- checking login information
Loading...Need a Wife or a Baby? Win Them on Canadian Radio
Canadian radio stations must be desperate for publicity and listeners. Two Canadian radio stations on opposite sides of the country are currently running high profile controversial contests. In Edmonton, on 100.3 The Bear, you can win a wife. In Ottawa, on Hot 89.9, you can win a baby. Seems almost unbelievable in a country where it is illegal to sell human sperm or eggs.
Win a Wife
In Edmonton, 100.3 The Bear’s contest page reads “You are cordially invited to…WIN A WIFE.” The prize includes a trip to Russia with 13 nights accommodation, return air fare, and $500 spending money to “meet the lucky lady,” all provided by American company A Volga Girl, which specializes in providing international match-making and marriage support services. The contest description goes on to explain that they won’t “give this opportunity to just anybody” so in order to “weed out the no-hopers and time wasters,” people who want to enter the contest have to complete an application form. As of September 9, there are already 81 applicants, with the two top rated applicants currently both being lesbian women.
The Huffington Post notes that a radio station in New Zealand held an identical contest earlier this year that resulted in grievances being filed in New Zealand and Ukrainian feminists protesting the competition by marching naked in the street to protest the contest. Back in Canada, Alberta’s Immigration minister raised concerns about human trafficking and had all of their department’s advertisements pulled from the radio station. The radio station brand manager, Rob Vavrek, however, brushed aside concerns about the contest, telling the Huffington Post that the contest doesn’t degrade women, but that it simply provides them with “the opportunity to contact and meet each other in the hopes of developing a serious relationship.” He then likened the “win a wife” contest to reality TV shows like the Bachelor and Bachelorette.
Win a Baby
In Ottawa, Hot 89.9 is running a “Win a Baby” contest. On its contest page, the fine print reads that “there is one prize available to be won, consisting of up to three (3) fertility treatment procedures (the “Prize”) which must be completed within 12 months from the end of the Contest Period. The approximate total retail value of the Prize is $35,000 CAD.” Applicants who want to win the fertility treatments complete an application and a judging panel selects the finalists. The radio station will then announce and introduce the finalists and allow the listeners to vote online for the couple they think most deserves the prize.
An article in the Daily Mail highlighted some of the critical comments made about this competition, including that it is “in extremely poor taste” and that it is “the most unethical and insulting contest [they] have ever aired.” However, some people applauded the contest for giving one lucky couple the opportunity to have a baby they might otherwise never be able to afford. Hopefully Ontario (where this contest is being held) will soon catch up to the Province of Quebec and fund fertility treatments under the health care system so that couples are not forced to enter degrading competitions in order to have a family.
Are Contests Going too Far?
What happened to radio stations giving away concert tickets, new televisions or all-inclusive vacations? Is the competition for listeners so great these days that they need to move from material prizes to giving away human life? Everyone deserves the opportunity to have a rewarding relationship and to be able to build a family. But what does it say about our society when people are so desperate that they need to enter publicly humiliating competitions to achieve their life goals? What does it say about us that we will tune in, and vote, and revel in the opportunity to play God?
Those are all difficult questions to answer, perhaps.Ultimately, turning human beings, in particular women and children, into a “prize” in a contest is degrading and demeaning, both in these radio shows and in the American reality TV shows that so many people tune into. The difference here, however, is that the victims in these cases are not willingly signing up to be a prize and the women in particular who may end up going home with the prize winner may be doing so simply to escape a desperate financial situation.
Related stories:
How Bad is Human Trafficking Around the World?
What The World Is Doing To Prevent Human Trafficking And Slavery
Read more: baby, canada, edmonton, fertility, human trafficking, ivf, ottawa, radio contest, reality tv, wife, Women's rights
Image credit: screen captures from radio station contest pages
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may
not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.
Recent Comments from Causes
Government workers or politicans are in fact a million times worse than anything a dog may have done…
Terrible torture! Petition signed, thank you.
Fighting inequality- YES. Burning cars and buildings- NO!
meet our writers
109 comments
+ add your ownOnly in Canada do they still listen to radio. Of course it would have to do with Russia.
We could do this! WIN the GOP with a free one way ticket to anywhere but here!
Wives and babies are not property of men and are not slaves. They have human rights like any other humans should have!
Oh Tiff-any P.: You've done it again!
These people are giving Canada a bad rap. Good grief! These are terrible ideas of "prizes".
human beings are not for sale. adopt. there are so many children needing a loving home.
i'm sorry but these contest ideas are AWFUL
People who are desperate for kids should adopt. It is ludicrous that the baby has to come out of her own hoo-ha for a woman to love a child - absurd. Over population is a problem so be part of the solution not the problem!
As for the Russian bride, these contestants are losers who can't find a suitable partner in their own country because women there are not desperate enough to put up with those twits. I feel sorry for those poor brides who have to endure stupidity until they can get citizenship to be able to dump them - which they do most of the time. Take that!
Babies should be adopted.
Wives should be you know you propose to her, marry her and all. Like you know how it works
To send the guy to Russia to pick out his wife... that's human trafficking. If they wanted to just have a silly contest, why not have some sort of match-making event with single Canadian women? This isn't the same as some reality TV show. Reality folks know what they are signing up for. This is not a reality show, this is "reality" for the women involved.
People need to lighten up... the "win a baby" is one of the most considerate contests I have ever heard a radio run. Some people are desperate to have their own children and could never afford it by themselves... this competition gives them hope. And before anyone tries to make the adoption argument, some people are unsuitable for adoption... there's nothing like flesh and blood, and should they ever fall pregnant naturally, will favour the birth child.
As for the "win a wife"... it's a bit strange but it's all in good fun, it's a free holiday to an exotic country, and you might even come back with a hot spouse on your arm... what's wrong with that? You meet them there yourself, they have to like you back, it's not human trafficking... and if it was they'd be the most lucky girl in that part of the world because human trafficking is almost always for the purposes of sex slavery, where the real money is. And so what if they're from a desperate financial situation, you are giving them the best chance at a happy life that they will ever have, that's why they sign up to these things. Think about it ladies, if you had a choice between two men, identical in every way, except one had the resources to give you a good life and the other didn't, who would you choose? It's so hard to find a good spouse these days in our busy, materialistic societies I'd be tempted to try overseas too if I was a guy!
login to add your comment
use your care2 login
add your comment