Do we like Russell Peters?
Our score: 5 out of 10. No campaigning against anyone and some real decency, but a Junos opener critics called sexist and a shrug at edgy trans jokes keep him mid-table.
Russell Peters was born in Toronto in 1970 to parents who emigrated from India in 1965, and grew up in Brampton. He copped racism at school, struggled with learning, and left regular school after Grade 10 before finishing at North Peel High School in 1989. That outsider-kid stuff became the engine of his act.
He started stand-up at 19 at Yuk Yuk's, then a viral clip of a 2004 set made him a global name. He moved to Los Angeles in 2006, set attendance records in cities like London, Sydney and Singapore, and has hosted the Junos three times. It's a proper arc from Brampton to arenas.
The big stain is the 2017 Junos. He opened by looking at the young women in the crowd and saying “This is a felony waiting to happen,” and he introduced the Heritage Minister by calling her “hot.” Minister Mélanie Joly said it had no place at the show, and an activist wrote that the line normalised rape culture. The Canadian Encyclopedia says he did not apologise, while the Junos organisers did.
On the harm check, nothing in what I read shows him campaigning against trans people, migrants or anyone else, and I found nothing on him and climate or vaccines. In a 2022 interview he said gender identity isn't “cut-and-dry,” and he pushed back when the interviewer said Chappelle punches down. That's a contested position and not a campaign, but it isn't ally behaviour either.
On the good-person side, comic Gina Yashere alleged he took one of her jokes and never paid for it. He has said in a Sway interview “I’ll admit it,” and that he learned better. In 2016 he visited the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan at the Canadian government's request, and said the kids there simply wanted to go home to Syria.
There's also a tax saga. California's Office of Tax Appeals upheld the state's finding that he was a California resident for 2012 to 2014, with more than US$2.1 million plus interest owing. That's a residency dispute rather than anything about how he treats people.