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Saturday, February 11, 2006
Paging Canadian University Press
The UPEI student newspaper, The Cadre, had most of its press run removed from campus by the university administration this week, after it reprinted those Danish muslim cartoons.
[ The CBC reports on the administration seizing the newspapers at http://www.cbc.ca/pei/story/pe-cartoons-cadre20060208.html ]
UPEI President Wade MacLauchlan told the CBC that The Cadre had committed "an outrage against public order" by publishing the cartoons. Thus his decision to destroy almost 2,000 copies of the paper.
As a former staff writer for Canada's student press service, Canadian University Press, I am hoping that CUP is going to pursue this story.
Back in my student press days, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, CUP took threats to the freedom of the student press very seriously. Whenever papers were censored, CUP usually offered practical support for the censored newspaper, or at least made sure that the censorship incident was well covered. Although it may be difficult for CUP papers to cover this particular incident at UPEI, I hope that something is at least in the works for next week.
I'm pointing this out so that campus readers of The Shotgun may note whether your campus newspaper either picks up a CUP story on this incident or writes an editorial on the subject. If your campus paper ignores the subject, while talking about others who are "oppressed", you may reasonably infer that the editors of your local student newspaper may think that freedom of speech only extends so far.
Censorship of a Canadian student newspaper, it seems to me, would still be a "must-run" subject in other Canadian student newspapers.
Posted by Rick Hiebert on February 11, 2006 in Media | Permalink
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Comments
This has to become a huge contestation on the part of student press. Next time, it will be something else.
I give as an example, a catholic church who had signed a contract with a pro-life group in Montréal for 2 days. The church cancelled illegally the event because there was some protests by other groups (homosexuals etc..).
What are the Canadians newspapers doing to support freedom of speech and expression? Talking of bias. It is even worse than we thought.
Posted by: Rémi houle | 2006-02-11 10:49:55 AM
Good to see we Canadians are still being properly tolerant of other people's views! Can you imagine the chaos that would result if universities considered themselves some sort of bastion of free speech? Heavens, society would collapse if administrators like this Wade fellow weren't on the ball, seizing newspapers that published dangerous things!
Perhaps we ought to take ol' Wade's example and apply it nationally, to ensure that Canada as a whole is nice and orderly. Wade could head a media-guidance department, called... The Ministry of Truth! Yes! They could promote worthwhile truth, while removing dangerous truth (which is as bad as lies) from public consumption. Or maybe we could call it the Glavlit!
Posted by: Tozetre | 2006-02-11 12:01:10 PM
Gutless simple servant academics. What else can you say? They certainly don’t want to disturb their tenured, cozy and ordered little cocoon with something as messy and insignificant as freedom of the press. Is academic tenure and it’s intent is any relation to freedom of the press?
Posted by: Western Canadian | 2006-02-11 3:20:41 PM
During my years on campus, both major universities in Alberta had Marxist student papers, spewing class warfare venom, calling for revolution etc. I don't recall any censorship from those Administrations.
When did the professoriate and PC crowd adopt sharia law?
Posted by: John Chittick | 2006-02-11 3:21:02 PM
The President of the Canadian University Press was interviewed on our local CBC PEI radio station the day the Cadre was pulled and stated that they had informed all member papers of their legal advice, which is "don't print the cartoons".
So, I don't think they're going to be pursueing this issue from any angle other than "sorry for offending Muslims" and "don't incite violence".
They haven't said a thing about the UPEI Student Union threatening Editor Ray Keating with police action to repossess the remaining copies (at their lawyer's advice), if he wouldn't hand them over to them. The student government says it owns the paper. (funny, the SU is supposed to represent the collective ownership of students forced to pay their salaries).
Posted by: Angela | 2006-02-11 3:38:56 PM
Thanks for the info, Angela.
Did he say anything about running a story on the CUP wire service?
Surely member papers can't be sued for that?
Posted by: Rick Hiebert | 2006-02-11 7:50:36 PM
Back in 1990/1991, I was Managing Editor of The King's Chronicle, the school paper for King's College at UWO in London, ON. We had our penultimate issue of the school year pulled because our editorial criticized King's Students Council. Someone on council got wind of the editorial, and asked the school administration to yank it.
We had the last laugh, however, when a larger UWO paper, The Gazette, let us publish our last issue as an insert in their paper. Maybe some other university paper can help out The Cadre in the same way?
Posted by: Mike van Lammeren | 2006-02-12 12:32:37 AM
It is instructive to note that President Wade MacLauchlin was a professor of law who decided several years ago to climb the greasy academic pole.
Posted by: Roseberry | 2006-02-12 6:43:11 AM
And, most Canadians yearn for National Day care! Who would be the leaders of the charge that would take the reigns of control you ask?
1) Gay and Lesbian activist
2) Socialist
3) Unionist (wait for the $40.00 per hr argument and the 12 kids per day care argument to fester)
4) The Welfare recipient activist
5) The anti-male, feminist brigade
They have taken over the Universities. Stop them from infiltrating the youth of tomorrow!
Posted by: ace | 2006-02-12 4:59:03 PM
Canadian student newspapers -- the less they print in them the better, it wipes off when you (censored)
Posted by: Peter O'Donnell | 2006-02-12 6:11:57 PM
Free speech and critical thought in canadian colleges and universities have both been dead for at least two decades. Three cheers for politically correct, lib-left, feminazi mind control. I am so happy to have come through the system when freedom of thought, and speech, allowed a true education, as opposed to simply parroting the mantra of the day!
Posted by: RJ | 2006-02-13 1:44:53 PM
I was shocked by the eagerness of UPEI students to insist, in these letters to the Cadre, that their student newspaper had no right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press:
http://cadre.upei.ca/node/3096#comment
Posted by: Pat Srebrnik | 2006-02-14 9:44:35 AM
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