After 10 years, the publishers of the Waterloo Chronicle have decided that the paper will no longer feature my column. There was a time that such a decision would have provoked me to write a bitter rant against the evil corporate media moguls who were suppressing my right to free speech. Perhaps because I’m getting (ahem) older, or perhaps because Iâe(TM)ve learned to distinguish between battles I can win and battles that are pointless, I’m not going to do that today. Besides the fact that such a rant would probably not have been published, the reality is that it would have been little more than self-flagellation.

Ultimately, the owners of a paper (and, by my count, the current owners are the fifth owners of the Chronicle since 1993) have the absolute right to make a business decision about what they want in their paper. The readers of the paper will then decide whether they agree with those business decisions.

In this case, I was asked back in November if I would “be willing to localize your writing, specifically focusing on issues within Waterloo or Waterloo Region. If you’d like to tackle a federal or provincial issue, which you certainly can, we’d like for you to take a local approach to it.” I replied that “I’m pretty resistant to agreeing to any controls over what I write. I write about whatever is bugging me at the moment. While that will often refer specifically to Waterloo, I can’t promise that it will every week.” As well, as my audience has now expanded well outside of the boundaries of Waterloo, I indicated that I needed to balance my local perspective with the need to avoid mystifying those who live outside the area.

While I certainly hoped that what I felt was a measured response would save my column from being pulled, I wasn’t really surprised when I learned this week that it had not. I’ll sleep well knowing that I didn’t sacrifice my independence in order to protect my spot on the editorial page. At the same time, I canâe(TM)t really blame those who made the decision. They asked me to do something different with my column and I declined.

Since this is my last opportunity to do so, I wanted to take the time to thank the three editors with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working. Melodee Martinuk, Deb Crandall and, most recently, Andrea Bailey have done an outstanding job of balancing the concept of editorial freedom with the need to answer to those who are more interested in maximizing ad revenue. It’s no secret, for example, that many of the business owners who might want to advertise in a local newspaper donâe(TM)t have an appreciation for my political views. Frankly, under the circumstances, I’m a little surprised that I lasted as long as I did as a columnist.

In addition, I want to thank all those who’ve read the column, either regularly or casually, over the past decade. Without readers, I’d just be talking to myself (although I sometimes do that too). I’ve saved every letter to the editor, and prize each one as an indication that I’ve motivated someone to get involved in a debate on the issues. Believe it or not, I enjoy hearing from those who disagree with me just as much as I enjoy those that praise my work. For those of you who have told me that you read the Chronicle only because of my column, I do hope that you will continue to read the paper. Even without my column, there’s still plenty of interesting stuff to read.

I’m sure there are those who will celebrate the disappearance of my column from the Chronicle. In fact, I’m pretty sure that those living within a two kilometre radius of either Andrew Telegdi’s or Elizabeth Witmer’s office can probably hear shouts of joy even as they read this.

No matter what happens, I’ll keep writing. I’m far too opinionated to keep my thoughts to myself. And, there doesn’t seem to be any end to the number of politicians or business leaders who do things that tick me off. I’m already in discussions with another local publication and am quite hopeful that they will decide to pick up my column. Should those discussions not pan out, I’ve also told Andrea that I’d be quite open to making a comeback in these pages, should her bosses experience a change of heart.

You can still find my columns in The Woolwich Observer, an excellent independent paper, and online at rabble.ca.

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Scott Piatkowski

Scott Piatkowski is a former columnist for rabble.ca. He wrote a weekly column for 13 years that appeared in the Waterloo Chronicle, the Woolwich Observer and ECHO Weekly. He has also written for Straight...