Paper should hold to higher standard

Re: Importance of free speech, Editorial, Sept. 29 The Lakritz piece sends the harmful message to youth that mistakes you make when you are young are, and should be, excusable. As if youth is just a practice run for adulthood.

Freedom of speech is important. The freedom to express a variety of opinions is important. However, the Herald is accountable to its readers, its writers who are now unable to cover important municipal events, and to maintaining a grounded value system to guide what is published and what is scrapped early on.

This includes standing behind victims, the oppressed in our city and elsewhere, and holding everyone to a higher standard in what they write.

In this internet age, writers like Lakritz are perfectly free to publish wherever, and whenever they please. Choosing not to publish this piece is not a choice against free speech. I would ask what is the net gain in publishing this piece, and aligning the Herald with a viewpoint which causes harm to so many? Nabeela Jivraj, Calgary