Senator Vivienne Poy is calling for the government to pull $1.5 million in funds for the magazine. According to Poy, periodicals containing offensive content, "defined as material that is denigrating to an identifiable group," can be deemed ineligible for federal support:
"It has offended large portions of the Canadian population through its divisive journalism," Ms. Poy writes. "As such … it should no longer be deemed worthy of public funding by Canadian Heritage."Like I said, people are mad. Last week, Toronto's city council voted to officially request an apology from Maclean's for the article. This follows similar motions passed by Victoria and Vancouver city councils: Council asks Maclean"s for 'Too Asian?" apology.
Her intervention follows a vote by Toronto city council this week to demand an apology from the magazine. Victoria and Vancouver city councils have also passed similar motions.
Maclean"s has said it did not intend to cause offence with the article, which was published in November"s annual university rankings issue. It was originally given the headline "Too Asian?," which has since been changed on the magazine"s website to "The Enrolment Controversy." In its defence the magazine points out that the headline "Too Asian?" was phrased as a question and taken from a report referred to in the article.
In a statement Friday, Maclean"s said, "We disagree with the Senator"s characterization of our journalism."
I'm sure the magazine's editors expected the piece to be met with a little bit of controversy... but probably not to this extent. Right about now, I'm guessing they regret ever letting that damn article see print.