Victoria Goldberg | Editor-in-Chief
Hassam Munir | Executive Editor (Online)
Last week, Excalibur published an article titled “Precedent set in Mandi Gray sexual assault trial,” updating the York community on the recent verdict in the R v Ururyar trial, among other new information. Since then, we have gotten some feedback from our readership—particularly, their dissatisfaction. “Really disappointing. Even if this is a school newspaper your staff should know better,” reads an email from Danielle Da Silva, on behalf of the Sexual Assault Action Coalition. Like many criticisms, some of the points they made were valid.
We are a student paper, with editors from different programs and walks of life. However, we still strive to meet professional journalistic standards in our publishing, including remaining objective and presenting multiple voices in our articles.
Words, and their placement, have strong meanings and implications. While we stand by our headlines, as a team, we strive to be more sensitive with our choice of wording. With Gray’s decision to lift a publication ban on this trial, the media understood this to mean that all details would be public. In many publications, from the Toronto Star to the Huffington Post and even ours, the trial has been referred to and associated with Mandi Gray. That in itself can be problematic. Critics bring up a valid concern in that Gray has become synonymous with the trial as opposed to Mustafa Ururyar, a discussion that we encourage to develop.
Excalibur aims to tell the stories that are relevant to York students and the surrounding communities, which we accomplished.
