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Brunswick News Inc. Cancels Michael de Adder – Updated

1 minute 47 comments

 

From Micheal de Adder via Twitter and Facebook:

The highs and lows of cartooning. Today I was just let go from all newspapers in New Brunswick.

Michael de Adder was born, raised, and educated in New Brunswick province and was a regular presence in its newspapers. Brunswick News Inc., which owns the Saint John Telegraph-Journal, the Moncton Times & Transcript, and the Moncton Fredericton Daily Gleaner, has now disassociated itself from de Adder.

I’m a proud New Brunswicker. I’ll miss drawing cartoons for my home province.

More from Michael:

What’s crazier, a cartoonist getting fired from a newspaper for a cartoon he didn’t draw [@chappatte] or a cartoonist being fired from a newspaper for a cartoon they didn’t run?

*Technically I wasn’t fired. I was under contract not employed.

The above cartoon is apparently the one that went a step too far for Brunswick News Inc.

 

Michael adds:

BTW: I’m not a victim. I just finished a book, that will be out in September and I still freelance for some amazing newspapers. It’s a setback not a deathblow.

 

According to Wikipedia de Adder “draws approximately 10 cartoons weekly and, at over a million readers per day, he is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.”

 

UPDATE

Wes Tyrell, President of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists, has issued a statement:

Cartoonist Michael de Adder was let go from his job drawing editorial cartoons for all the major New Brunswick newspapers 24 hours after his Donald Trump cartoon went viral on social media, a job he held for 17 years.
Although he has stated there was no reason given for his firing, the timing was no coincidence.
Michael told me once that not only were the J.D. Irving owned New Brunswick newspapers challenging to work for, but there were a series of taboo subjects he could not touch. One of these taboo subjects was Donald Trump.

…

The Irvings have considerable corporate interests in the United States, but why would they care about cartoons potentially offending the American president?

…

It’s simple really, J.D. Irving, Limited is not only a privately owned conglomerate headquartered in New Brunswick, its also an international behemoth with global reach. Trade has been an issue since Trump took office, trade that affects the Irvings directly, not to mention a host of other issues. And the President himself is an unknown quantity who punishes those who appear to oppose him.

…

The trope of political figures golfing and showing disdain for issues has been seen before, but deAdder’s take hit a nerve. It went viral and social media stars like George Takei even shared it. For a brief period de Adder was the poster boy for the Anti-Trump movement. A good place to be if you’re a cartoonist, but a bad place to be if you work for a foreign oil company with business ties to the United States.

…

A solid reason why an oil company has no business owning newspapers.

Read the full statement here.

 

UPDATE JUNE 30, 2019:

Brunswick News Inc. has released a statement via the Telegraph-Journal Twitter feed:

Please see the attached statement issued today by Brunswick News Inc. regarding incorrect information on social media about BNI’s freelance contract with cartoonist Michael de Adder.

UPDATE JULY 1, 2019

In a series of tweets Michael de Adder has responded to the BNI statement:

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Again – this was a series of tweets, not one thread.
Go to Michael’s Twitter feed to read the entire sequence.

 

 

 

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Comments 47

  1. Outrageous!! We need more people calling out this entire administration. This shows dotard in his true light: cold, callous, narcissistic idiot. Please don’t help to obscure his inhumane treatment of “others”.

  2. Any idiot that screams about a Left-Wing, Liberal lying press conspiracy certainly hasn’t been following the firings of those drawing cartoons critical of Trump.

  3. Apparently New Brunswick expects editorial cartoons to not be critical of those in power.

    This is a disgrace.

  4. That is OUTRAGEOUS!!! The cartoon is an accurate portrayal of Trump and his attitude toward migrant children and their parents. Perhaps those who terminated his contract do not want to face the facts, but that drawing is exactly what is occurring in the U.S.

  5. The light of satire has always stung the eyes of private interest, even through the dark veil of political correctness.
    At times the light might be dimmed, but it will return.

  6. This is one of the dangers, amongst others, when one man/corporation owns ALL of the major newspapers in a Province. Control the news. Shape opinion.

  7. Michael de Adder portrays difficult truths in his political cartoons. He has always forced us to face the ugliness of the political world and humankind in general. He gives us hope that freedom of expression will continue to be a right that is valued and will not be silenced.

  8. It takes a certain amount of intellectual maturity to willingly tolerate the biting give-and-take that takes place in rigorous and irreverent political debate. Unfortunately, too many people and, in this case, corporations, lack intellectual maturity. With all due respect to Michael de Adder, two weeks from now this particular political cartoon will be ancient history. Momentary anger or embarrassment should not be the deciding factor on what we will tolerate.

  9. The cartoon was a perfect depiction of President Trump and his presidency. Shame on Brunswick news for firing you.

  10. The management of these newspapers should be ashamed of themselves. The leaders in company as a whole should all step down.
    Oil playing a part in this I am sure. That person who is occupying the greatest seat in the world is a joke along with the so called Americans who bought into his propaganda.
    Mr. de Adder should be reappointed to the position he was fired from immediately.
    Trump is s total misuse of something that lives and breathes
    and I actually would love it for someone to take him down….
    a notch and remove him not only from the position he’s in that has become the laughing stock of most smart people in the world. but also from him breathing good air.

  11. Mr. DeAdder used to be a good cartoonist, but lately he seems to have contracted TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome). Where was this concern for the border when Obama was president? The same sort of things happened. Also, the Democrats are the ones who called the border crisis “fake”. Seems it was all too real. Sanctuary cities are also to blame for enticing these poor people to try to sneak in illegally. These problems were evident before Trump and will still be there when he is gone, though I doubt the media will care any more – that includes Mr. DeAdder.

  12. Be specific. The crisis of armed bullies and concentration camps, killing kids, is real. The “crisis” of rampaging alien hordes with knives clenched in their teeth that has been used to justify them was totally false.

  13. Very sad that the Brunswick news caved lIke The Washington post. We have lost our freedom…period. when media owners command that cartoonists must follow their ideals, we are becoming a Dictatorship.

  14. No Megan. Obama wasn’t doing this. There was no policy of separating parents and children, not was there an effort to detain people in unsanitary conditions. While there was much to criticize of obama’s handling of the migrant crisis, Trump has made it far, far worse. Certainly bad enough that a cartoon like this one is justifiable commentary. (Not for you I guess.)

    https://time.com/5612868/trump-obama-family-separation/

  15. He has every right to make a cartoon even if its in very bad taste. The papers also have the right to go “nope. Don’t think so.”

  16. It was Trump who created conditions where coyotes are able to convince people that they’d better come to America while it’s still possible.

    JJ, can you delete comment 15? That’s obviously not anyone’s name. [The original #15 comment has been deleted – DDD]

  17. NO, JOHN, Megan is right. Set aside your need to vilify anything that doesn’t fit your narrative and look at how Obama left kids to sleep on concrete floors with Mylar blankets. Trump has TRIED to help stop this whole thing but idjits like you first claimed it was a “manufactured crisis”, and now it’s a real shit show you claim he created it! GET THIS STRAIGHT: George Soros enticed these people to lay siege to our sovereign border (you don’t know what that is cuz Trudorque doesn’t “believe” in Canada being sovereign and you just sniff after him and answer every one of his dog whistles) and he promised them free crap when they would get here. This man and his child FAILED FIVE TIMES to get asylum, meaning he was an ECONOMIC MIGRANT, not a refugee, so he made the mistake of trying to cross illegally at the wrong spot. But noooo, lets don’t blame Soros and his Pueblos Sin Fronteras or even blame the foolish choice that man made for his poor child WHO HAD NO CHOICE. Nooo let’s CHILDISHLY blame the one person who’s been trying to fix the situation!

    Others of you are crybabying over kids getting separated from their “parents” – are ya’ll not getting the reports of children being RENTED to help illegals game the system??? And other kids getting sexually trafficked by their supposed male parents. So when they are caught, Border agents separate them long enough to get a DNA test on them and if it’s a match, they’re reunited and basically set free to abuse our welfare system at will. If it’s not a match, are you really stupid enough to think that child isn’t going to be used repeatedly for the same trick?? IF YOU TRULY CARED YOU’D BUS THEM TO CANADA, but I don’t see any of you stepping up. Till you’re willing to take in an illegal and pay for their food, healthcare and other expenses, quit insisting that you’re “HOLIER THAN THOU”.

    Those of you claiming Trump harms those who “defy” him, NAME ME ONE. Bet you can’t cuz all you Useful Idiots do is regurgitate the lies Trudorque has paid the CBC and other media to distribute and you NEVER fact check for yourself. And this sick bastard who drew that cartoon got his just deserts for being a GHOUL and trying to profit off the death of an innocent child. You people need to stop trying to pretend you’re so caring because from where I stand, all I see is a LOT of PROJECTION AND VIRTUE SIGNALLING. #GFY

  18. The firing of this astute and courageous cartoonist highlights the firm line sepatating those capitalists entrenched within the corporate/political power structure and the rest of us. We’re all going to have to pull together to save what little democracy we have left. However, I’m afraid violence lays ahead in that effort. Power concedes nothing peacefully.

  19. Perhaps the Irvings should consider :growing a pair”.

  20. Roxanne,

    Trump has been President now for two and a half years. If, as you claim, he’s been trying “to help stop this whole thing,” then why hasn’t he?

    He can’t blame Obama anymore, no matter how convenient and this is all on him. Shame on him and shame on you for defending him.

  21. THIS IS B*LLSH*T HE NAILED IT EXACTLY THE WAY IT IS. WHAT A CROCK OF SH*T. YOU P*SS**S CANT TELL IT LIKE IT IS YOU CAN ALL GO…………… [This comment has been edited for language, replacing vowels with asterisks. I understand it is an emotional issue, but please try to keep a civil tongue. DDD]

  22. Making him the only guy fired as a result of immigrant deaths. Let that one sink in.

  23. De Adder”s cartoon of Trump”playing through” is one of the most insightful l’ve seen. Your firing him is equally insightful as to your abject cowardice and disrepute.
    Most sincerely,
    Christopher Davis
    Falls Church, Virginia

  24. What a pity that a news organization such as yours acts in such a cowardly fashion. You have fired a most talented and insightful cartoonist for political reasons and then went on to lie about it. SHAME!

  25. This cartoon is brilliant and is exactly how Trump feels about anyone who is not white. This country was made of migration. Unless you are 100% Native American, you and your family are all immigrants or born of immigration. All of our ancestors came here for a better life. (Just like those coming here now.) While in the process killed millions of Native Americans because they were not the same. Trump did not win by a majority vote. Far from it. He cheated his way into the presidency, just as he has cheated his way through life. He has hardly done anything for America to make it ( Greater ). He has separated us from ALL of our allies. While chumming up to murderous dictators, bringing down democracy as we knew it. He has broken more laws than anyone in prison. These laws were put into place by the founding fathers to keep our government running smoothly. He has brought back old hatred into our country. This man lies every single day. All day long. Those who are bamboozled by Trump need to do some serious fact checking.

  26. So now, even Canada’s press is afraid of trump.

  27. It pleases me that the Trump groupies represent only approximately 7.7% as I write. That is about 25% less than the support he gets nationally. I attribute that to the uneducated supporters not able to read but also understand the 7% come from gullible and/or self absorbed willfully stupid.

  28. Trump is going to win in 2020 anyway so sharpen up the drawing pencils.

    All you nasty liberals have done is get him reelected.

  29. Well, you’re certainly out of touch with your readership. Michael de Adder needs to be applauded for calling out that orange buffoon. He didn’t tell us anything we don’t already know but he managed to portray that knowledge forcefully for those numskulls that still don’t get it. Those same numskulls that they will line up at the cenotaphs on Remembrance Day and pay false homage to our Vets while they worship the very same sort of
    derangement they put their lives on the line to save us from.
    Mr De Adder, I am sure that you will soon be rehired by an organization bigger and better – your skills were wasted with the hick papers.
    What an absolutely brilliant editorial cartoon – worthy of international note.

  30. Another spineless coward running a paper. They should just f*ck*ng retire already because clearly they have no integrity or courage to call out fascist maniacs like Trump. [edited for language – not happy with the fake name either. DDD]

  31. The behaviour of BNI in this matter is beyond reprehensible.
    The cartoon is thoughtful, witty and on point.
    BNI should have published it.
    The fact that they haven’t published his Trump cartoons is unacceptable. The fact that they cancelled this cartoonist is extremely sad. I can only hope that readers will, in turn, cancel their subscriptions.

  32. Roxanne, dear, do get your meds checked, you seem to have lost every tiny scrap of sanity you ever possessed.
    tRump is a dangerous, racist, bigoted, blood gargling psychopath that is interested in only one thing…how much money he can swindle out of the treasury before being caught.
    Why don’t you remove your pointy little head out of FAUX News long enough to actually educate yourself with FACTS, not bat —- crazy Reich wing fantasies. Obama policy was to move children out ASAP to family members. They didn’t lose children, they certainly didn’t let seven year old children die of dehydration, and not one died in the last ten years. These are all easily verified facts. Since the orange idiot enacted his cruelty policy, 28 immigrants have died, including 7 children. Not a single one died during Obama’s administration. Thousands of children have been “lost” under the tRump administration, making him the largest state sponsored human trafficking criminal in the world. He has you idiots believing he is trying to stop human trafficking, while he conducts It right under your racist and ignorant noses.

    It is a manufactured crisis. He is stopping LEGAL immigration at the border. He has closed avenues of legal immigration off. This is a direct violation of international law. U.S. immigration policy states you need to be in the country to apply for asylum. tRump and his flying monkeys are making sure they don’t get the chance.
    tRump kicked out the United Nations human rights division, because what he is doing, is A CRIME. And there is every possibility the USA will be declared a rogue nation, and him a human rights violator. Canada has offered numerous times to take in immigrants that we are abusing. So do check yourself on that, too, you poor little addled thing, you.
    And exactly what are the children? Soul sucking, job stealing welfare abusing con artists or innocent children? You seem to think they’re both, depending on where you are in your spittle flecked narrative.

    Please do update your “facts” to reflect the truth. When you start spouting easily verified b.s., You just look like another raging, window licking, bus seat sniffing, drooling trumpanzee, and to be honest, your type is getting very old and moldy.

  33. Meagan, 8 migrant children have died in US custody in the last 7 months. Before that, no migrant children had died in US custody in the previous 8 years. No, the same things were NOT going on before.

    There was no family separation policy. There was no zero tolerance policy. There was no demonization of Mexican and Central American people. There was no cutting of the refugee acceptance by 70%. There was no blocking of asylum applications and threats to close the border. There was no concentrated effort to deport non-criminals, veterans, and even in some cases US citizens in order to score political points.

    I disagreed with Obama’s immigration policy, but Trump has stepped it up to an entirely new level of cruelty.

  34. And I almost forgot, there were no government lawyers arguing in court that forcing children to sleep on concrete floors under bright lights with no soap or toothpaste, weeks without a shower, and cutting out all recreation programs was “safe and sanitary” conditions.

  35. If Ihad any subscriptions to your “newspaper” I would immediately cancel them. It appears that you believe more in greed and profit than democracy. By your actions it is clear that you are not part of the free press, but rather a propaganda machine. Shame on you.

  36. Congratulations on the management decision to release this cartoonist
    We are living next to the greatest nation in the world
    If we were not, our country may not have the freedoms they do
    The president is the most powerful position in the world
    These cartoons demean that position.
    Having lived in the United States, I understand the complicated issues around immigration.
    Unfortunately it has become political and because of the legalities involved the current administration is trying to solve many problems without the support of Congress
    it is easy for some to be critical, which is a persons right but the complexities involved are not resolved by this type of denigration

  37. This is EXACTLY what needed to happen! Do you get it now American Trump followers? Our President did this …he should be fired. Michael de Adder wanted to shock you…..Because you should be HORRIFIED by this….although so many are not. This is exactly what happened….and it is a portrayal of how Narcissistic our President is. Please remember we were are all of immigrants here. This made me cry when it REALLY happened. Michael de Adder has struck a chord. WAKE UP America! I so wish I could have taken that Father and his little daughter into my home and help them…..crying again…..THIS MUST STOP!

  38. BNI are well within their rights to let Michael Adder go. That said, SHAME SHAME! Well within everyone else’s rights to let BNI know they are disgusting and unworthy of readers’ attention.

  39. Joe Dearborn, you are a typical conservative ********** (redundant) who confuses the office of the presidency with the ye president. Michael de Adder’s brilliant cartoon satirizes our despicable leader not the office he stole and doesn’t deserve the honor of holding. You probably believe that black NFL players who kneel during the national anthem disrepect the flag. Watching a parade while waving a flag and displaying a bumper sticker that reads “I Support Our Troops” isn’t patriotic. Patriots put country before self and Major Bone Spurs has never put anything before himself. The Trump First agenga is a disaster for America and the world. [This comment has been edited to abide with Rule #2 for Daily Cartoonist comments: Avoid personal attacks on a cartoonist or other commentators. DDD]

  40. Shame on you for terminating Michael de Adder.
    His cartoon portrayed the situation with Trump and his lack of compassion very accurately.

    We here in the US have to put up with his constant threats to the free press, I would not have thought that would be the case in the Maritimes as well.

    While I have lived in California for decades, my history goes back to Glace Bay NS, Acadia University and a decade in Halifax. My annual trips to the Maritimes are usually enjoyed as a haven from US politics, obviously this has changed.

    Mr de Adder should be reinstated. Do the right thing and do so.

  42. Is this the Michael de Adder who was fired from the Saint John Telegraph Journal in 1992 for a cartoon depicting a Westray coal miner? If so it shows his more of his amateur insensitive style.

  43. The Irvings have done it this time! They own too many businesses and are running the show up there!

    Being an American immigrant from Canada in 1953, I cringe to see how this administration is treating immigrants. There will always be foreigners and the US has always welcomed them with open arms. Der Donald has made the US look insensitive and uncaring by trying to take over the immigration situation and shutting out immigrants.

    I believe Mr.Michael de Adder should have been warned by his manager that the paper would not print his cartoon. Plain and simple! Why did the powers that be okay it and then turn around and drop him. Mr. de Adder, you will be working again very soon and probably have a dozen offers for better organizations. God’s peace and grace go with you.

  44. Ignorance is bliss, there are many happy people in America.
    A dopey, for profit, cartoonist obviously went too far drawing two people face down dead to make his own political point, which, of course, is not fact but opinion.
    Amazing how ugly people get this far, then again, why be amazed that people with dark souls aren’t popular.
    It’s always popular to feed the ignorant with what they want to see and hear.

  45. I’m seeing many posts of people supporting the cartoonist who drew the image of Trump standing over the dead father and child at the border. I’ve loathed Trump since the minute I watched first hand when he made his grabbing comment about women. I was raped as a teen by 5 young men,drugged,then raped. No man is entitled. But this cartoon goes beyond what is right. You respect the dead. The initial pic should never have been taken,or shared. The cartoon crosses the line. I support any newspaper who refused to use that cartoon,and FACEBOOK needs to ban it as well!!

  46. When a cartoonist is muzzedled up by it’s contractor (in this case the Irving family and companies), there are serious questions to be asked. When the american dictatorship under Donald Trump is spreading here in Canada, everyone should be worried for OUR democracy in OUR country.
    (Sorry for the misspelling, just trying to express myself to the best of my knowledge in English-thank you).

  47. ^ Oof da, that’s a lot of gray meeples above

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