Time Immortal

This is something I missed when I noted, yesterday, that Rob Wells is evidently moving to appeal the rejection of his complaint against magazine by the CHRC.

It would appear that Catholic Insight has been placed on the Heritage Canada ‘watch list’ — that is, the magazine has been flagged as potentially having “questionable content”, and must submit each issue to a Heritage Canada panel for approval and “screening” prior to publishing.

Now, I’m on record elsewhere saying that I don’t much like it when people align themselves with Caesar and then complain that he’s acting too Roman for their tastes. And since Catholic Insight does accept Heritage Canada money, they have unfortunately opened themselves to this state of affairs — one never gets to lead when one takes Caesar as a dance partner.

That’s not to say that I think Heritage Canada is justified in supporting a course of action that amounts to little more than Censorship, of course. The government is not in the right here, and I completely agree with BCF’s observation that the whole situation reeks of a kind of “cultural Marxism.” There would appear to be an implied threat that Catholic Insight could find its funding cut off if it publishes something that the censors object to.

Ultimately, it’s the fact that we even have censors working to limit the expression of opinion in this country that is the really terrible thing, and the thing which most needs to change. It would be nice if Catholic Insight could find an alternative source of funding, as well, so that it wouldn’t be so beholden to the whims of others, but…well…who ever said the world was perfect?

Update: Welcome, 5FoF and BCF readers, and Steynians!