Beware of the Streisand Effect
Re: Free Speech Still Matters, editorial, July 23. Despite what everyone says, the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal’s ruling in favour of Jérémy Gabriel does not really break new ground when it blames comic Mike Ward for pain inflicted on the young man by third parties. Ask singer Marilyn Manson, Clockwork Orange director Stanley Kubrick, or rappers whose songs have supposedly influenced criminals. Such scapegoating is so common that bakers will soon be prosecuted if a killer is said to like pastry.
The trend harks back to 1979, when B.C. politician Bill Vander Zalm successfully sued Victoria Times cartoonist Robert Bierman for drawing him in the process of pulling wings off flies. But keep in mind that the story didn’t end there. The case generated many harsher caricatures, and the ruling was reversed on appeal.
There’s even a name for these backfiring lawsuits: the Streisand Effect — the diva’s efforts to ban a picture of her home actually brought more attention to the snapshot. This is the path Gabriel is on, and his advisers should have known better than to have him spearhead an anti-humour crusade. If the tribunal creates a Gabriel Effect, it will be far crueller than anything Mike Ward ever did. Charles Montpetit, Montreal. The scary part of the tribunal and its ruling is that the average Canadian thinks nothing of this and other egregious violations of individual rights ( including free speech) and has little concept of what those principles even mean. Unfortunately, until they change, things can only get worse. David Bowland, Bobcaygeon, Ont.