OTTAWA — The Federal Court of Appeal has rejected a Quebec radio station's attempt to overturn a regulator's decision not to renew its licence.

A three-judge panel said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission acted within the rights given to it by Parliament when it denied CHOI-FM a licence renewal 13 months ago.

However, the radio station, owned by Genex Communications, will be allowed to operate for at least 20 days until decisions are made whether to make further appeals.

Genex owner Patrice Demers has said in the past that he would appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada if he lost the federal court case.

"The power to issue, revoke or renew a licence has been expressly and exclusively given by Parliament to the CRTC,'' said Thursday's 99-page decision, written by Justice Gilles Letourneau.

"We cannot appropriate that power to ourselves.''

The court can only set aside CRTC decisions based on issues of law and no such issue exists in this case, it said. Even if one had, the most the station could have hoped for was a new hearing before the commission.

The CRTC refused to renew CHOI's licence after the radio station repeatedly aired insulting and offensive comments.

The commission said it received numerous complaints "with respect to the conduct of the hosts and the spoken word content that is aired, including offensive comments, personal attacks and harassment.''

Lawyers for Genex said the CRTC decision not to renew the station's licence amounted to censorship, but the court, which also included Justice Marc Nadon and Chief Justice John Richard, said freedom of expression had nothing to do with it.

"This appeal, contrary to the apparent belief and desire of the appellant, does not give rise directly or in general to a comprehensive debate over freedom of expression,'' Letourneau wrote.

"The issue is, and remains, whether the CRTC's discretionary decision not to renew (CHOI's) licence was made judicially and in compliance with the rules of natural justice, the standards of procedural fairness and its own procedures.''

The CRTC's rightful exercise of that power, he added, "cannot be transformed into a crusade for freedom of expression without substantially distorting it.''

The court also noted that Genex and CHOI were not challenging a decision that deprived or stripped the radio station of a right.

"The appeal has to do with a decision not to renew a privilege that had been granted to the appellant,'' it said.

Such privileges are usually accompanied by agreed-upon conditions that are subject to penalties for non-compliance, "including possible non-renewal or loss of the privilege.''

"The real issue in this appeal proves to be much more concise and limited than it appears to be at first sight,'' Letourneau wrote.

The court dismissed the appeal with costs to the federal attorney general but not to the CRTC, classifying it as an intervenor in the case even though it was named in Genex's appeal.

Earlier this year, a Quebec court awarded $340,000 to Sophie Chiasson, a television weather presenter whom controversial morning man Jean-Francois Filion targeted for ridicule over her physical appearance and sex life.

Another CHOI host suggested psychiatric patients should be euthanized and that African students at Laval University are "the sons of plunderers, cannibals.''