Nick Ragaz from Live Free or Die (a blog he runs with his brother, Mike Barrenger, with whom I used to flip burgers at Peterborough's Chemong Road McDonald's) brings to our attention a controversy surrounding the paper he edits at U of T, the Victoria College Strand.
The Strand has gotten itself into hot water over its decision to publish a cartoon of Jesus and the Prophet Muhammad. Some, including the tin-pot representatives of the U of T student government, are claiming to be "deeply offended" by the drawing. (Apparently they didn't get the memo that freedom of speech does not guarantee you freedom not to be offended.)
Victoria College's president has even put out a statement, which can at best be described as equivocal, although less critical in tone than one would have expected given the abysmal track record of university administrators on freedom of speech issues.
Nick Ragaz and The Strand should be given an award for bravery for taking this principled stand on such a politically-charged issue -- especially for doing it in the most hostile and politically-correct environment possible: a Canadian university campus.
PS - Anyone see the CBC Sunday piece on our book this morning on Newsworld? (It isn't airing on the main network because of the Olympics.) It was OK. Let's just say they did a, ummm, tidy editing job. Replays on Newsworld again at 3:00pm ET.
(UPDATE: Sorry, it was not rebroadcast at 3pm as it was supposed to be. Hopefully CBC will put it up online.)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 2:23 PM
