Stiffling Dissent begins early in Trudeaupia

When I first entered the working world the first newspaper I read with any frequency was the Toronto Sun. I’d buy it every morning on the way to work. It was easy to read on a packed streetcar. In those pages, I finally found voices such as Barbara Amiel, George Jonas, Peter Worthington that articulated my own sense of frustration with the world around me. In the pages of the Toronto Sun I found not only my first job in Toronto but my first flat, TV and stereo.

If I don’t read the Toronto Sun on a regular basis any more it has more to do with the fact that my interests have widen beyond the scope of a local city newspaper. The motto of the Sun was the little paper that grew but I always have thought of it as the little voice that grew.

I was checking the online edition today and this story caught my eye.

IT SEEMS censorship is still a dirty word, especially when it's spelled S-U-N. Grade 10 student Jessica Bolzicco, 16, said she was inundated with calls yesterday from media and family friends after the Sun published her account of being docked 22% off a current affairs assignment for using news clippings from this paper.

But she still had time yesterday to enrol in a new publicly funded Catholic school, effectively ending her career at St. Thomas of Villanova College in King City. "This was the straw that broke the camel's back," said her mother, Anna, noting the family was considering a move before the censorship incident. Jessica said she was feeling good but tired after getting up early to field calls and conduct interviews on talk radio.

The Sun also got dozens of e-mails and calls, including letters sent to the principal of St. Thomas of Villanova. Rolf Gube, an IT manager, asked the principal to "kindly reconsider" the student's situation. "I would also encourage you to pick up a copy of the Sunday Sun. The op/ed section is an intelligent and enlightening read, the most unbiased in the city," he wrote.

Still others, like Corrections Canada employee Gabe Viscardi, called to say their children had a similar experience. Viscardi said his 11-year-old daughter was forbidden from using the Sun in a Grade 6 current affairs assignment recently at St. Timothy elementary school in Mississauga.

Say what you will about the Toronto Sun but it has given a consistent articulate voice of dissent to the local residents of Trudeaupia for more years than any other Toronto paper and I cannot imagine the utter gall of anyone who considers themselves an educator who would deliberately engage in any punitive action against a young student for utilizing the Toronto Sun. What I want to know is if the teacher penalizes you 22% for using the Toronto Sun; how much do you loose for the Western Standard or the Wall Street Journal or even the National Review?