Mike Strobel's Toronto Sun column of January 4, 2011 could be easily misinterpreted. I must admit that I fell into this error and sent off a letter of complaint to Sun Editor Rob Granatstein. He soon set me straight, though. I would like to share the insight he gave me with you so that you can all see the wit of Mr. Strobel in its true light and the wisdom of Mr. Granatstein in his considered 15 word reply.

Mike Strobel's original column, about the appointment of Julian Fantino to  is here:

http://www.torontosun.com/news/columnists/mike_strobel/2011/01/04/1...

and, since I cannot quote it at length, I suggest you read it in order to put my email in context.

Now, I give you my email which will no doubt serve to set your mind at ease:

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On 1/16/11 1:35 AM, "Mr Steve BoSt Productions" <bostproductions@------.com> wrote:

I am extremely offended by this article because the things Mr. Strobel says contravene the Canadian Human Rights Act. The comment I left states:
"I am not on Canada Pension and I do not collect Old Age Security, but I don't need to be a senior to be offended by this day's column. If Mr. Strobel was writing in the same terms about Mr. Fantino getting the Multiculturalism folio he would have had to print a retraction by now.
Mr. Strobel, you do not publicly belittle people for things that are prohibited by the Canada Human Rights Act like race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, AGE, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, physical or mental disability, and a pardoned criminal conviction. Yeah, AGE is right up there with religion and ethnic origin.
I expect you to print a retraction and apology for your criminal comments."
As the Editor I expect you to ensure that the retraction and apology is printed. If this is not done within a reasonable period and I am not notified of when and where this retraction is printed my next action will be to lodge a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Steve Caunce

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--- On Tue, 1/18/11, Rob Granatstein <rob.granatstein@------.ca> wrote:

From: Rob Granatstein <rob.granatstein@------.ca>
Subject: Re: Jan 4 Mike Strobel column
To: "Mr Steve BoSt Productions" <bostproductions@-----.com>
Date: Tuesday, January 18, 2011, 6:47 PM

Mr. Caunce,

It was a piece of humour.

We will not be apologizing or retracting the column.

Rob
--
Rob Granatstein
Editorial Page Editor, Toronto Sun
Phone: 416-947-8359  Twitter: @robedits

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Mr. Granatstein;
Oh, the piece was intended to be humour. That puts a new complexion on things, please bear with me while I sort out this paradigm shift.
Mr. Strobel must have meant the piece to be read as if it was coming out of the mind of someone who is an unsophisticated, opinionated bigot much like Archie Bunker. Taken in this light the scatalogical crudity of the first Depends reference (which manages to offend not only people of age, but also those with disabilities) sets up the odious personality of his fictional narrator right at the outset. The rest of the article, which sloshes between sophomoric jibes and cliched insults like a drunken hockey fan, admirably follows in context. I think I can see now that the humour lies in Mr. Strobel presenting the reader with a ridiculous person and his ill-conceived opinions in order to make him a butt of their scorn.
It would have been more helpful if Mr. Strobel took some time to distance himself from this narrator at first. Everybody knows that Red Green is a fictional character because Steve Smith has taken the time to distance the character from himself as a comedian. Maybe as Mr. Strobel becomes more experienced at writing humour he may decide that this is the best road to take.
Now that I know Mr. Strobel wrote the piece to bring to light the unacceptability of the remarks made in the column I find it a lot easier to take.
It is a fine line between humour that hurts people that have done you no wrong and humour that makes us better able as human beings to weather the storms of life.
Merely to say "It was a piece of humour" about hurtful words does not excuse them. The guards told funny jokes to each other as they loaded the Dachau train but nobody laughs at them now. We have learned that lesson and hopefully, in the future, we will learn the lessons about the other groups covered by the Canadian Human Rights Act just as thoroughly.
Now, if I could share a riddle with you:
Q: What is square, has 16 legs and smells like urine?
A: An editors' meeting just after being told they lost a Human Rights case, 8 major advertisors and 30% of their readership.
Funny?
Regards
Steve Caunce
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I can hardly wait to read Mr. Strobel's column ten years from now in order to see what progress he has made in his writing skills. Maybe by that time I will be actually purchasing a Toronto Sun instead of finding out about their columns second-hand through CARP notices.