Canada's largest drugstore chain has decided to stop carrying a controversial anti-consumerist/activist magazine in its stores. But a spokesperson for Shoppers Drug Mart says the decision, made last month, is only coincidental with a dispute between the magazine, Vancouver-based Adbusters, and the Canadian Jewish Congress - not part of it.
Lisa Gibson, director of communications and corporate affairs for Shoppers, confirmed Tuesday that the chain will no longer sell Adbusters, starting with the bi-monthly's year-end issue out later this month. "We only have a certain amount of magazine shelf space allotted to us in each store. So we do a fairly regular review of the magazine assortment and look at sales and other things. So it was actually pulled as part of that review."
However, in an opinion piece published Tuesday morning in the National Post, Adbusters co-founder and publisher Kalle Lasn said the Shopper's cancellation was the result of a "successful lobby" by the CJC -- a claim the CJC denies. Gibson said she heard of the feud between Adbusters and the CJC only Tuesday when Congress representatives phoned Shoppers' Toronto headquarters to determine if the chain knew where Lasn got the idea that CJC had lobbied for the removal and if, in fact, Shoppers was pulling the periodical.
Thirteen days ago, the Canadian Jewish Congress deemed anti-Semitic a photo essay in Adbusters's current issue, on newsstands since early October. In an online directive, the CJC urged supporters to go to stores where the magazine is sold, show the essay to the cashier and tell him or her that " 'This is anti-Semitic and shameful' and walk away." In the same directive, the CJC urged supporters not to "damage the magazine in any way .... [and] not tell the owners to remove the magazine" since the essay, while "reprehensible," "does not likely breach Canada's hate laws."
Titled "Truthbombs on Israeli TV," the essay, conceived as a pitch to buy 30-second spots on Israeli TV, pairs three sets of photographs, three on the right showing the impact of Israeli actions on Gaza, three on the left, obtained from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., of the Nazis' creation and destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War. In an opinion piece in the Oct. 23 National Post, CJC CEO Bernie Farber called the feature "vile" and "obscene" - "a form of Holocaust minimalization ... [that]continues the disgusting tradition of some supporters of the Palestinian cause to turn Jews into Nazis and Palestinians into Jews."
Tuesday, Farber disavowed the assertion that his organization had lobbied Shoppers to pull Adbusters: "It's an outright lie." No one in Shoppers' management has contacted the CJC for direction or advice, he said. Farber acknowledged that the CJC has urged individual action against Adbusters - "We did hear from many people who said, 'Yeah, they found it outrageous and spoke to stores' " - but there has been no orchestrated lobby.
In an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, Lasn, who started Adbusters in 1989, said he was informed "10 days ago" of Shoppers' decision to cancel Adbusters by Coast to Coast Newsstand Services, Canada's largest magazine distributor. "Not the current issue" with the "Truthbombs" photos, he noted, "but 3,500 copies of our year-end issue and all future issues ... due to customer complaints. As far as I know," Lasn added, "all other Canadian newsstands are okay and our international distribution remains unaffected."
Coast to Coast president and CEO Glenn Morgan said Tuesday that Shoppers' decision to "de-list" Adbusters was conveyed "just after the latest issue went on sale, with the article that's caused some grief on the Israeli issue." However, Morgan said "there wasn't any background information [provided in the decision] It was just a directive that was issued."
In a phone interview, Lasn said Adbusters' circulation worldwide is 80,000, with a single issue in Canada retailing on the newsstand for $8.95. "But Canada is actually a tiny portion of our North American distribution. Our main distribution is in the U.S. where we're in all the chain stores etcetera. [The Shoppers' account]is a loss; we're going to be losing up to 1,500 sales ... depending on the issue, what the cover is."
Editor's Note: This online version of the article contains updated information that was not part of an earlier online version.