Hot: Margaret Atwood. Talk about stirring the pot. The Canadian literary icon’s simple act of adding her voice to an on-line petition protesting against a Fox News-like channel coming to Canada has sparked outrage among right-wing commentators.
“This is not the first time Atwood has put her political agenda ahead of principles and patriotism,” Kory Teneycke writes Friday in Sun Media papers. “In the 2008 election campaign she was asked if she would vote for the separatist Bloc Quebecois if she lived in Quebec, she said: ‘Yes. Absolutely. What is the alternative?’
“Seriously? How about voting for someone who doesn’t advocate the breakup of the country?”
Formerly director of communications to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mr. Teneycke is now vice-president of development for Quebecor Inc., the company making the bid for the new all-news channel, Sun TV. The proposed station has been mockingly dubbed “Tory TV” and “Fox News North” as its aim is to promote a right-of-centre view to counter what many Tories see as a Liberal bias in Canadian media.
In his column, Mr. Tenecyke notes the petition was started by Avaaz, a special interest group funded by U.S. billionaire George Soros.
And he questions its veracity: “Atwood is not the only A-list ‘celebrity’ that has signed. Dwight Shroot (from The Office), Boba Fett (of Star Wars), Snuffaluffagus (Sesame Street) and Homer Simpson are also signatories.”
For her part, Ms. Atwood told The Globe and Mail her concerns were not about silencing Sun TV. Rather, her protest lies with what she sees as Mr. Harper’s pattern of silencing the voices of his critics.
“Some people signing the petition object to the expected content. I object to the process,” she said. “It’s the [prime ministerial] pressure on yet another civil servant that bothers me. These folks are supposed to be working for the taxpayer, not the PM.”
There have been reports that CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein’s head is on the Tory chopping block because the regulator has so far opted not to grant the channel its desired license. The PMO has denied this and Quebecor is taking another run at securing preferred status.
- Jane Taber, The Globe and Mail
Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-notebook/kory-teneycke-blasts-back-at-margaret-atwood/article1695142/
