Fire the Opinions Editor at Vancouver Sun

Last week, your Editor of the Opinions page, Gordon Clark, ran an essay by Mount Royal University instructor, Mark Hecht.

"The Vancouver Sun, one of Canada’s major daily newspapers, angered many Canadians when it published a blatantly xenophobic column over the weekend.

The piece, titled “Ethnic diversity harms a country's social trust, economic well-being, argues professor” was written by Mark Hecht, a human geography instructor (not a professor) at Calgary’s Mount Royal University. It was pulled offline following the backlash, but it still made the print edition.

Hecht argues that diversity, tolerance, and inclusion are failed policies in Canada which have led to higher levels of distrust within society. He quotes the anti-Muslim think tank Gatestone Institute to make a point about how many Muslim immigrants “have no intention of assimilating into any western society.”

Hecht's piece has been widely condemned and the Vancouver Sun issued an apology on Monday and reportedly convened an editorial meeting where the man who published the article - Opinions Editor Gordon Clark - did not speak.

The measures discussed in this meeting, if the reporting on them is true, are a weak attempt to damp down an issue that will inevitably erupt again - the Vancouver Sun is owned by Postmedia and Postmedia is pushing a very conservative line across the country.

Vice went to the trouble of doing a blow by blow comparison to other kinds of propaganda: https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/a35kdz/how-that-xenophobic-vancouver-sun-op-ed-stacks-up-against-actual-nazi-propaganda

We wouldn't know about this if not for reporting from Canadaland, an investigative reporting show. On August 12, 2019 they revealed a new directive from Postmedia to papers in its newspaper chain.

"What has happened, according to interviews with over 30 current employees and more than a dozen former employees — ranging from reporters to editors to corporate staff — is that Postmedia has given a directive for all of its papers to shift to the political right, in an unprecedented, centralized fashion. Many said that the changes have thus far been poorly executed and communicated inside the company, resulting in a cloud of uncertainty and confusion among reporters and editors across the chain."

Another revelation from the reporting,

"And in a separate development stemming from Postmedia’s interest in shoring up a conservative audience base, Jordan Peterson — the prominent psychologist and University of Toronto professor who has become a global celebrity for his critiques of left-wing politics — has been working on a secret project out of the fifth floor of Postmedia’s offices."

Hecht told Canadaland that he thought he would be published at the Vancouver Sun because of previous pieces by Douglas Todd about the negative effects of immigration on Canadian society. https://www.canadalandshow.com/mark-hecht-explains-how-vancouver-sun-oped-got-published/

This problem is long-standing and must be addressed.

The Vancouver Sun must fire Gordon Clark. There is no place in Vancouver for a xenophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim paper like the one Postmedia wants it to become.