Friday February 15, 2019

February 22, 2019 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 15, 2019

High-stakes war of words between Trudeau, Wilson-Raybould on tap

In the wake of Jody Wilson-Raybould’s resignation from Justin Trudeau’s cabinet, a war of words between the prime minister and his former attorney general seems inevitable. If the developments of the past few days are any indication, it could get ugly.

February 13, 2017

Wilson-Raybould would hardly have resigned if her interpretation of the interaction she had with the Prime Minister’s Office over the handling of the criminal prosecution on corruption charges of engineering giant SNC-Lavalin matched Trudeau’s.

She would not be seeking legal advice as to how much, if anything, she can disclose from former Supreme Court justice Thomas Cromwell if she were not exploring the option of giving her version of events.

April 3, 2012
Justin Trudeau wins charity boxing match
Liberal MP Justin Trudeau beat Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau in their charity boxing match in Ottawa Saturday night.

As an aside, Cromwell’s credentials can only make the advice Wilson-Raybould acts on harder to challenge either by the government — should the former SCOC justice lay out a legal rationale for her to speak up — or by the opposition parties if he advises her to remain silent.

In hindsight, Wilson-Raybould is probably congratulating herself for seeking top-notch legal advice.

Judging from the prime minister’s reaction to her resignation, Trudeau and his team are in a take-no-prisoners mood.

February 9, 2019

To listen to the prime minister on Tuesday, one would have been hard-pressed to find any lingering sign of the pride that attended Wilson-Raybould’s appointment as Canada’s first Indigenous attorney general three years ago. Hers was not a run-of — the-mill cabinet casting call.

Back in 2015, her elevation was seen as a powerful signal of the depth of Trudeau’s commitment to reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples.

But on Tuesday, the picture he painted of his former minister was anything but flattering. Trudeau questioned her integrity. He said her actions were at odds with their private conversations. He might as well have called Wilson-Raybould a loose cannon. (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

Autopsy of a Twitter Pile-on

Embarking on this investigation it is necessary to remind us all with a simple statement:

NOT ALL EDITORIAL CARTOONS ARE MEANT TO BE FUNNY

However, given the state of editorial cartooning in recent years, especially in North America, it’s not at all surprising that readers have come to always expect a funny gag to elicit a chortle or smile at the expense of a divisive politician. Think Donald Trump.

Sometimes the easiest path for some editorial cartoonists to take is to spread the laughter around equally with the aren’t-all-our-politicians-stupid gags. Though increasingly, editorial cartoon comedy has moved out of the realm of politics, and replaced by not so hard hitting commentary on crazy weather, sports, entertainment, or any other non-political arena which will offend the least sensibilities. On editorial pages across the spectrum, newspaper editors without staff cartoonists, will often opt to run syndicated cartoons which will offend the least number of readers thereby ensuring their daily routine won’t be interrupted by irate phone calls. Sadly, a rising number of newspapers have done away with editorial cartoons, running photos, or more text in their traditional boxes.

All this said, one would think the above statement goes without saying given the popularity of editorial cartoons which pull at heartstrings. Whether it’s editorial cartoon commentary on the passing of famous personality entering the pearly gates, a feel good Hallmark card cartoon greeting on any given calendar holiday, or a tear provoking editorial cartoon following headline tragedies in the news. People should understand that editorial cartoons, watered down to provoke emotion, aren’t always meant to be funny.

So here’s another statement :

EDITORIAL CARTOONS MAKE PEOPLE ANGRY

They’re also supposed to make people think. Not in a long time has a cartoon of mine garnered as much attention on Twitter – critical comments, yet a sizeable number of likes & retweets, here, and along with a similar cartoon drawn by Michael de Adder here.

The above editorial cartoon certainly demonstrated that fact. With orchestrated social media outrage and offence clouding logical thought and spreading like a virus designed to manipulate and whip up anger using tangents unrelated to the point of the satire. One would think it easily conveys to readers a classic scenario of power oppressing the afflicted. In order to depict the power imposing its will on the oppressed, a cartoonist sometimes has to draw uncomfortable images to convey the message.

Despite references to gag metaphors in the media to describe the situation demoted cabinet minister Jody Wilson-Raybould presently finds herself, being unable to give her account due to Solicitor-client privilege as federal Attorney-General in the SNC-Lavalin affair, the illustrated depiction of that situation was evidently too much for some readers to stomach.

I get it. This cartoon has caused anger. It’s especially galling to supporters of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He rode into office with overwhelming support, on a feminist mandate, to improve Ottawa’s relations with indigenous peoples, and to bring about greater government openness and transparency (and as a bonus, his boxing prowess, capitalized by his supporters, is in full ridiculous view.) The cartoon exposes perceived breaches on all those fronts. His brand is under attack and the mounting doubts and speculation because of it could send the Liberal Party’s House of Commons seat count downward after the coming Federal election. While many obviously understand this message, others are lashing out giving their own misunderstood definitions of what satire is:

…And just attacking the editorial cartoonist:

Which is fine. I, like all other editorial cartoonists, have been called everything from all sides of the political spectrum.

Sure, some people might think that they appreciate satire, it only works for them if the satire isn’t exposing the folly of their political heroes. What is worrying is the growing trend by readers to spread false accusations, to report or clamp down on satire, whenever they feel offended by an editorial cartoon. This is particularly true of the toxicity that spreads on a platform like Twitter.

This one takes the absolute cake for wrangling in the RCMP, as if Canada were some police state, while making a mockery of actual hate and violence promotion.

Long gone are the #JeSuisCharlie hashtags when people added their supposed support for satire with fingers clicking the mouses, but not actually understanding what satire actually is. Despite the articles, the panel discussions, the in-depth primers on the long history of the craft and the importance of freedom of expression, the actual term “freedom of expression” is being used in a pejorative way on university campuses, and elsewhere, worldwide.

The sad reality is, it’s having an effect, made evident by the fact that editorial cartoonist positions at newspapers are in fast decline. It’s not helped when those in journalism, politics, and academia thrash about demonstrating willful ignorance of satire, opting to join a chorus of virtue signallers feigning outrage on unrelated tangents which have nothing to do with the message in the editorial cartoon.

Godwin’s Law was invoked to the writer of that last doozy. Just for the record, at least one account holder was reported for threatening violence and had their account placed on suspension. A stiff 7 day cooling off period ought to give offenders a taste of a world without Twitter.

Eventually, every political movement comes to an end to be replaced by another. The pendulum swings. Some day Justin Trudeau will be gone and his party will be replaced by another. Politics will always be around, but the trends show that with the demise of print media, satire in the form of editorial cartoons will be watered down to irrelevance, unless the easily offended aren’t resisted.

There are countless expressions humans have to express freedom of expression, but a particular one that guides me is:

Hate the cartoon, dislike the cartoonist, but do not impose your own decree on what cartooning is intended to be.

Update – Monday February 18, 2019

My colleague Michael de Adder opted to apologize for his cartoon.

Yes, I’m well aware of his apology – @deAdder and I are good friends. Unfortunately his decision is due to the toxic nature of Twitter that forces free-expressionists to bow to faux-outrage & virtue signalling pressure to self-censor.

— Graeme MacKay (@mackaycartoons) February 18, 2019

The above cartoon is cited in this Huffington Post article. The Comments section are overwhelmingly supportive of the points expressed in this cartoon, and those drawn by other editorial cartoonists. An acknowledgement of thanks goes out to the many likes, retweets, and comments in support of the cartoon on Twitter.

Also, as of this afternoon, Gerald Butts, resigned his position as Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister. The plot thickens.

Update – Wednesday February 20, 2019

Trudeau said he apologized to Jody Wilson-Raybould in caucus:

“I wasn’t quick enough to condemn in unequivocal terms the comments and commentary and cartoons made about her last week, they were absolutely unacceptable and I should have done it sooner.”

Update – Sunday February 24, 2019

The Clerk of the Privy Council has registered his own disgust at at least one of the cartoons, although he didn’t specify which one. Speaking about Jody Wilson-Raybourn, Michael Wernick testified at the House Justice Committee, stating:

“She was the decider, the full and final decider. She can’t be the fettered solicitor and battered decider in that horrible, vile cartoon, at the same time. It’s one or the other.”

More write-ups appeared. A rambling piece sympathetic to Michael de Adder’s apology for his cartoon, and another one from Canada’s far right Rebel blasting him for caving in. Here’s a nice analysis summary of the week that was.

On the Canadaland podcast, an interview show about media, host Jesse Brown devoted much of the show unpacking the protest convoy, better known as “United we Roll”, which I drew on. Then, changing subject to the SNC-Lavalin scandal, at the 38:08 mark, Jesse feigns sympathy for “these poor son-of-a-bitch editorial cartoonists”, ironically, as he panders to a feminist guest about inferred misogyny, “…they’re not good cartoons.”

Gee, thanks, Jesse.

Update – March 2, 2019

CBC’s The National highlighted “cartoons that crossed the line” in the second segment of its Friday night broadcast. This cartoon closed out the report:

Letters to the Editor, Hamilton Spectator, February 21, 2019

Cartoon warrants an apology RE: Feb. 15 editorial cartoon

As a long time subscriber to The Hamilton Spectator I was appalled to see Graeme MacKay’s cartoon and equally disappointed that you made the decision to print it.

That Mr. MacKay views violence against women as amusing and worthy of drawing this disgusting cartoon and The Spectator’s decision to print it, given the alarming statistics regarding VAW and femicide in this country is inexcusable.

I would expect an apology.

Barbara Howe, Hamilton

Cartoon hit the mark RE: Feb. 15 editorial cartoon

Good for you, for this cartoon that exposes Justin Trudeau for what he really is. He calls himself a feminist, but he is really just another white male bully who thinks nothing of oppressing the views of women, in this case of Jody Wilson-Raybould. Thanks for putting this hypocrisy front and centre.

J.D. Peltier, Hamilton

Just so we’re clear, I did not apologize for my cartoon, nor did Andy Donato for his. Michael de Adder apologized for his cartoon.

— Graeme MacKay (@mackaycartoons) February 23, 2019

Saturday December 8, 2018

December 10, 2018 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 8, 2018

‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’ pulled from some Canadian radio stations

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” is getting a chilly response from Canadian radio stations.

December 4, 2018

At least two of the country’s biggest radio operators — Rogers Media and Bell Media — say they’ve decided to pull the controversial Christmas favourite out of their rotations this year.

That comes as the duet, written back in 1944, faces renewed scrutiny over what some say are inappropriate lyrics in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Earlier this week, Cleveland radio station WDOK-FM announced it was no longer playing the song in response to listener feedback. Some took issue over lyrics where one singer is trying to persuade the other to stay inside, with exchanges that include, “What’s in this drink?” and “Baby, don’t hold out.”

Bell Media spokesperson Scott Henderson says the company, which runs two 24-hour Christmas stations in Vancouver and Ottawa, chose not to include the Christmas tune on its playlists this year.

“The song wasn’t scheduled for airplay on any Bell Media Radio stations and there are no plans to play it in the future,” he wrote in an emailed statement.

December 9, 2017

Rogers Media also runs a number of all-Christmas music stations, including 98.1 CHFI-FM in Toronto and 98.5 CIOC-FM in Victoria. Spokesperson Caitlin Decarie says the broadcaster also removed the song this year, but declined outline how it reached the decision.

“There are so many wonderful songs that celebrate the holiday season,” she said.

A representative for CBC Radio was unable to answer whether its stations include the Christmas song in its current rotation.

“Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has been considered a holiday classic ever since it won the Academy Award for best original song in the film “Neptune’s Daughter.”

Christmas Classics

It’s since been covered countless times by singers Ray Charles and Betty Carter, Idina Menzel & Michael Buble, as well as Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart.

Concern over the song has existed for years, leading to many reinterpretations of the lyrics.

Lady Gaga and Joseph Gordon-Levitt flipped the gender roles in a performance for the pop singer’s 2013 holiday special with the Muppets.

And two years ago, Minnesota couple Lydia Liza and Josiah Lemanski rewrote the lyrics to include lines about consent, such as a response to the woman’s line “I ought to say no, no, no” with the man saying: “You reserve the right to say no.” (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Thursday January 8, 2014

January 7, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday January 8, 2014

12 dead, shooters on the run, after ‘terror’ attack at Paris newspaper

A French police official says 12 people are dead in a shooting at a satirical weekly newspaper in central Paris and the attackers are still at large.

Four more people are in critical condition and an additional 20 have been injured, police said.

Two of the dead are police officers. French media reported the weekly’s chief editor and other staff were among the dead.

Paris has been put on the highest state of alert for a terrorist attack.

“France is in a state of shock,” French President Francois Hollande said at the scene of Wednesday’s shooting at Charlie Hebdo.

“Journalists and police were killed,” Holland said.

Hollande called it “a terrorist attack, there is no doubt. We must show we are a country united.”

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported the satirical cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier and two others cartoonists were dead.

The French newspaper Le Monde also quoted several police sources as saying Charbonnier, who is also direction of publication, and cartoonist Riss were among the dead.

A few minutes before the shooting, Charlie Hebdo’s Twitter account published a Charbonnier cartoon that said, “Best wishes, to al-Baghdadi also,” a reference to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi who is called the leader of the violent terrorist group Islamic State.

Charlie Hebdo’s cover this week is on Submission, a book by Michel Houellebecq released Wednesday, which is sparking controversy with its depiction of a fictional France of the future led by an Islamic party and a Muslim president who bans women from the workplace.

The attackers are on the run, Holland said. He said all potential terrorist targets have been put under the highest protection, adding that several possible attacks have been foiled in recent weeks.

From Washington, London, Brussels and Rome, leaders condemned the attack.

Most of the victims were part of the magazine’s newsroom, Matthieu Lamarre, a spokesman for the Paris Mayor’s office, said.

The solidarity slogan “Je suis Charlie” was quickly trending on Twitter.

The satirical weekly has drawn repeated threats for its caricatures of the Prophett Mohammed, among other controversial sketches. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Wednesday June 25, 2014

June 25, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday June 25, 2014

Family of jailed Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy blames Harper for outcome of ‘sham’ trial in Egypt

Fadel and Wafaa Fahmy entered a courtroom in Cairo Monday to hear the verdict on their son, journalist Mohamed Fahmy, expecting an acquittal and a prompt return to their home in Montreal where the family has lived for 23 years.

Instead, a surprise finding of guilt on terrorism-related charges and a sentence of seven years in a harsh prison sent Mrs. Fahmy into turmoil, bursting into tears and stomping her feet on the floor.

The entire family was stunned, most of all Mohamed Fahmy himself, the Cairo bureau chief with broadcaster Al Jazeera English. The dual Canadian-Egyptian citizen was found guilty along with two journalist colleagues, an Australian and an Egyptian, of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt, and with fabricating news reports that undermine Egypt’s security.

On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said he will not interfere in court rulings, despite an international landslide of condemnation and calls for el-Sissi to intervene. Egypt’s constitution gives the president the right to issue a pardon or commute the sentences.

He said he called the justice minister late Monday to repeat that sentiment, despite what he described as debate over the rulings against the journalists.

After a trial and verdict, declared by Amnesty International to be “a complete sham” where no evidence of a nefarious conspiracy was heard, Mr. Fahmy was instead declared guilty and returned to his cell, but not before he angrily called out from behind the bars of the prisoners’ cage: “I swear they will pay for this.”

The anger was a reflection of how crushed his brother was by the verdict, said Mr. Fahmy’s brother, Sherif.

“It’s insane. There is nothing that makes any kind of sense at all. The evidence is insane,” Sherif said in an interview from Kuwait. “It was a very, very heartbreaking scene. We were very optimistic. We never thought this was coming.”

Sherif said he holds Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, responsible for the outcome because the Canadian government failed to aggressively address the case.

“If you compare what Canada has done to what the Australian, English and Dutch have done, it is not much. [Mr. Harper] did not mention Mohammed once,” Sherif said. (Source: National Post)

Reflections on our time in Cuba

May 24, 2014 by Graeme MacKay

ACEC/ACDE Poster Art, Havana 2014 Español | Français | English

When my professional group, the long winded sounding The Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists (ACEC), gets together every couple of years, we normally meet in some Canadian city, talk a bit of shop, drink beer and listen to a few of us who bring along harmonicas while others strum guitars. The odd time we play host to a few foreign cartoonists who were oppressed in their countries, although the American Association does a better job of hosting foreign cartoonists with help from the Cartoonists Rights Network. Never before have we gone to another country where governments have a record of repressing free expressionists by clamping down on political satire directed their way. We changed that this year. In May, 16 cartoonists plus approximately 10 associates ventured to Havana, Cuba, for the cartoonist convention. This visit included whirlwind tours of UNESCO World Heritage protected-towns of Trinidad and Cienfuegos.

Updated in 2020 (Cuba has slipped to 171/280)

When I returned to the office after a 10 day visit to Cuba, I was met with a bit of grumpiness by a couple of my colleagues. I was reminded of this recent column and the association choosing a place where press freedom ranked #170 out of 180 countries. So with that came digs about when we were planning to host future conventions in places like North Korea or Nigeria.

The ranking is quite disturbing, as it just barely scores better than Iran, Syria and North Korea, which is dead last on the list. Interestingly, the mammoth nation of China, which has increasingly become quite trade-chummy over the past decade with Western governments (Canada included) ranks behind Cuba at #175. Canada, by the way, is #18, the USA is #46, and toping the list at #1 is Finland.

(The Poster Studio) Estudio Taller Babalu Aye, Havana Cuba

Go further in the ranking of Cuba and one will find that the island country is near the bottom of the list for open markets, regulatory efficiency, limited government, and the rule of law. Raul Castro rules over the state in a rather quieter bureaucratic way than his brother Fidel, nonetheless, he is firmly in control of the state levers and the Cuban Communist Party. Agriculture, the public service, mining, wages, and productivity are all at the bottom of the barrel, and there’s no arguing against the facts spelled out in the bar graphs and pie charts — Cuba’s economic and political freedoms are squarely mired in a deep hell hole.

Illustration by Adán, Havana

The American trade embargo certainly does not help matters, and it is often brought up by the locals as the main source of woe that Cuba endures. Their government successfully uses the pain of the embargo to give reason to anything that goes wrong in Cuba. Although, even that is wearing thin on weary Cubans as they openly question creative reasoning by their masters to blame the Yanks for Cuba’s corruption, and the lack of freedoms and rule of law so engrained in the machine that runs the country. We Canadians look to our friends in the USA wondering why they fuss so grudgingly about isolating a harmless country long deserted by an extinct Soviet cold warrior. At the same time, it’s kind of nice to find an oasis on Earth that hasn’t been polluted by the over-commercialization we find everywhere in the West from golden arch restaurants to monstrous box stores selling the goods from international sweat shops.

Yet the island country endures and chugs along against a current of western values that are clearly polar opposite to their own. The consequence are a people who fully and whole-heartedly embrace art, be it music, visual, and/or performance art, and it spills out of doorways and on to the streets like no other place in the 21st century.

Cuba-Canada_gathering

By Andez, Cienfuegos

What we discovered in Cuba is a very robust, diverse, and creative group of illustrators and cartoonists. Together we mounted a nice exhibit of our illustrations and cartoons at the Vitrina de Valonia Gallery in the heart of old Havana. No, they aren’t allowed to directly skewer their governments to the degree in which we in the North have the freedom to do, but they are keenly aware about how much they can push the envelope to the furthest edges which won’t find them locked away in prison. If I drew the kind of sex cartoons Chisp@ of Cienfuegos gets away with in Cuba, for example, I may not be thrown in jail, but it wouldn’t take long before my bosses would send me packing from the Spectator. Perhaps it’s simply typical of tropical societies, but clearly the culture of the naked form is better tolerated in Cuban illustrations than in cold Canada, so long as it doesn’t cross the line into pornography, because possession of that will find one behind prison bars!

Los niños de la Guerra by Alfredo Martirena

Much of the Cuban editorial cartoons I came across are directed quite predictably at the United States, and not necessarily obsessing against the embargo. The folks I met are very much aware of news events beyond their shores, and are way more up to speed than I can ever be on the latest movies and Netflix mini-series. They may not all have the Internet feeding into their home computers, but they certainly have access to it through their cell phones, tablets and office computers. They have e-mail, they’re on Facebook, and they’re very much aware of the challenging economic times their mighty neighbour to the north is going through.

The housing crisis, the occupy movement, and the Obamacare mess have provided Cubans a front row seat to view the parade of pitfalls of capitalism and the widening gap between the super rich and the growing poor. Today’s hardships have darkened the once colourful picture Cubans had of the USA, making people I met wonder how pathetically desperate fellow countrymen must be to board rafts bound for the the shores of Florida in the 21st century.

by Ramses Morales Izquierdo

Ramses Morales Izquierdo found out from the internationally known Cuban illustrator Ares, that a bunch of us cartoonists were staying in Cuba after our general convention wrapped up in Havana. Not even a minute had gone by during the time I was checking out my room at the Iberostar Hotel in the beautiful old town of Trinidad that the phone rang with Ramses on the line, welcoming me. From that moment on, he became our pal and he guided us behind the scenes into the town’s archives where his gallery is based. He showed us parts of his beloved town that aren’t the usual stops for tourists. He came along with us to the newer and bigger city of Cienfuegos, and, along with the very talented Angel Fernandez Quintana (Andez), organized an impromptu gathering of local illustrators near our Hotel Jagua.

By Aristides E. Hernandez Guerrero (Ares)

Growing up, Ramses’ mother advised him that he was going to learn English, unlike the rest of the kids in his school who were taught Russian as a second language. The consequence of that decision is someone who is extremely well read and informed about the world around him. He is very passionate about his town and country and speaks with an intensity that is very honest about Cuba. He is quite optimistic about its future. Ramses is very insistent that his country be regarded as a multicultural one belonging to the first world, and an integral part of North America.

(Update: In 2015, Ramses was featured in this CBC news report (beginning at the 1:09 min mark) when the U.S. and Cuba were negotiating an end to a half century of distrust and suspicion.)

Raul Castro has somewhat loosened the government’s grip on private investment. Reports say the reforms aren’t going so well. Evidently however, free-enterprise is cropping up in the form of family run Paladar restaurants and B&Bs. There are obvious signs of entrepreneurship and visitors can see it in the clothes people wear, and in their watches and accessories. There are the haves, and have-nots, and it’s not based on how connected one is to the regime, but how hard one works. There’s also push-back towards the new free enterprise. Off the main square of Plaza Carillo in Trinidad is the Bar Floridita. This is not the one made famous by Ernest Hemingway that includes a statue of him at the end of a bar where tourists get their photo taken, but a replica of the place. It’s one of several that have opened up across the island serving drinks with the same prices one would pay if they were at a Kelsey’s franchise in Canada. It’s all great for tourists, but to Ramses, it’s akin to Starbucks moving in and running the old cafe across the street out of business.

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Click here for a full gallery of photos

What I’ve learned from this trip was this is not our grandfather’s Cuba. It’s only a matter of time before Starbucks and the big box stores make their way to the shores of Cuba. And it will make big news just like when the first McDonald’s opened years ago in Moscow and Beijing. It is with hope that Cuba takes a page out of China’s book of how to expand its free markets for greater prosperity. Finally, here’s hoping our friends south of the 49th Parallel will soon rethink their relationship with this beautiful, historic country and its people and let them choose their own destiny unencumbered by old grievances and greedy ex-pat descendants from the Batista era.

Update, January 28, 2015: Adrienne Arsenault of the CBC reports on US/Cuban negotiations to normalize relations. In the video attached to this link.

SOCIAL MEDIA

This article was posted to the DailyCartoonist.com, a terrific website covering news about professional cartoonists, webcomics, movies and animation, and magazine gag cartoonists. It bills itself as the source for industry news for the professional cartoonist. Click here to see the rantings of a genuine 21st century American cold warrior reacting to our tour.

Super Special ACEC Action Cards Uncle Sam Edition, by Wes Tyrell

Message from ACEC President Wes Tyrell, May 25, 2014

At this time most of our cartoonist adventurers have returned to the homeland (Dan Murphy may be setting up a studio in the SierraMaestra as we speak and will only be available via wireless from now on).

Our ACEC/ACDE Conference was by any standard a terrific endeavour and I think now most are in agreement that conferences can be held quite successfully in foreign countries. Our hosts proved to be the most charming of individuals, a delightful blend of veterans and youngsters, all with great admiration and curiosity for the northern invaders.

If anything was learned by meeting these people it was that their desire to observe and create is ceaseless and is that not the most inspirational of elements one hopes to come away with while visiting new colleagues?

The sights and sounds will reverberate for a long time and hopefully will pop up in strange and interesting fashions in your work. Our new friends there including Ares, Adan, Laz, Falco, Martirena, Ramses, Angel and the rest have at the same time learned a little about what it means to be Canadian and how our brand of cartooning can perhaps teach them some different approaches.

Our conversations to this affect were, in that Canadian way, not heavy handed or intimidating and they all thanked us for a velvet approach. Cartooning in Cuba presents many challenges and these characters are savvy navigators, able to satisfy their own instincts while presenting socially palatable work.

Many new friends; a very successful gallery exhibit; some comedic presentations made more unusual with the three language translation magic of our friend Michele; old car tours; great eating and drinking – memories were just piled one on top of the other for all.

I hope members will be encouraged to share photos and videos as well as sketches so we can compile an ibook or equivalent as a terrific memento of this fine time.

Our momentum going forward is strong and our next endeavour will look to bring together cartoonists from all over Canada and the globe in my hometown of Toronto in 2016. This will give us an opportunity to gather members and friends who were unable to join us at this year’s conference as we put on a show that promotes the excellence of Canadian cartooning. This is really the first strength of our association and something you should all be proud of.

Our Ontario members starting with the great Donato, Gable, Mou, Dewar, MacKay and their respective papers will be encouraged to participate in order to remind everyone that cartooning is alive and well in the beautiful city of Toronto.