  We study the analytical structure of the fermion propagator in planar quantum
electrodynamics coupled to a Chern-Simons term within a four-component spinor
formalism. The dynamical generation of parity-preserving and parity-violating
fermion mass terms is considered, through the solution of the corresponding
Schwinger-Dyson equation for the fermion propagator at leading order of the 1/N
approximation in Landau gauge. The theory undergoes a first order phase
transition toward chiral symmetry restoration when the Chern-Simons coefficient
$\theta$ reaches a critical value which depends upon the number of fermion
families considered. Parity-violating masses, however, are generated for
arbitrarily large values of the said coefficient. On the confinement scenario,
complete charge screening --characteristic of the 1/N approximation-- is
observed in the entire $(N,\theta)$-plane through the local and global
properties of the vector part of the fermion propagator.
