Vivienne Poy's Letter

...on defunding Macleans Magazine can be found here. There are many reasons that handing 1.5 million a year to a product of the deep pocketed Rogers media empire is a bad idea, beyond the magazine's occasional foray into race-baiting. Norman Spector outlines them succinctly here.

And Ms. Poy is right: a magazine can indeed have its funding yanked for publishing offensive material. The protocol for filing a "questionable content complaint" is right there in the applicants guide to the Canada Periodical Fund (although I wrote that post ages ago and some of the links may have changed). Moreover, the provision has been used before, in the case of Catholic Insight Magazine, which was put on a "watch list" for a time to stop the editors from gay-bashing. So, once again, the cries of "censorship" are misplaced. Or at least, if there is censorship involved, it is mandated by the regulations of the fund. Got a problem with that? Lobby to have the regulations changed so that Kenneth Whyte and Co. and publish any filth they want on the taxpayer's dime.