Review: Book launch renews furor over Levine hiring

The David Levine Affair; Separatist betrayal or McCarthyism north?
By Randal Marlin
Fernwood Publishing; 144 pp; $15.95

By Jason Brooks

Chapters called the cops to the book launch.

As Randal Marlin discussed his book in the downtown bookstore, some in the crowd of 100 heckled.
An angry man wearing a bright violet-coloured knit hat shouted: “You’re trying to break up Canada!” He carried two placards, “Resign Levine!” and “Hospital board spits in Ottawa’s face.”

Marlin, a strong backer of civil liberties, was appalled by the public intolerance over the hiring of David Levine as head of the Ottawa Hospital last spring.

All hell broke loose after the Ottawa Citizen reported that Levine was a possible separatist. More than half of the people in Ottawa thought Levine should have been forced to resign, according to a poll.
Hostility climaxed when a militant crowd confronted the hospital board at a public meeting.
Marlin’s book explores how in a seemingly civilized city a man got savaged for holding legitimate political views when politics wasn’t even part of his job.

Marlin gives several reasons: concerns about separatism, worries about health care, class envy, and, most of all, irresponsible media.

His lengthy case against the media gives a feel for the cause-and-effect of coverage but after 100 pages grows tedious.

His criticism of the media is sharp, but mostly warranted. For example, the first Citizen story didn’t focus on Levine’s impeccable credentials as a hospital administrator. Instead, the headline read “PQ envoy to head hospital,” thus framing public debate around Levine’s separatist past.

Marlin overextends himself in his critique of the media in a couple of ways.

First, he points to Citizen stories where photos accompanying nearby stories carried negative connotations onto the Levine story. The first Levine story was next to the face of an anguished woman— the wife of a Senators goalie watching her husband get scored on.

Marlin doesn’t explicitly suggest the photo was placed to influence the Levine story, but he hints at it. This sets him up for accusations of being irrational and looking for a conspiracy where it’s doubtful there is one.

Second, Marlin too readily uses journalists as fall-guys and in doing so largely exonerates citizens who harbour such strong nationalism that they can be provoked to hatred by a few news stories.

At Chapters, Marlin’s book was launched but not thrown. The two police officers called in stood stiffly at the back and observed.

But the book launch shows that anger over Levine’s hiring endures, like hot coals after the fire.