Montreal morning show hosts denounce treatment they say Jazz Festival gave them

The Red Coalition Inc. held a press conference on Friday morning to denounce the unwelcome treatment they say was received from the International Montreal Jazz Festival by Ian Thomas and Svetlana Chernienko, hosts of Montreal’s only Black-owned and produced morning radio show – The Morning Detour on CKUT 90.3 FM.

On July 4, The Morning Detour was granted media passes and accreditation from the Jazz Fest, including access to the media tent to conduct interviews with groups The Roots and Chiiild. On Friday, July 8, they received an RSVP email confirmation from the festival to attend and cover The Roots performance the following day.

On Saturday, July 9, while on their way to the Jazz Festival press room, Thomas received an email stating that their request for the media tent and photo pit for The Roots performance that night was being rescinded without any explanation.

Both Thomas and Chernienko decided to proceed to the press room to understand why the last-minute rejection.

They explain that their inquiries with staff on site were met in a short and rude manner – and they were simply told that the Jazz Festival had received many submissions for that event and theirs were denied.

“We’re basically the only people that’s actually playing the music for the Black artists that they’re bringing down. But then they’re going to block me from covering the artists that looks just like me. It makes no sense,” said Thomas.

#WATCH: Hosts of Montreal's only Black owned and produced morning radio show denouncing what they call unwelcomed treatment at the Jazz Festival.
READ: https://t.co/MhdYbZ2LyV pic.twitter.com/4WWjO6qjSU

— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) July 15, 2022

In spite of this unwelcome reception and because of Chernienko’s friendship history with The Roots, they were nevertheless able to interview Ray Angry – a member of the band.  But they say that throughout and following the interview, they noticed a Jazz Fest representative attempting to antagonize them in various manners.

“We start doing the interview Ray Angry and what they chose to do, what they elected to do, and we have the audio, proof, they start to make noise behind it and it’s on the audio,” said Thomas.

“Everybody else that was in the media room was getting the respect that we didn’t receive. Nobody was being quiet. We were being disrespected when we were asking questions. We were met with belligerent behavior. I don’t understand why they felt that we were deserving of this type of a treatment,” said Chernienko.

“We spoke to ‘higher-ups’ from the Jazz Festival and explained to them the unprofessional nature of their employees and their lack of transparency in explaining to the media the reasons for the refusal. We told them that we felt that the Jazz Festival had ‘given’ CKUT the media accreditation just to check off a minority quota without giving us real access to the event,” said Thomas.

“They told us that they had Black media from all over the world covering the Jazz Festival, but were unable to tell us how many Montreal Black media had received accreditations,” explained Chernienko.

“When we followed up and asked them, ‘How many Black media ,'” aske Thomas. “The whole room went quiet.”

In a statement to CityNews, the International Montreal Jazz Festival said: “The Roots show was a great success, and the number of people who attended the event exceeded the Festival’s expectations, both in terms of festival-goers and the media. We regret that Ms. Chernienko and Mr. Thomas were unable to enter the media tent. Unfortunately, it was impossible to accommodate all the media who would have wanted to cover the event in the media tent, given the capacity limit of this tent, and priority was given to the media who covered the entire Festival, as opposed to a particular show, and to the international media who travelled to the Festival. Note that The Roots’ show was free and open to all.”

Chernienko not surprised by the statement provided by the festival to CityNews, which did not address the treatment they say was received. Adding, “once again they were more focused on the access they could or could not give us rather than the treatment of what happened to us at the media office. That’s very unfortunate I would’ve liked to hear a statement to that effect.”

The Red Coalition will be assisting The Morning Detour with filing formal complaints with the proper authorities including the Minister of Canadian Heritage which has provided $800,000 for the 2022 event through the Canada Arts Presentation Fund.

“The festival is supposed to showcase Montréal’s multiculturalism, and highlights performances by internationally renowned artists. One would think the Jazz Festival has learned from the SLĀV debacle! The Montreal Black Anglophone community must fell represented and included in this international event, otherwise, they just want to benefit from our music without giving us access to our performers” said Alain Babineau, of The Red Coalition Inc.

Babineau referring to 2018, “when the Jazz Festival cancelled all remaining performances of SLĀV, a show billed as ‘a theatrical odyssey based on slave songs,’ following a weeklong protest by local activists accusing its director, co-creator and star (who were all White), of profiting off the music of enslaved Black people.”