Codename Sally pays homage to free speech, Rushdie
Film about Satanic Verses affair comes at critical time in history
Here’s the thing about freedom of expression.
It may seem like it’s having a “moment” now, with universities accused of trampling free speech (hello, Wilfrid Laurier University) when it comes to sensitive issues, or U.S. President Donald Trump demonizing and threatening a free press.
But freedom of expression is never just a moment.
It’s a difficult, enduring mission to protect — and debate — our right to free speech, to keep or get writers and whistleblowers who run afoul of tyrannic regimes out of jail, to protect the many people whose lives are at risk simply for speaking out against authoritarian regimes, be they political, cultural or religious. And to guard against violating human dignity and rights.
That said, there are astounding and galvanizing moments — big and small — in this battle.
A chilling audio tape recently released by Laurier University teaching assistant Lindsay Shepherd that revealed her being bullied by three faculty members because she dared to show her students two sides of a debate on the use of nontraditional gender pronouns, is filled with dialogue worthy of a biting play. I hope an aspiring writer gets on it. The university has since apologized to Shepherd.
Here’s another moment, one you might not be aware of: Did you know that 25 years ago, a small group of people in PEN Canada pulled off a highly secretive and complex mission to spirit thenbe leaguered U.K. writer Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, onto the stage of a PEN benefit at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto?
At the time, Rushdie had been in deep hiding in Britain for almost three years after the late Ayatollah Khomeini, then leader of Iran, in 1989 issued a fatwa calling for him to be executed. His book had, among other things, made fun of clerics, a particular no-no for the religious thought police.
Rushdie was being protected by British police, but his government had not openly embraced him.
It was a tense and dangerous time for the author and all those in the publishing world who supported his work. Several book stores were bombed, and his Japanese translator murdered.
In the fall of 1992, Canada played a small but key part in this drama, effectively opening the door for Rushdie to be supported by other governments and for the fatwa to be condemned in a motion at the UN.
Next Tuesday, PEN Canada is honouring that moment at a benefit at the Hot Docs Cinema where it will screen a short film, Codename Sally, that chronicles, in a series of interviews with those involved — former governor general Adrienne Clarkson; her husband, writer John Ralston Saul; former Ontario premier Bob Rae, the first political leader to embrace Rushdie publicly; and publisher Louise Dennys — how Rushdie was flown to Canada on a private plane to stand as a surprise guest on the stage, surrounded in solidarity by other writers and artists, at an emotional tribute to free speech.
Rushdie himself calls it a turning point in his dark drama.
Codename Sally — because “Sally” is what they think they called Rushdie during the covert planning (although some of them believe it was Harry; hey, they’re writers) — is about 26 minutes long and packs an emotional and instructive punch.
Saul chokes up on camera; Dennys talks of being crammed with her co-conspirators into a phone booth (no smartphones, no social media) in a “thriller-like moment” and the Bradgate Arms, now a tony seniors’ residence, is referred to as “a CSIS safe house.”
You get a sense of not only how dedicated a small group of literary and political movers and shakers were to helping Rushdie, but how much serious fun they had being involved in what Dennys calls “a wild and Canadian moment.”
In his interview, Rushdie makes fun of his code name, Sally. “So I was Meg Ryan?” he deadpans, referencing the 1989 movie When Harry Met Sally.
But — having grown up Muslim — he more seriously argues there is a “straight line” to be drawn in extremism from his being sentenced to death in 1989 to the terrorism attacks in New York City of 9/11.
Rushdie has resumed a public life, was knighted by the Queen and lives mainly in New York. He slams the current “culture of outrage” and particularly accuses “the left” of giving in to the notion that “offending people is a bad thing.”
The movie is a gift to PEN Canada, shaped by the father-son duo of Canadian movie maker Sturla Gunnarsson ( Monsoon) and his son Ari, 30, who lives in Beijing, where he makes music videos.
Ari Gunnarsson, who directed Codename Sally, recalls being read Rushdie’s children’s classic Haroun and the Sea of Stories by his parents: “I can still remember my father explaining that Rushdie had dedicated the book to his son while he was in hiding.” For him, the highlight was the Rushdie interview.
He also embraced the opportunity to work with his dad, who was at the original PEN event and remembers “the huge gasp” when Rushdie appeared.
Gunnarsson was unaware at the time of the behind-the-scenes drama — and was surprised today by how vivid it remains in the participants’ minds.
Tuesday’s benefit will include a panel discussion with these key participants, who no doubt will have much to say about how prickly — and more complex — this battle for freedom of expression has become.
I like to imagine that Rushdie himself will surprise everyone again and show up, probably offending some people, thus completing the story of a small, previously undocumented event that had an outsize impact on him and the ongoing fight for freedom of expression.