Raise the Hammer

I did not intend to get involved in anything other than a one-time statement of our thinking. Typically, in forums such as this, the anti-MSM outcome is pre-determined, so it seems pointless.

That said, there are some thoughtful comments here, so I feel I should respond to them, in fairness and to be polite.

Ben:
'However, my take on the RTH commentators critisism of this incident is: Why did Andrew (and the Spec) choose to go this route? If I am a public figure and someone makes an outlandish and unsubstantiated allegation against me which, while it may be defamatory, is not likely to 'stick' - why would I make an issue out of it?'

All I can tell you is Andrew believed the comments were unfair and out of line, and he wished to write a column about the incident. I agreed, so we did it. It's not a matter of whether it sticks or not, it's a matter of whether such unsubstantiated comments should have been allowed in a public forum in the first place. As you said yourself, legally, it crosses the line. So why would it be a surprise that we chose to respond?

As for your suggestion that we could have simply asked for the 'grievance' to be addressed, I did that and nothing happened.

Was Andrew genuinely hurt? I think so. Wouldn't you be if someone made you out to be a racist in a public forum?

Frankly, I was at least as upset as Andrew. The idea that someone would paint The Spectator as being racially intolerant is ludicrous. We are not perfect by any means. But we have received an award from SISO for being an inclusive employer. Thanks to the efforts of our managing editor, news, Jim Poling, The Spec had the first and only internationally-trained journalist internship program, which led to Sheridan College starting the first program in Canada with the goal of assisting and re-training internationally trained journalists. I am proud to be the co-chair of Hamilton's Centre for Civic Inclusion, an organization with the goal and mandate of making the city as welcoming to newcomers as it can possibly be, and I'm also proud to sit on the local Immigration Partnership Council, developing a Hamilton-based immigration strategy.

So are we sensitive about being labeled as racially intolerant? Yes.

Finally, we do not communicate with a lawyer at hand. But when we're made out to be racist or racially intolerant, we do respond as we feel appropriate. I make no apologies for that. We may have many sins, but that is not one of them.

Respectfully,

Howard

(Apologies for bad spelling. I'm at home and without usual tools.)