An Ontario power company employee is losing his job for the role he played in a profane and vulgar attack on a television reporter working outside a Toronto FC game on Sunday, the announcement coming hours after video of the event sparked widespread outrage and condemnation online.
The video of the incident shows CityNews reporter Shauna Hunt reporting at BMO Field after the soccer team hosted its home-opener, a 2-1 loss to Houston Dynamo. A passerby stops, places a hand on the shoulder of one interview subject and hurls profanity at her microphone: “f— her right in the p—-.”
Hunt later excuses herself from the interview to confront another group nearby.
“Were you guys waiting around to see if you could ‘eff her in the p’ me live on TV?” she asks.
Someone can be heard, laughing: “Yes.”
“Not you, but yes,” says the man in the foreground, wearing sunglasses.
“You were? Seriously?” Hunt asks.
“Yes,” the man in the sunglasses says, as other men laugh in the background.
“Can I ask why you would want to do something like that?” Hunt asks.
“I feel like it’s quite substantial,” he says.
A few moments later, sunglasses removed, the man asks: “Are you actually filming this?”
“Well, because you know, I’m sick of this,” Hunt says. “I get this every single day, 10 times a day, from rude guys like you.”
The vulgarity appears to have roots in an online video first posted in the U.S., and it has since crept into broadcasts further afield. The end result has become known as FHRITP, with someone accosting a television reporter with the phrase “f— her right in the p—-.”
Late Tuesday afternoon, Hydro One, the Ontario power company, issued a statement to say it was “taking steps to terminate the employee for violating our Code of Conduct.”
The identity of the employee, while circulating online, was not disclosed.
– with files from Victor Ferreira
