MICHAEL COPE

Canadian Press Out of Step

"TORONTO Recently, Weekend Magazine which is a highly professional color supplement carried each Saturday by 39 Canadian'daily newspapers with a combined circulation of nearly 3 millions, published a remarkably forthright article on a trio of homosexuals living in Montreal.

i The article by staff writer William Spencer succeeded well in frankly discussing and airing the previously taboo subject. It was also timely, as the law had only just been changed in Canada legalizing homosexual acts between consenting adults.

MICHAEL COPE

...So, it was a great surprise to many people when 15 of the 39 subscriber newspapers across Canada, including the flamboyant Toronto Telegram (circulation 291.000), censored the magazine by ripping out the article on homosexuality before distribution.

THE CENSORING of Weekend reflected unsuspected timidity on the part of Canadian editors. It reflected also, many suspect, an unhealthy tendency even in this outspoken day and age, to still sweep taboo subjects under the rug.

All this brings into focus the role Canadian newspapers are playing and their effective contribution and place in the rapid expansion of this country's booming development.

In defense of the shortcomings of Cana-

newspapers is the factor of their reliance on the two big American news agencies for worldwide news coverage. Another factor is the competition from radio and television.

As in the United States and other devel-

oped societies, newspapers here have had to compete vigorously with the electronic media for essential advertising dollars. The newspapers now have to interpret and analyze events which invariably are first revealed on radio or television.

The result is by no means unique: the number of newspapers is dwindling and the number of great and influential newspapers left in Canada is too few. The Toronto Daily Star, with a reputation for a high degree of accuracy and credibility. is perhaps the most energetic and freewheeling of all Canada's newspapers. The morning Toronto Globe and Mail which if it is pedantic. is also impartial, wise and greatly respected.

A LACK of positive Canadian identity in. source material also might contribute to the excessive caution and even indecision which characterizes Canadian news publications. And yet the bigger newspapers in this country are no less wealthy than their counter¡ parts below the border and in addition have some fortunate circumstances in their favor. The Toronto Globe and Mail is the only western newspaper with a resident correspondent in Peking. Some other big Canadian newspapers, in an honest endeavor to bring a wholly Candian viewpoint to their newspages, have established staff bureaus in Hong Kong. Moscow and London.

But competition between the newspapers. is still minimal and it is this factor as much as anything that often contributes to dull standards of mediocrity and a surprising degree of prudishness when it comes to exercising editorial discretion on controversial issues. All this is quite out of step with the swinging, booming, mod mood, even brashness, of the rest of the nation.