Libel
chill leaves children's author feeling censored OPINIONS / Carol Matas's
novel about a Jewish school and a child-abusing rabbi touched a nerve
in Winnipeg. A synagogue cancelled her appearance amid threats of
litigation.
By Marc Hubert
The Globe and Mall (Toronto) - December 19, 1995
For more information on this case: CLICK HEREFALLOUT from a high-profile investigation of child-abuse allegations against a former Manitoba rabbi has created a new form of libel chill for a Winnipeg author of children's books.
Carol Matas - Author |
Carol Matas had been invited to speak in February at an interfaith
luncheon sponsored by the Sisterhood of Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek
synagogue. But her appearance was cancelled after the congregation
received a legal opinion suggesting the synagogue could be sued for
publication of a libel if it permitted Matas to speak.
"This is paranoia of the worst sort and censorship in the worst way.
Libel chill isn't a strong enough term. Basically, they're censoring me
and not the book. Somehow, I am no longer acceptable," Matas said
recently.
Book about Rabbi Ephraim Bryks |
What's prompting the controversy is
Matas's latest novel, The Primrose Path. Published by Winnipeg's
Blizzard Publishing, it's the story of a Jewish school enduring a
child-abusing rabbi. The case bears some similarities to a Winnipeg
police investigation of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks,
former principal of the Torah Academy in Winnipeg. Now closed, Torah
Academy was a school operated by Herzlia-Adas Yeshrun, an Orthodox
congregation formerly led by Bryks, now living in New York.
After a year-long review, Manitoba's public prosecutions office last
month decided that no Criminal Code charges were warranted against Bryks,
who was previously investigated for similar allegations by Winnipeg
police and the city's child and family services department in 1987 and
1988.
The Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks - Alleged sexual predator |
After a 1994 CBC documentary outlining other child-abuse allegations involving Bryks
(which was broadcast before the police resumed their second
investigation), the rabbi launched a defamation lawsuit against his
accusers and the CBC. But beyond a preliminary notice, these cases have
not progressed. Two years after the 1988 report by the city department,
Bryks left Winnipeg for New York.
While Matas says she was only asked to deliver a speech, the synagogue
maintains that she was going to speak about her new book. By
acquiescing to the threat of litigation, the synagogue's decision, to
some, appears to be a highly unusual instance of the suppression of an
author's freedom of expression, especially since no defamation lawsuits
have been commenced against the book, which was published last
September.
Matas, who is emphatic that her book isn't based on Bryks,
describes The Primrose Path as "a universal story which I based on
research across North America. And in two other communities where I've
spoken besides Winnipeg, people in the audience believe that the book
is about a specific case in their community. It says to me that I'm
doing my job as a writer because it is a universal story."
Matas also says she is very upset about the synagogue's cancellation,
initiated, it said, because of a "scheduling conflict." "I think it's
shameful and outrageous. . . . And being unable to have me as a speaker
because they're afraid that someone might sue them is scary business."
Matas says she learned from Shaarey Zedek's president, Samuel Wilder,
that her invitation had been cancelled because the synagogue's lawyers
said that since "the story in The Primrose Path so closely parallels
what happened in Winnipeg, the synagogue would be subject to a
defamation action if they let me speak."
Contacted earlier this month, Wilder refused to answer any questions
for The Globe and Mail, saying "this isn't an issue for the press."
Denise Waldman, president of the synagogue's Sisterhood, was equally
reticent about answering questions and, she said, "if there is any
Sisterhood board member who speaks to you, they will have to answer to
me. I'm a young president of a flourishing sisterhood and we don't need
any garbage."
The Sisterhood's move is,
however, attracting negative attention from both inside and outside
Winnipeg. Penny Dickens, executive director of the Writers Union of
Canada, for one, condemned the decision. "They took the easy way out.
It certainly wasn't a heroic decision - they've silenced a writer. . . .
This isn't chill, it's a major freeze."
While
characterizing libel chill as a term usually involving state action,
Toronto criminal lawyer Clayton Ruby had "grave doubts" regarding the
legal opinion. "Unless they knew in advance that she's going to be
defaming someone, they wouldn't be responsible for giving her a
platform."
Ruby also deplored the Sisterhood's
cancellation of Matas's address. "They don't understand literature and
its role in a free society. It's a message from the community that we
don't want to talk about that subject matter. And then authors won't
write books like that. It's unhealthy and shortsighted."
David Matas, a Winnipeg immigration lawyer and cousin of the author,
agreed with Ruby. "Her work is a work of fiction. It doesn't identify a
specific person. It's most unusual for a libel suit to come out of a
fictional account," Matas said.
However, Julian
Porter, a Toronto lawyer noted for his expertise in libel and
defamation, said that it is possible that the author of a fictional
book could be sued for libel and that the synagogue could be sued, in
turn, by allowing Carol Matas to speak. Generally speaking, he said,
the test is if the work of fiction refers, or is capable of referring,
to a real person. Although there are no Canadian precedents, civil
liability for such cases has been found in the United States, England
and Australia.
Porter qualified his comments by
noting that these types of cases are very rare. Yet, about 15 years
ago, he successfully settled a libel case involving Toronto author Ian
Adams, who wrote a novel suggesting that a government representative
was part of a Communist spy ring.
Porter
predicted that to win such a case at trial a lawyer would have to put a
number of people in the witness box, each of whom believed that the
book was about the allegedly defamed person. To safely write a roman a
clef, Porter recommended that writers should change a host of personal
details. "Changing a couple of little things isn't enough."
But Matas's Winnipeg-based publisher, Anna Synenko, dismisses the
possibility of libel action involving The Primrose Path. "We haven't
received any libel suits yet and I don't think we will. I really don't
understand what the Sisterhood's problem is. The book is based on a
large amount of research and not on one incident."
Matas is the author of 15 books, most aimed at readers aged 10 to 17.
Her novels include Daniel's Story, commissioned by the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum in 1993, and Sworn Enemies, which won the National
Association of Jewish Libraries' Sydney Taylor award in 1993.
For more information on this case: CLICK HERE
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