)
An Edmonton radio station is feeling the heat over a contest offering the winner a Russian wife.
"What the hell are they thinking?" said radio listener Alissa Foster, who has been tuning in to The Bear FM since she was a teen, but now goes elsewhere for classic rock. "I'm still disgusted. Still morally offended."
The Bear is partnering with an on-line matchmaking service that connects Russian women with foreign husbands.
Contest participant Danny Lozchuk hopes to win a wife. CBCSometimes those women are exploited, said Andrea Burkhart, with Alberta's Action Coalition on Human Trafficking.
"I cringed when I saw it," she said. "The bottom line is that we don't know how these women are coming into this.
Employment and Immigration Minister Thomas Lukaszuk found the contest so offensive, he pulled his ministry's advertising from the station.
But participant Danny Lozchuk, 27, sees nothing wrong with the contest.
"I've been trying in Canada and Edmonton and no luck, so I'll try my luck overseas and see what I can do."
The "lucky groom" will be chosen by the end of the month.
The prize includes a free two-week trip to Russia, and $500 spending money.
Share Tools
Top News Headlines
- Canada expels all remaining Syrian diplomats
- Canada is expelling all Syrian diplomats remaining in Ottawa to protest the latest escalation in violence against civillians by the Assad regime. more »
- Canadian climber's body taken off Everest
- The body of a Toronto woman who died while descending from the summit of Mount Everest earlier this month has been taken by helicopter to her family in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu. more »
- RCMP commissioner pledges to rid force of 'bad apples'
- The RCMP's disciplinary process is so bureaucratic and out of date that "bad apples" end up staying on the force long after they should be thrown out, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson says in a remarkably frank open letter to Canadians. more »
- Ottawa set to shut down hearing on F-35 jet purchase
- The federal government appears set to shut down the only public investigation into Ottawa's fumbling of the F-35 fighter jet purchase. more »
- 'Engine shutdown' forced Air Canada jet to land
- Evolution skeptics will soon be silenced by science: Richard Leakey
- Richard Branson suggests naked kitesurfing to premier
- RCMP commissioner pledges to rid force of 'bad apples'
- Newly discovered malware most lethal cyberweapon to date
- Thunder Bay flooding causes state of emergency
- New Italian earthquake death toll rises to 10
- Canadian climber's body taken off Everest
- Syrian children were executed, UN says
