Winnipeg Radio: CITI's Dave Wheeler Off Air After Comment

A Winnipeg radio personality was be off the air Tuesday morning, a day after making comments about transgender people that Rogers Media said were contrary to its "standards and core values."

Dave Wheeler, host of CITI 92.1 FM program Wheeler in the Morning, won't be on the program for the time being, the communications company said Monday evening.

Dave Wheeler

"The comments do not represent our standards and core values, and we apologize for the insensitive and hurtful remarks made by Dave Wheeler," Rogers Media spokesperson Andrea Goldstein wrote in an emailed statement to CBC News.

"We do not condone this type of behaviour, and we are taking steps to address this."

According to CBC, The statement follows Wheeler's comments Monday that likened transgender people to actors who "pretend to be different things."

"Kind of like what you're doing, really, in the grand scheme of things," Wheeler said during the program.

The conversation started with a discussion about Scarlett Johansson, who recently dropped out of playing a transgender man after facing backlash.

The host was previously suspended following controversial YouTube videos he was involved in in 2016 that were criticized as racist and sexist.

In the conversation, Wheeler said he isn't transphobic and doesn't hate transgender people. He also reiterated his statement that transgender people who have not "made the full transition surgically" are "playing pretend."