Canadian Comix News & Culture
|
Friday, February 10, 2006
Canadian Editorial Cartoonists Respond
:: Posted by max @ 2/10/2006 02:59:00 PM 
above: an 18th-Century woodcut featured in the February 11th Globe and Mail,
illustrating an article by Paul Williams Roberts.
Thoughts on Danish Cartoon Controversy
Feb 10, 2006
Sequential
As another week of riotous reactions to cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten winds down, Sequential checks in with a few Canadian editorial cartoonists for their take on the controversy.
According to Michael Deadder, president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists, there is no consensus among his membership about the controversy.
"We decided not to make a statement. Most members are in the middle on this issue and don't see the need. The AAEC issued a statement, and it's good, but we don't feel we need to issue our own. There's shades of grey here."
When pressed, Deadder offered a few of his own opinions, as a cartoonist and not as a spokesperson. On the subject of the controversy as a freedom of expression issue, Deadder was unequivocal. He notes,
"Each side in the Danish cartoon controversy would paint this as a clear cut case against either freedom of the press or religious intolerance. But the fact is that it's a bit of both.
Many of the cartoons can be argued as a prime examples of the former and a few others as prime examples of the latter. If you take the work as a whole, which the
editor intended, then this uproad falls somewhere in the middle. But one thing is
certain- there are people of both sides of the argument who orchestrating a frenzy
where one shouldn't exist."
Deadder's opinion of the quality of the cartoons is equally frank. Both the political nature of the cartoons and their general non-satirical character come under his scrutiny.
"Extreme proponents of freedom of the press are elevating these childish, over-
generalized drawings to the level of editorial commentary, while they were drawn
for the sole sake of offending one particular religious group. Editorial cartoons
don't set out to do this. This is not editorial cartooning or satire for that matter. This is infantile goading.
On the other hand, some who are offended by what they deem to be religious
intolerance are threatening to use the same violence these cartoons purport to
illustrate. They are doing nothing but feeding the fire of free expression while
smoking out any credible concerns that may and do exist."
Finally, Deadder sees the entire furor as something that is not entirely negative, suggesting that there is something to be learned from the event of the past months.
"When the smoke clears on this issue both sides may have something to learn. You
can't champion the tenants of freedom of the press with wreckless abandonment,
any more than you use violence as a means to repress it."
For another take on the events, Sequential turned to Shahid Mahmoud, a Toronto-based cartoonist who has been outspoken about his own treatment at the hands of various governments and corporations. In May 2004, Mahmoud was denied a seat on a cross-Canada flight and subsequently discovered his name was on several "no-fly" lists, according to Air Canada, the Canadian government, and the U.S. department of Homeland Security.
His comments are similar to Deadder's, suggesting that, on the surface at least, many Canadian cartoonists feel the same way about the situation. Mahmoud notes,
"Lewis Lapham of Harpers Magazine once said satirical cartoons expose
certain hypocracies. Ironically, the Danish cartoon, which
in my opinion, lacks any type of satirical qualities has
exposed hypocracies on both sides, Western and Muslim. How
would both the Muslim Community and European Editors like
to respond to this accusation of hypocracy?
This is the real core of the problem in my mind."
In terms of actual cartoons, editorial cartoonists in Canada have for the most part responded with cartoons that reveal a certain level of anxiety about the unprecedented focus on actual cartoonists and their jealously protected rights to freedom of expression, often juxtaposing the overwhelming response to the controversy with the figure of the isolated, seemingly ineffectual cartoonist. Examples of this tactic are found below, in cartoons by Jim Bradford, who likens the postion of Danish cartoonists to U.S. diplomats fleeing Saigon in the 1970s, and Brian Gable, who depicts the lowly cartoonist pursued by the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Also shown is Deadder's last word on the subject.
-  Stumble It! -
0 comments
|
|
|
|
|
