Rafe’s Rant I’ve had a recent experience you might find interesting – I’ve been censored and I don’t like it very much. I’ve been writing since 1981 and if you count the editorials I did on radio, pretty well earned my keep that way. Because I am a lawyer, I’ve been able to avoid serious censorship – sometimes by being fired as by the David Black Press, the Now chain and others. At CKNW I was free to say what I wished except if I was reckless about defamation. I was involved in a half dozen lawsuits ands was fully defended by the station. Indeed, I was asked to call perhaps Canada’s leading lawyers Dan Burnett if I was concerned about an editorial which I unfailingly did. During the Vander Zalm years the so-called “Zalmoids” phoned the station in waves t complain but the manager, Ron Bremner turned them aside. When a delegation of salespeople came to him and complained that if he didn’t shut me up, they couldn’t sell advertising, “Brem’s” replay was “with the numbers he gets, if you can’t sell ads you had better get into a different business. He then sent a notice to all the bulletin board defending free speech, which would have made Thomas proud. No, I must tell you, I have been censored by no less than the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin. About 5 years ago, a Russian online paper, Strategic Culture Foundation, having read my stuff in thetyee.ca asked me to do a column, twice a month, as a Canadian looking at world affairs. It was published in 6 languages. My editor, a man named Roman, and I got along very well until a few months ago. I commented on the Middle East, Nato, the UN Security Council - my first column was on the Arctic severely critical of Russia’s behaviour planting a flag on the continental shelf saying that it was theirs. Early this year I began to get feedback from Roman about remarks I had made about Russia and Mr. Putin and the wrongheadedness of Russian policy in the Middle East – I was equally critical of the US and China. It then came to pass that the editor’s “directors” would countenance any criticism of Putin or Russian policy. I had other topics to deal with but it wasn’t long that I had columns returned – with no fee where in Canada you generally get ½ for a spiked column. I was then told that I couldn’t do a column on Syria or anywhere else Russian policy was involved. I resigned my column. Now we’re not talking big bucks here so I’m not complaining poverty. When I said I hadn’t been censored at CKNW nor at CJOR600 or AM600 where I did my last radio I meant that no one stopped me from speaking my mind. With 600AM I was fired shortly after the manager chided me for doing too much on fish farms and thus offending his golfing pals. I’ve always been fortunate to have the law as an option. In any event, on my resume I’m now able to proudly report – “fired by the President of Russia’!
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:53:56 +0000
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