Wealth has responsibility as well as privilege. The same applies to control. Used well, by governments, corporations, or individuals, it can maintain, uphold, and protect standards and freedoms. Badly used, it neglects, downgrades, and undermines those same standards and freedoms.

Following the precept of the first Canadian Vindicator of Daniel Tracey as laid out in its masthead motto, "Justice to all classes; monopolies and exclusive privileges to none," the recent removal of Russell Mills from his position as publisher of the Ottawa Citizen newspaper calls for condemnation by all who treasure freedom of the Press in Canada.

The Citizen is one of a chain of newspapers and television stations controlled by one company, CanWest. This concentration of ownership of the printed and later of the electronic media is nothing new, particularly where Canadians are involved. A litany of names starts with Atkin (Lord Beaverbrook), and goes on through Thomson (Baron Thomson of Fleet), Irving, Black (Lord Black of Crossharbour), and Asper. Undoubtedly all worked hard, with might and main, to achieve their business goals. As owners they enjoyed the right and freedom to hire and fire whomever the chose. They had that control, but how it was exercised in the case of Mills and the Citizen was an example of the crudest kind of control.

An edict was issued that the company was free to insist that editorials it produced at head office must appear in the newspapers it controlled.

It was, at best, a heavy handed imposition. The edict was obeyed, but the Citizen distinguished between company editorials and the editorials written by its staff.

Mills published an editorial, the product of the Citizen's editorial board, outlining reasons why the current Prime Minister of Canada should resign.

In a bizarre sequence of events that followed, he was awarded an honorary degree by Carleton University, citing his career in journalism. He gave the convocation address to graduating students on the subject of freedom of the Press. That was at a Saturday conferring ceremony. Next day, Sunday, he was dismissed by CanWest.

CanWest is a supporter of the Prime Minister.

Freedom of the Press was won in Canada by courageous journalists such as Daniel Tracey and Ludger Duvernay of La Minerve, both of whom suffered imprisonment, Dr. Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan who edited the Vindicator during Tracey's imprisonment, Francis Collins of The Canadian Freeman, imprisoned by a Family Compact dominated court, and Joseph Howe of the Novascotian. Russell Mills is the latest to be numbered in that distinguished company.

As an aside, readers will find a play on this web site titled The Whole Damn Lot, based on the trial and imprisonment of Francis Collins. The foreword is quite apropos in present circumstances.

And readers will remember the last Egyptian pharaoh, Cleopatra, who for a time enjoyed complete control, used it badly, and died when bitten by an asp at her breast.