A Canadian legend in journalism died last week. She was also a personal hero.
Christie Blatchford, the curmudgeonly columnist who seems to have written at some point for every Canadian newspaper except The B.C. Catholic, died of cancer at the age of 68. Her unique writing was hard to describe, but “loveably cranky” might come close. Also, compassionate.
“Blatch” was rare among Canadian journalists. In these days of declining professionalism and agenda-driven news, Blatchford brought more fair-mindedness to her opinion pieces than a lot of reporters put in their news stories.
While other news and opinion scribes are crusading about issues and causes, Blatchford never forgot she was writing about people.
She described herself as an atheist, but I suspect she was more agnostic, writing more respectfully about religion than a lot of news reporters do. She was contemptuous of those who railed against Christianity and religion encroaching on Canada’s secular nature.
In one Globe and Mail column she lambasted her own newspaper for a front-page story “shrieking in horror” at Christians working behind the scenes of a Conservative leadership campaign. “Religion has never played any part or been any sort of factor in my life; my loss, I expect,” she wrote, before suggesting there are worse things than Christians in politics. Quoting a “heathen friend,” she concluded, “Wouldn’t it be nice, for a change, to have people in government who believe in Thou Shalt Not Steal?”
She brought that same sense of respect to Canada’s military, with whom she travelled to Afghanistan in 2006. When a controversy arose about soldiers participating in “church parades,” she came to the defence of Canadian history and tradition: “I am an atheist. I have been to a church parade in a small eastern Ontario town. It was lovely. It was entirely benign. It did no harm and probably some good.”
Blatchford was pro-choice, and yet she wrote respectfully several times about the heavy hand of the state coming down on abortion protesters like Linda Gibbons, who has spent a total of 11 years behind bars for opposing abortion.
“She’s a veteran pro-life protester outside Toronto abortion clinics,” wrote Blatchford. “She’s on the wrong side (the pro-life side) of the wrong issue (abortion) and yet she persists in trying to make her voice heard. I’ve written about people convicted of gun offences, serious drug offences, sex assault, drunk driving, child abuse and manslaughter who have done significantly less time.”
Blatchford didn’t always subscribe to traditional values, but she acknowledged them and respected those who held them. When so many journalists are writing about identity politics and have an axe to grind about this cause or that, Blatchford wrote about people, unafraid to take unpopular positions on pronoun debates, social media outrage, and human rights tribunals treading where they don’t belong. That courage was honoured last year by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which gave her its George Jonas Freedom Award.
Respect is something that’s missing from journalism today. Once obligatory for any journalist attempting to write an impartial story, it’s been replaced by bias, fake news, and agenda journalism.
There’s now ongoing debate in Canada about the future of news, whether to regulate it and whether to subsidize it. (Blatchford had an opinion on government subsidizing newspapers. “As a journalist, the thought gives me the shudders.”)
If I had my way, journalism students would be taught to approach the news and the people they’re writing about with the respect Blatchford brought to her opinion pieces. Next week, with the help of some journalist colleagues, I’ll look at how newspapers might be able to move in a new and healthy direction.
Meantime, I hope Christie Blatchford is up in that great newsroom in the sky, swapping stories with fellow journalist G.K. Chesterton.
