Yanick Bouchard taken off the air after upsetting a minister

On Wednesday, Tourism Minister Caroline Proulx gave everyone at the National Assembly a good laugh when she admitted that she had refused to financially support an event called Vulves et bulles.

“I can’t say that. I’m going to do Infoman.” –Caroline Proulx

The segment in question made the Web – and TV – rounds yesterday..

And in the evening, while at her mother’s funeral, Caroline Proulx received this as a private message on Instagram:

“Two vulvas at the funeral.”

The message came from Yanick Bouchard, co-host of 5 à 7 on RDS and morning sports guy u 98,5 FM.

The CAQ minister tweeted at 6:02 this morning to call out Bouchard, demanding consequences and a public apology.

As I was burying my mother yesterday, @ybouchardRDS985 posted a message of rare indecency on my Instagram account. I firmly denounce him. His comments are unacceptable and must have consequences. A public apology is in order. pic.twitter.com/AE4XKCMTD

– Caroline Proulx (@caroaubureau) May 2, 2025

Bouchard is not on the air this morning; he has been replaced by Jérémie Rainville for the day. Nor has he made any public apologies at the time of writing.

Another crisis at Cogeco
This is the third crisis in as many months for 98.5, following those involving Jeremy Filosa and Louis Lacroix (who returned to the airwaves after a few weeks/months of suspension and reassignment).

Is this what awaits Yanick Bouchard?

Add to all this the crises involving MC Gilles and Pierre-Yves McSween, and you’ve got quite a few hot files on the bosses’ desks over the past year..

Instead of sending everyone to rehab, Cogeco might want to think about doing some in-house training on the use of social networks.

What was Yanick Bouchard thinking?
We’re all wondering this morning what Yanick Bouchard could have been thinking. No, people don’t believe the “a colleague took my phone and sent this joke to a mutual friend” excuse

I don’t know anyone who takes someone’s cell phone and makes that kind of joke in 2025. With a computer, maybe, but not with a mobile device. There are codes, easy recognition and so on.

I could be wrong, but I THINK rather that Yanick wanted to send this “joke” about Caroline Proulx to a friend or a group chat, but that he sent it to Caroline directly (thinking of her).

And that Caroline Proulx, being in mourning, didn’t see fit to settle it privately, despite Yanick Bouchard’s polite request in private. #AppelezMoiSVP

As much as I’m not a fan of private conversations that end up in public, I find it hard to excuse Yanick Bouchard’s lack of tact.

Will he be on RDS tonight?

Since it’s Friday and the weekend’s coming up, I think not. But then again, I could be wrong, you know.