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Sunday, August 23, 2015

Margaret Atwood Censored?

Censorship is defined as “the suppression of speech, public communication or other information which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, politically incorrect or inconvenient as determined by governments, media outlets, authorities or other groups or institutions.”  It is not a practice I support.

It seems that there has been a recent case of censorship involving an opinion piece Margaret Atwood wrote for the National Post on August 21.  Here’s that piece which Atwood described as a “flighty little caper on hair”:  http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/hair-is-in-the-election-season-air-but-is-it-crucial-to-your-vote.  (Note: This is the censored version!)

Shortly after the satirical op-ed was posted on the newspaper’s website, it was removed and then re-posted but with sentences, which made reference to Harper’s political donations and the Duffy cover-up, removed.  The deleted statements about campaign donations are “Why is Harper still coyly hiding the two-million-dollar donors to his party leadership race? Don’t we have a right to know who put him in there? Who’s he working for, them or us?” Also, after this statement (“Why is he hiding what he knew about the Duffy cover-up, and when he knew it?) two additional sentences were omitted:  “He’s given four mutually exclusive answers so far. Is there a hidden real answer?”  Read this article which offers an interesting perspective on what occurred:  https://ricochet.media/en/557/margaret-atwood-vs-the-national-post

Regardless of your opinion of Atwood’s opinion, her freedom to express it must be supported.

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