National Post (National Edition)
`Shocked' by Post's lack of political correctness
Re: Erasing Ryerson, and the Henry Dundas hoax, Patrice Dutil, April 30
As a former senior editor of two Toronto newspapers I am shocked that you have given in to publishing facts instead of politically correct opinion. In comment pieces last week and last year, you have allowed Ryerson professors to get away with condemnation of the new fad of renaming symbols from our past. It is obvious that Egerton Ryerson's name should be stripped from the university currently occupying the square where he did such forgettable things as starting a teachers' college, museum, art school, art gallery, education publisher and many other cultural and educational innovations for a dull province, especially that socialist idea that all elementary and high schools in Canada should be free. That really was a dangerous first in North America. And some say he wasn't that great a missionary and friend to Indigenous people and also copied residential schools like Upper Canada and Eton to force education on them.
I wish my old boss Paul Godfrey was still running your paper because then I could pitch my idea that what you need to do to improve circulation is run an apology of the day just like some newspapers used to run a joke of the day. Of course you would have to limit that prime minister to only one apology a week. I have said in blog.johndowning.ca it is a mistake to rename the university, and I gather thousands of grads agree. But the younger generations and a few clutch-andgrab activists are correct to demand another university that ignores facts and features hassle-free lectures. Some ideas can be so traumatic. (Editor's note: Paul Godfrey remains the chairman of the Postmedia chain, to which National Post belongs. Perhaps you might pitch him on a chain-wide “apology of the day”?)