WHERE IS PAEDOPHILIA ALL RIGHT?
. . . among modish Canadian academics,
students and newspapers, says Michael Coren,
but only if the paedophile is all Left
Toronto MORE THAN half a century ago, Hilaire Belloc composed a scathing and delicious poem in defence of his friend G.K. Chesterton and in anger at the then new type of decadent and ignoble academic. Oh, for the divine Hilary to be alive today, particularly in Canada. Here, a teacher of journalism at this city's Ryerson Polytech- nic University, Gerald Hannon, has been suspended by his bosses, though reluctant- ly, for his outspoken defence of paedophil- ia and his announcement that he works as a homosexual prostitute. What is most worrying about all of this is not, of course, that the man was suspend- ed, but that he was and is being defended by his trade union, by many of his teaching peers, by the Writers' Union of Canada and by a large number of his students. Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, went so far as to compare this rather shabby and mediocre individual to Socrates and ran an editorial vehemently defending his position as a teacher. In fact, most of the Canadian liberal elite have formed their highly decorated wagons in a circle around the man. He has become that apotheosis of radical entities, a cause.
Yet Hannon is not the real issue. He is a little-known magazine journalist who sup- plements his income by teaching journal- ism and, we now know, selling his body to desperate homosexuals. More than this, his views on paedophilia have been evident for some time. Reviewing a book about `inter-generational sex', Hannon wrote of the author: 'She has let her pity and out- rage run away with her senses, and has produced a book that takes as its premise the notion that sexual contact between children and adults can never be ethical. I find that position intellectually unsatisfy- ing.' More satisfying, apparently, are pae- dophile groups, because Hannon also wrote that he could not understand 'how children's hockey differed from an organ- ised child sex ring. Both involved strenu- ous physical activity (adult coaches taking the role of the adult lover). Both involved danger. Both involved pleasure. Yet we approve of children's hockey and deplore child sex rings.' Even after this, however, the Globe and Mail (yes, the publication that is convinced that this man is just like an ancient Greek philosopher, presumably because he once won a Canadian Maga- zine Award) commissioned him to write an objective piece about a paedophile scandal in London, Ontario. Hannon con- cluded that there was nothing to worry about in London and referred contemptu- ously to 'police-constructed moral panic'. It was rather like asking David Irving to write a balanced article about Holocaust denial.
No, the real issue is that a man whose views and behaviour would have been unacceptable in any civilised society only a few years ago is now considered to be so fashionable by the modish classes that he is championed and lauded. Another teach- er from the Ryerson Journalism School, one Don Obe, has said that Hannon is 'an honest man. He's sophisticated.' One of the students at the college added that he was 'tired of the straight, white guys with two kids and a mortgage' who teach him. These pale heterosexuals are also the peo- ple who pay extraordinarily high taxes so that graceless students can have a sub- sidised university education. Anyway, Ryer- son is certainly not dripping with conserva- tive teachers. The staff at the school of journalism tend to be on the Left and, one has to say, not particularly impressive. The school is hardly turning out Woodwards and Bernstein by the score.
Most of this allegedly libertarian talk is, apart from anything else, extremely hypo- critical, in that Canadian universities have become hotbeds of censorship where con- servative thinkers, teachers and writers are concerned. Things are so stifling and politi- cally correct that a society for academic freedom has now been established to pro- tect professors from left-wing extremism. Their argument is, strangely enough, not as popular as that of our Gerald.
It is also profoundly relevant that the newspaper that brought Hannon's sad state to public notice was the Toronto Sun, a large-circulation conservative tabloid. The Sun and its sister papers across Canada are high on quality and style and they dare to have a far greater working- and middle- class readership than any of their more patrician rivals. As such, they are held in disdain by the establishment in this decep- tively class-divided country. If the Sun says hostile things about Hannon, runs the logic of the egalitarians on the Left, then we are obliged to support him as a victim. One recalls the lines of Oscar Wilde as inter- preted by John Betjeman: 'Approval of what is approved of is as false as a well- kept vow.' In other words, it is terribly vul- gar to be at one with the masses.
The arguments can be overheard in the corridors of academe and the coffee hous- es of the city. One, from a sociology stu- dent, remains in my mind. 'Most people simply don't understand that freedom involves the toleration of people and behaviour with which we don't necessarily agree,' he said. Toleration: the 11th com- mandment, c. 1968. Actually 'most people' have a far greater grasp of natural law and immutable ethics than their alleged superi- ors. 'Most people' know and have always known viscerally what is good and what is not. 'Most people' might not have intellec- tualised the instinctive, but their feelings are nevertheless intelligent, even sublime. `Most people' know that Gerald Hannon's attitudes and activities are obnoxious and grotesque in someone who is supposed to be a role model for young people. 'Most people' know that values do not change, only our feeble efforts to find a way round them.
The great North American kulturkampf between classes, between moral codes and between visions of the future has chosen as its latest battlefield a city that was once known, ironically, as Toronto the Good. It is still good. It is just that some of its more vocal inhabitants wish that it weren't. All glory to 'most people'.
Michael Coren's latest biography, Conan Doyle, is published by Bloomsbury.
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