TORONTO, January 4, 2002 (LSN.ca) – Evangelical Pastor Ken Campbell is seriously considering a lawsuit against the National Post newspaper after the paper reneged on an arrangement to publish a full-page religious ad after the paper switched publishers. Campbell told LifeSite that the Post had agreed in November to publish the ad on December 15 but when the ad was in camera-ready format for the Post and the $36,000 (plus taxes) was ready to be paid the Post called December 14 to say they would not be running the ad.
Rev. Campbell called on David Swail, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Post, to protest the breech of contract. Campbell relates that Swail revealed that the new management will not “publish religious ads”. On December 12 Peter Viner, vice-chairman of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and the company’s former chief executive, was announced to be the new publisher of the National Post. Previous publisher Conrad Black was the founder of the paper. Rev. Campbell told LifeSite that by its action the Post has welcomed a lawsuit for both breech of contract and discrimination based on religion. Calls to the National Post were not returned by press time.
The ad was a protest of the deliberate removal of references to God in the official Canadian ceremony to mark the terrorist attacks on the United States. The overtly Christian ad took issue with banning Christ from Canadian public schooling and the public square.
The ad was run uncut in the Globe and Mail newspaper on Sat., Dec. 22. However, the Globe charges over $10,000 more than the Post for a full page ad.
The National Post, which came on the Canadian scene in 1998, giving conservatives in Canada a major national media voice for the first time in recent history, has been taken over by a notoriously liberal media mogul. CanWest Global magnate Israel (Izzy) Asper took complete control of the Post last summer. Promises that the new ownership would not overhaul the conservative editorial stance of the paper have proven to be false as CanWest has mandated that all its papers will soon be forced to carry three editorials per week from its central office. The newspaper’s financial losses have substantially increased since the takeover by CanWest, according to a December 9 report in the Toronto Star by Mitch Potter.
See related coverage by LifeSite: CANADA’S ONLY CONSERVATIVE NATIONAL PAPER FALLS COMPLETELY INTO LIBERAL OWNERSHIP https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/aug/010824.html#1 EDITORIAL TAKEOVER BY LIBERAL MEDIA MAGNATE PROTESTED https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2001/dec/011212.html#3