Newly appointed Canada Media Fund board member Guy Fournier is a controversial figure in Quebec.

‘Mildly nutty sometimes, but mostly a wise and experienced TV man,’ is how a Montreal Gazette TV columnist aptly described Fournier in 2008, nearly two years after he abruptly resigned as chair of the CBC board amid controversy over his outspoken opinions.

Viewed as one of the father’s of Quebec TV, Fournier is currently a TV commentator and columnist for Le Journal de Montreal. The author, playwright, story editor, film producer and screenwriter has more than 300 television dramas to his credit in both English and French, including the CBC miniseries on Pierre Trudeau.

Born in 1931, he likely knows more about the TV industry in Quebec and the rest of Canada than anyone else in this country. But he also tends to put his foot in his mouth, especially when he talks about sex.

During a 2006 community radio show interview, he compared having a bowel movement to sex: ‘The most extraordinary thing is that, in the end, as you grow older, you continue to go poop once a day if you are in good health, while it is not easy to make love every day. So finally the pleasure is longer lasting and more frequent than the other,’ he said.

Although Fournier’s comments had tongues wagging, it wasn’t until he wrote a column in a Quebec magazine erroneously stating that bestiality is legal in Lebanon that things went awry. In an attempt to explain himself, he appeared on the popular Quebec talk show Tout le monde en parle, only to be skewered by its host Guy. A Lepage. Shortly thereafter, he left the CBC board.

Fournier is generating headlines once again as one of the cable industry’s appointments to the CMF board. Although his qualifications for the job are stellar, unions and the Quebec producers association are up in arms, because as a writer for Le Journal de Montreal, he’s on the payroll of Quebecor Media, which also owns cable company Videotron. ‘It’s a conflict of interest,’ says the APFTQ’s Claire Samson. ‘He’s not independent. He works for Quebecor.’