The Toronto Sun has taken some shots these last few weeks, but nothing that would stop the King street Queen.
Photographer Michael Peake listens to Editor in Chief Jim Jennings speak to a reporter during a pro-Iran demonstration front of the Toronto Sun building last week. Photo: Adu Raudkivi
First, Saturday Sun columnist Michael Coren wrote in his column on Saturday, September 2, 2006, "Not, of course, the unleashing of full scale thermo-nuclear war on the Persian people, but a limited and tactical use of nuclear weapons to destroy Iran's military facilities and its potential nuclear arsenal. It is, sadly, the only response this repugnant and acutely dangerous political entity will understand." This statement, of course, brought loud protests from the Iranian community in Canada, irrespective of the fact that the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has suggested that Israel should be destroyed.
Since Coren was born into the Jewish faith and is now a born again Christian he is likely to take the suggestion of Israel's destruction extremely seriously. Obviously, he did not suggest all of Iran should be destroyed, just the military bases, full of soldiers that would be sent to destroy Israel.
The Iranian community organized itself and seventy-five persons came out to demonstrate in front of the Toronto Sun on Wednesday, September 13, 2006, at 1 pm. Editor-in-Chief Jim Jennings, along with veteran photographer Michael Peake were also there to give the Sun's position to reporters from other papers. "We have no intention of firing Michael Coren," said Jennings.
By the beginning of this week there were more dismissals from the Toronto Sun. Entire departments were eliminated from administration.
Editor-in-Chief Jennings also quit and was quoted as saying, "I am not here to eliminate people." Jennings just had to release forty reporters from his newsroom a few months ago.
"The little paper that grew", the original name for the Toronto Sun, has moved into a "convergence" media system with SUN TV, a recently acquired TV station that appears on the Toronto area and the internet entity Canoe.ca. Many of the print reporters at the Toronto Sun are also appearing on SUN-TV. This had been the expertise of Jennings.
A serious rumour is that the Toronto Sun, which has been in itself rumoured to be losing readership is on the sales block. Those kind of stories, however, are constantly circulating in the newspaper business.
There remain good memories of the people of the 'old' Toronto Sun: the person who wrote the first front page, the late Bob MacDonald; Peter Worthington, who still writes several columns a week and of Judi McLeod (who now writes on the website www.canadafreepress.com). They were people who kept the flag of Estonian freedom flying during the dark times of Communist occupation.
