Support Tim Mitchell!
According to the Canadian Press and CTV, Tim Mitchell, a 17-year-old Grade 12 student at Halifax Grammar School in Halifax NS has re-published the ever-so-popular-and-controversial Muhammad cartoons for his classmates to see in a newsletter he brought to school.
He was instantly censored by the school officials and “ordered to stop bringing his newsletter to school, to submit a report next week reflecting on the incident and to write a formal apology.”
He doesn’t plan on apologizing anytime soon. Here are his exact words, as gathered by the Canadian Press in an interview: “I might write, ‘I’m sorry that the school would have to censor this and I’m sorry that one comic could create so much controversy,’ but in no way am I sorry for publishing it.”
Gotta love that!
The school is urging him not to publish any more cartoons and threatening him with dire consequences if he does. He says he will go on and do it off school grounds so they’ll have no authority over him.
Gee, this guy has guts. And I stand behind him for his courageous defense of free speech, something so precious and which we’re used to so much that we don’t even realize we are lucky for having here in North America.
Thank your lucky stars for true defenders of free speech like Mitchell! And while you’re at it, fire off an e-mail to the Halifax Grammar School and give them a piece of your mind. I know I will.
Keep fighting, Tim!
Full story here.
No surprise that Tim Mitchell was censored. He is a student at a school where the Headmaster is known for control issues. The same Head was quietly fired by the Board of a prominent Montreal private school and lobbied for the headship at HGS when no other school in Canada would hire him.
Comment by Andrew — February 23, 2006 @ 4:10 pm