Press council delays decision on Herald complaint

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A decision on a complaint filed against Calgary Herald columnist Ric Dolphin by an Ontario Aboriginal woman has been put over until February by the Alberta Press Council (APC). The complainant believes the reason why the decision was held over was because the council did not want to deal with it.

Sue Keedwell, a 40-year-old woman of Ojibway heritage who lives in Kitchener, Ont., took issue with a June 11 column by Dolphin that was published in the Herald. The column repeated many offensive stereotypes of Native people, she believes. She said the press council in Ontario, where she first attempted to file a complaint, told her it would be best to deal with the Alberta council. So she filed her complaint there.

Don Weisbeck, the mayor of Brooks, Alta. had had his own run-in with the columnist after an unflattering column about his town created an uproar there.

"He came to town, and I don't know why Ric Dolphin came to town, it might have been holidays for all I know, and he stayed at one of our local hotels and left the next morning," the mayor told Windspeaker on Oct. 18. "He ended up that evening, I'm assuming intentionally, at a relatively sleazy bar in town. We're a community of 12,000 people. He picked that bar and decided to do a story on, a very negative story, on the Sudanese people in town, how they behave, etc."

The story suggested there is cultural conflict amongst long-time residents and the African immigrants. The mayor and his council felt the story was unduly negative.

"We protested to the Calgary Herald and they eventually allowed us equal space and I did a reaction to it. Susan found out about this through the Internet and got a hold of me. I didn't know she had put in a complaint to the Alberta Press Council about some previous stories he did with respect to Natives, which I wasn't aware of at the time. She asked me if I would go and attend on her behalf at the hearings. So I thought it would be good for my purposes anyway, to let them know I'm around and still watching them and help her out.

Weisbeck doesn't believe the reasons the press council members provided for not immediately dealing with Keedwell's complaint.

"They decided they couldn't hear it because it was an online complaint. It's kind of a red herring they used. So now they've got to go and do a policy on this thing so they can't look at it until the end of January. It was very much a social club there. You're not going to get much out of the Alberta Press Council," he said.

Asked if it appeared that the council was avoiding having to deal with the issue, he said yes.

"That certainly was my view of it. Would I be willing to say that? Oh, yes. I wasn't very happy with the way it was handled. It began at 10 o'clock and they were going to look at this. The chairperson indicated the Calgary Herald would have to declare a conflict and go out [of the room] while they discussed this. Now remember, it had already gone through their complaints committee, a three-person committee, and obviously it had passed that and they were making their recommendation to the full board," he said. "Obviously, the complaints review committee thought it was serious enough to bring to the full board and the board had their recommendation in front of them, which I wasn't able to get. But I'm assuming it wasn't very favorable or they wouldn't have gone to the length they did to avoid addressing the issue."

He said the Edmonton Journal representative suggested the council shouldn't look at this matter because it was based on an online reader's complaint and they couldn't afford to look at online complaints because they'll get hundreds of them, the mayor reported.

"The interesting thing I found out later is that, in terms of complaints that have got to the Alberta Press Council, this was the second one this year. There was one last year. And the previous two years they had zero. So if it gives you any indication of just how frivolous this argument was, tha they're going to be inundated with hundreds of complaints, so yes, in my opinion it appeared to me sitting there as an evasive thing to not have to address the issue," he added.

Weisbeck said he believed the Edmonton Journal representative should have declared a conflict of interest as well because CanWest Global Communications owns the Herald and the Journal.

"I'm rather disillusioned with the Alberta Press Council process. I don't think you can expect it to yield any results," he said. "Having said that, I will follow it up. They are apparently meeting towards the end of January and if Susan wants me to attend again, I certainly will."

Linda Black, the chairperson of the 17-member Alberta Press Council, said she regrets that Weisbeck feels the way he does. But she insisted the matter was handled properly.

"I would like to clarify with you that the complaint, Susan Keedwell v the Calgary Herald, was not adjudicated at that hearing. The hearing did not occur."

She said the complaint will be re-examined at the next meeting of the council on Feb. 4 in Calgary. The meetings alternate between Calgary and Edmonton.

Linda Black defended the practice of the council to not ask publications that share the same corporate ownership to not participate in the complaint process.

"We don't censure our members along ownership lines," she said. "With the emergence of media convergence, it would be impossible. It would just tie council into a knot."

Sue Keedwell is riding the crest of the newest wave that press councils need to deal with, Black said, which may have caused some of the confusion and resentment.

"The mayor of Brooks is upset but, in all honesty, it could have been worse," Black said. "It could have been decided on that day to not deal with online complaints."

The issue is one that all press councils are grappling with. At the moment, only Quebec and Ontario deal with online complaints.

"The National Conference of Press Councils, there is no national press cuncil but we do have a national conference every two years where all press councils in Canada meet and we bring each other up to date on what we're facing in our individual provinces," she said.

At this year's meeting, in June in Winnipeg, the issue was raised for the first time. Black asked for patience as the council creates a policy to deal with the relatively new development.

Keedwell asked for a copy of the preliminary report prepared by a sub-committee. Black turned that request down.

"I cannot release that because it is a decision of three members. I cannot release it under the endorsement of the Alberta Press Council because it is not decision of the Alberta Press Council. That decision could easily be altered or reversed. You can't assume that it was in favor of the Herald or of Susan. Either way we would rule," she said.

The lady who started the process suspected something like this would happen.

"They wanted to dismiss the complaint," Keedwell told Windspeaker on Oct. 11. "They first said they couldn't accept an online complaint and then said I wasn't a resident of Alberta."

Keedwell said Herald editors did not allow her space in their paper to reply to the article.

Editor Dan Gaynor explained why in a letter Keedwell shared with this publication.

"I regret that you hold the level of frustration that is evident in your letter, however your assertion that there has not been an avenue to respond is not supported by the evidence. Subsequent to Rick Dolphin's column, numerous letters to the editor have appeared and we have carried two substantial rebuttals, one written by Maurice Switzer and a second written by Wanda Good, they appeared July 4 and July 11 on our Comment page. Clearly we opened avenues for response and various writers accessed them," Gaynor wrote.

He also stated that "Dolphin's opinions, on this or any other matter, do not represent those of the Calgary Herald. He is a columnist and as such is expected to freely express his opinions,independent of those the newspaper holds. It is this diverse expression of opinion, within a framework of free speech, which often leads to debate and a better understanding of issues. Such a debate has clearly been evident on our pages."

"Mr. Gaynor states 'this is solely the opinion of Mr. Dolphin.' I agree," Keedwell replied. "However, when Mr. Dolphin crosses the line, which I believe he has, then the Herald becomes responsible for allowing it to be printed."

She has put a lot of effort into seeing that the Native point of view on the column is heard in all the right places in the mainstream media. One letter she wrote prompted a reply from one of the top people in the CanWest Global chain.

"Ms. Keedwell. I was not aware of this at all. I will look into it. Contrary to what our adversaries have tried to say, we do leave the editorial and content decisions to the local editors and publishers. That said, we also have standards of quality including fairness, accuracy and balance which we expect all of our newspapers to adhere to and on that basis I will ensure that your issue is reviewed. Thank you for bringing it to my attention," wrote Leonard Asper, president and CEO of CanWest.