The Commerce Times

Was Wong Wrong?

Journalism undergraduate students settle in to their seats, engaging in independent conversations, when a petite Chinese woman at the podium draws their attention. “Hello everyone,” Jan Wong says, in a gentle-toned voice. All conversations quickly finish and the students almost immediately jump in to a casual discussion with their professor.

On this particular day, the class is discussing the representation of mental illness in the media, a topic Wong personally understands. After discussing the assigned readings, Wong launches in to her own story of how she suffered from depression after being let go from the Globe and Mail, her employer for almost 20 years, for comments she made about the Dawson College shooting in 2006. Quebec residents were asking why three Canadian post-secondary shootings had all occurred in their province. Wong, both a visible ethnic minority and native to Montreal, attempted to answer their question by pointing out that all three shooters had been of a visible minority.

Wong’s reputation in the newsroom was that of “a star.”

“What many outsiders don’t realize is how alienating the decadeslong linguistic struggle has been in the once-cosmopolitan city,” Wong wrote in her feature, titled “Get Under the Desk.” “Elsewhere, to talk of racial ‘purity’ is repugnant. Not in Quebec.”

The first signs of trouble were the letters from the Premier of Quebec and the Prime Minister, denouncing Wong‘s statement as slanderous.

“And that wasn’t the worst part, because being denounced by the Prime Minister is like a badge of honour in our business,” she said in Edmonton at the 74th annual Canadian University Press Conference that took place in January, the audience broke into a roar of laughter and wild applause.

Soon, death threats were being left on her answering machine and feces were sent through the mail to her office. While Wong’s concern grew, the Globe and Mail began untangling themselves from the mess.

“[My editor] didn’t take responsibility, and that was the problem,” she said. “I felt very betrayed because not only did he read it [before it went to print], but then he also wrote a column attacking me.”

For the first time in her career, Wong couldn’t write.

“I couldn’t even write an email,” she recalled.

The writer’s block was a first in her illustrious career. She graduated from McGill University and Columbia’s graduate journalism program, and spent her early years as a foreign correspondent in Beijing and business reporter in North America, writing for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Globe and Mail. Unlike most veterans of any career, Wong maintained the rookie excitement.

“Every day I would try to beat the New York Times,” she said. “My old boss [at the Times] was my competition in Boston… It was fun!”

From 1996 to 2002, she wrote a weekly column profiling various individuals for the Globe and Mail, called “Lunch with Jan Wong.” These candid and sometimes unflattering profiles earned her a reputation for “gratuitous and opportunistic nastiness in the pursuit of copy,” as stated on her Wikipedia page.

“It wasn’t gratuitous,” she said. “It was always for a reason. And I really did try [to be honest], because I was trying to be as sharp as possible… I was trying to make a point.”

The column’s editor and current Ryerson journalism professor Anne McNeilly, was aware of that reputation and debunked it as false.

“At the end of the lunch column, we did a piece where we contacted all her subjects and let them have their say,” McNeilly said. “So I contacted a bunch of people, and she had lunch with high-profile people and normal people. She took a homeless woman to lunch. And nobody had anything bad to say about her. When the column ended we got a lot of feedback from readers who were sad to see it go.”

The Journalism Chair at Ryerson, Paul Knox, was responsible for hiring her as a professor.

“Her strengths are that she’s fearless when she conceives of a story and goes after it,” Knox said.“She’s a very skilled interviewer… She has a way of asking questions that force you to define what it is that you think.”

McNeilly says that Wong’s reputation in the newsroom was that of “a star,” which might have contributed to the souring relationship between her and the Globe editors.

“There’s a lot of personalities… with big egos in news rooms, and I think she got embroiled in all of that because of her fearless reporting. They didn’t support her in the way she deserved to be, so I think it was a failure on the part of the newspaper.”

For now, Wong is content with writing books instead of news.

“It’s very free, I work in my bathrobe and I don’t go out if the weather is bad.”

Perhaps most surprising is Wong’s untarnished opinion of the career that seemed to chew her up and spit her out again.

“I think it’s just life; There are setbacks. I had a pretty charmed existence until this happened.”

For the record, she stands by her controversial comment on Quebec society.

“And I think the backlash proves my point… because the backlash on me was all focused on my ethnicity. I haven’t seen any good argument refuting [my comment]. It’s mainly people calling me stupid, or worse.”

She is unsure if this break from journalism is a turning point in her life or just a hiatus. In Wong’s words, “You are only as good your last story,” and after repeatedly using the words fun and love to describe her work, it may be only a matter of time until you see her name under the newspaper headline again.