Canada fuming over insults on ‘Late Night’

Canada’s government Friday condemned a show by U.S. late-night television host Conan O’Brien that insulted people in French-speaking Quebec.

Ottawa and the province of Ontario paid $760,000 to help O’Brien bring his NBC “Late Night” to Toronto for a week to boost the city’s profile after a deadly SARS outbreak last year.

But the federal government said O’Brien had gone too far with the show broadcast Thursday night in which he went to Quebec, a province that has had separatist governments for much of the last 20 years and is a delicate political topic in Canada.

“We want to disassociate ourselves from the comments which were broadcast last night because we do not support them in any way,” junior government minister Mauril Belanger told Parliament.

At one point in the show, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog -- a hand puppet that is a regular on the show -- said to a Quebecer: “You’re French, you’re obnoxious and you no speekay English.” The show contained other jokes at Quebec’s expense.

Alexa McDonough, a legislator for the left-leaning New Democrats, described the program as “racist filth” and “utterly vile” and demanded the government seek the return of its subsidy.

NBC officials were not available for comment.