As a media wretch of some fifty
years' experience, I should write a
book about the media, especially about
me and the media. We neo-Nazis, racists,
white supremacists, fascists, skinheads,
anti-Semites,
holocaust deniers, hate merchants and
other scum for whom names have
not yet been invented are always facing
the firing squads of political
correctness.
The latest atrocity concerns Canadian
Press and a story by a fem by the
name of Sue Bailey that went
country-wide. It had the Supreme Court
of Canada "rejecting my appeal" to
challenge B.C.'s outrageous Human Rights
Code, under which anyone expressing an
opinion disliked by pressure groups like
the Canadian Jewish Congress can be
hauled before a rights
tribunal.
"Ex-columnist loses bid to challenge
ruling," was the happy headline in
The Vancouver Sun, which is controlled
by Izzy Asper & Co. "Collins...fails to
get top court to hear his appeal," was
the sub-head.
Trouble was that I had not asked the
Supreme Court or any other court
to do anything of the kind. The Bailey
girl got it all mixed up and it had
never occurred to her to observe a basic
rule of reporting and ask me or my
lawyer, Doug Christie, for comment. If
she had, we could have put her straight.
What actually happened was that Mr.
Christie had asked the court to
state whether these tribunals were
entitled to declare that their
decisions were constitutionally correct.
In its wisdom, the court
declined to rule on that, and that was
the "rejection".
Mr. Christie phoned the fem, and a new
story was put out. But the
damage had been done. TV outlets had put
out "flash" news on the matter
and they and most newspapers couldn't be
bothered to run the second version.
Which didn't mention that the first one
had been wrong. That would never do.
I get used to it. Here are some examples
of what I mean.
Two years ago Mr. Christie and I held a
fund-raising meeting in the
North Vancouver public library. It was
entirely peaceful, over $3000 was
donated to help with the costs of my
challenging the Rights Code, and so many
people attended that I had to speak
twice.
Two months later a leftist leader of
the Canadian Union of Public Employees
(aren't they all?) complained that it
was a racist meeting. That led to a
councillor demanding that library
facilities should be banned to "hate
groups". He got nowhere, but the Sun ran
a scare story headed "Neo-Nazis spark
move to ban hate groups from public
space". |
Vancouver Sun scribbler Paula Brook did
a five-column article in which
she ranted on about how more than a
hundred skinheads had been at the
meeting. and how library staff had been
"intimidated".
That was a lie on both counts. She too
never had asked Christie or me
for comment, nor did she consult the
reporter from the local paper who
covered the meeting and saw nothing of
any skinheads. Eventually, the
Sun ran a two-paragraph retraction in
which it confessed that no more
than two people at meeting could be
described as skinheads. In fact,
there were none, unless a couple of
bald-headed, aging men could be
regarded as such.
A great newspaper, the Sun.
Another little drama was played out in
Oliver, B.C. In 1998, Sol
Littman of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre
had been shouting about Oliver
being the "hate capital of Canada", a
local internet service provider
having run stuff Littman didn't like.The
internet being under threat, Paul Fromm
and I went to the city to hold a free
speech meeting. The story got national
attention and this time the Sun's
headline was, "Town of Oliver awaits the
hate", plus an editorial headed,
"Racists challenge the good people of
Oliver". Ujjal Dosanjh, then the NFP's
attorney general, sent his police "hate
squad" to watch events.
Nobody found any hate, I talked about
B.C.'s Rights Code and the
threats to free speech in Canada. A
hysterical woman started screaming
something about racism, and Terry
Milewski of the CBC told his national
audience: "She's talking about Doug
Collins, who says the Holocaust
never happened."
I had made no reference to the
Holocaust, and I have never said it
never happened, although I believe that
the six million story is an
exaggeration. I complained to the CBC
Ombudsman, and after a six-month
investigation during which CBC News put
everything I had said or written
under the microscope, the ombudsman
agreed that my complaint was
justified. CBC News promised a
retraction was but it was never made.
On Press Freedom Day the Sun wrote an
unctuous editorial on journalists
who have lost their lives defending
freedom and asked what life would be
like if you could only know what the
people in charge wanted to tell
you.
Physician, heal thyself!
I have written the Sun a letter asking
when it will stand up for freedom of
expression and proper reporting here,
but am not holding my breath about its
being run. |
