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On Monday, a job ad was posted seeking a new host for a CBC children’s program. They were seeking a male between 23 and 35 years of age who could carry a tune. Oh, and “Any race except Caucasian.”

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The job ad was quickly pulled down and amended — the “no whites” bit was deleted. The CBC said it was looking into the incident, and the casting agency that had published the information apologized quickly, calling it a mistake.

A mistake? No doubt. But for those who’ve dealt with the CBC before, it’s hard to accept that it was an accident.

The idea that a casting agency would just randomly decided to exclude an entire race of people was always implausible. A better guess was that the CBC had communicated to the agency what kind of candidate they were looking for. Would CBC execs have said, “Whitey need not apply”? No, of course not. But was it possible, even likely, that while discussing the ideal candidate for the job, they might have strongly implied that it would be terrific if the candidates were anything but white? Oh, yes.