Sent: Monday, November 17, 2014 11:31 PM
To: Hassan, Natasha; Stead, Sylvia; Smith-Bowles, Emilie
Subject: Re: Ezra to Natasha
Dear Natasha,
Here is my proposed letter to the editor. It's 196 words, which I hope you will permit, given the
torrent of one-sided commentary about me in the past week:
I’m an obscure TV pundit on channel one million, but the Globe has written three
columns about me in the past week. That brings the total number to 351.
I am grateful for such publicity, which may be why the Globe’s online readers recently
voted me “the biggest name in Canadian broadcasting”. So I hate to be critical.
Last week, Simon Houpt wrote a story with the headline “Ezra Levant wrongly accuses
Ontario school board of allowing exemptions for Muslim students on Remembrance
Day”. But in fact the school board does allow exemptions for Muslims, or others who
object for religious reasons. On Nov. 10, the board’s spokesman wrote to me, “the
procedure for religious accommodations has been in place for some time.” You can
read that e-mail exchange at www.WindsorMemo.com. Houpt did not contact me when
writing his story, so I pro-actively sent the document to him.
Houpt wrote back to me three times, mocking my reporting, arguing with me, and
making a weird reference about not eating pork (which I don’t). But he ignored the
document.
I don’t mind competitors like Houpt taking potshots – it comes with being number one.
But facts are facts.
To which, in reply, Ezra received:
Hi, Mr. Levant,
Your correspondence references errors and professional interactions with another
journalist.
The Public Editor determines if an error was made in The Globe, and background
interactions between journalists aren’t appropriate material for letters to the editor,
which deal with issues in the public forum.
So, unfortunately this doesn’t fit within the mandate of The Globe’s letters section and
we will not be publishing your letter.
Sincerely,
Emilie Smith-Bowles
Background HERE
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