Canada: Liberals pounce on Tories for attempting to recruit Quebec's controversial Psychiatric radio talk host

As seen on Canada.com

A popular Quebec radio host and psychiatrist who has suggested blacks on average have a lower IQ than whites, said he was wooed by the Conservatives to run for the party in the next election.

However, Pierre ''Doc'' Mailloux said he rejected the overtures from former Conservative cabinet minister and recruiter Pierre H. Vincent because he didn't want to have to wear a tie to sit in Parliament.

''I can't accept that they oblige me to wear a tie while a Sikh has the freedom to wear his (turban) on his head in the federal Parliament,'' Mailloux said. ''It is urgent in Canada to affirm the secular nature of our country... Religions are cancers of society.''

With a million listeners a week, Mailloux is well known in Quebec.

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Mailloux continues to practice as a psychiatrist and prides himself on his work developing cheese from non-pasteurized milk research, he said, that has meant he hasn't paid income tax for 30 years.

Conservative party spokesman Serge Prive suggested that any invitation to have Mailloux run in central Quebec was Vincent's personal initiative. While Vincent is a member of the party's candidate-recruiting committee, the idea of Mailloux running for the Conservatives never reached official levels of the party, Prive said.

Prive refused to say whether the party would have endorsed Mailloux's nomination, saying he does not answer hypothetical questions.

The Liberals demanded the Conservatives explain whether they endorse Mailloux's controversial views.

''I was shocked to learn that the Conservatives had tried to recruit Doc Mailloux two months ago,'' said Marlene Jennings, a Montreal Liberal MP, and one of the few blacks in Parliament.

''This implies the Conservatives endorse the psychiatrist's statements that black people have a lower IQ than white people, that Sikhs are bozos and more of the same.''

''After trashing the Kelowna Accord, the Conservatives have the audacity to court Dr. Mailloux who has said in the past that aboriginal people were less intelligent than white people,'' added Liberal Indian Affairs critic Anita Neville.

Mailloux, who is a member of Quebec's College of Physicians, is a household name in Quebec, appearing on radio and television shows broadcast across the province. However, his name is also a familiar one to the CRTC, the federal broadcast regulator, which rapped him over the knuckles for saying on-air that Sikhs were ''bozos.''

That paled in comparison, however, to the furor that was triggered last September when Mailloux suggested during a popular Radio Canada television show that on average blacks had a lower IQ than whites.

In an interview Wednesday, Mailloux said some people have exaggerated his comments, making it sound like he was suggesting that all blacks were less intelligent than all whites.

''I said there was a difference in the average IQ between ethnic groups. In all ethnic groups there are very intelligent people, but in some groups there are fewer than in others.''

Mailloux said American studies have shown that on average, American children of Asian-origin scored highest on IQ tests followed by whites, hispanics with Amerindians and blacks in last place.