It’s no small thing to be named the top Christian newspaper in Canada. And while we’ve long believed it, the judges’ decision this week somewhat confirms things, reinforcing the positive feedback we receive, particularly during the past year of publishing under extraordinary and challenging circumstances.
Beyond providing additional certificates for our office walls, the awards we received this week are a sign that what we’re doing matters. The stories we’re telling and the questions we’re asking are foreign to many Canadians who rely on news providers that toe government and corporate lines on everything from life to liberty.
I often recall the newspaper editor who told a public forum I was attending that when it came to news coverage, he didn’t regard religious faith as anything more important than stamp collecting. It was a trivial hobby enjoyed by some people.
That was about 20 years ago, and the situation has only worsened. Religion has not merely been relegated to the sidelines, it’s been barred from the stadium.
Mainstream journalism has long stopped serving as a check on government. It’s now in lock-step, along with anyone wielding authority, whether government, big tech, business, or academia. Once a defender of the individual and the family, it enthuses about left-of centre politics and labour, think tanks, and a vulgar entertainment culture. Journalism has become a thorn in the side of the individual and the family.
Canadians deserve better when it comes to media coverage, from story selection, to narrative, to choice of interviewees. What used to be thinly disguised bias has become flagrant activism for animal rights over human life, climate change over family breakdown, group rights over individual freedoms, and authoritarianism and socialism over government restraint and support for churches and charity. Any reporter who raised a question about environmental spending, modern feminism, gender politics, pornography, or COVID measures would be drummed out of the corps, which is to say cancelled.
We live in a new era when religious liberties and personal freedoms are no longer inviolate simply because they’re Charter rights. We’re witnessing constitutional freedoms being eroded on a daily basis now, and without governments invoking anything as unwieldy as a notwithstanding clause. Often the only thing it takes is a public health order.
The B.C. Catholic will continue trying to tell the stories in the growing gulf being left behind by traditional media.
In the meantime, thank you for your support and confidence. We plan to work hard to continue earning it.
