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We are continuously being told that we are living in a democracy while we have been finding out in these pages of Ensign that this is not true as our governments are representatives of big corporations rather than people.

Just recently, we have been pointing out to the infringement of the freedom of the press as the media conglomerate CanWest has been ordering its newspapers to carry uniform and ideological national editorials. David Asper, son of CanWest's owner Izzy Asper, has condemned the protest of many journalists to oppose such uniform and ideological national editorials. These journalists contend that the national editorials would narrow the breadth of the diversity of editorial content which are peculiar to the many local newspapers. But David Asper has stated that the national editorials will increase the debate in matters of national interest such as for example the debates over private health care, private education or less taxes for charities.

I am really put off by the deceptive language used by these Asper tycoons, who in the name of democracy are putting down our freedoms and make more money in the process. Canadian philosopher John Ralston Saul says that "democracies cannot function when faced with large private sector monopolies and oligopolies... democracies work not because they're well managed. They work because of effervescent, imaginative disorder." But for tycoon David Asper uniform and ideological national editorials are more important than effervescent and imaginative local editorials.

For Asper money is more important than the lives of his subordinate journalists, and he expresses his monopolistic license by telling his journalists "if you don't like working with us, exercise your freedoms to work elsewhere." And I say where elsewhere?

References

Southam critics branded `ridiculous' If you believe nonsense uttered by competitors, you must believe owners have no right to express a view in a newspaper, David Asper, December 14, 2001, The Toronto Star

Gazette Newsroom Welcome to a site put together by some Montreal Gazette reporters and editors on their own time. It is part of a protest against the decision by Southam News to force 12 of its major metropolitan newspapers to run "national editorials" written at the corporate headquarters of parent company CanWest Global Communications Corp. http://gazreporters.tripod.com/

John Ralston Saul speaking on Citizenship vs the Reigning Linear Trap, Public Lecture 29 August 1999, The Hawke Centre Civic Program http://www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au/speeches/citizen.htm