Frank Says "Sue Me"

CanWest sued an activist and printer after this fake of the Vancouver Sun was distributed; now Frank editor Michael Bate says he wants CanWest to sue him.

The defendants in a lawsuit brought by CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. over a Vancouver Sun parody got support this week from a magazine editor who knows much about satire and getting sued.

Ottawa-based Frank magazine reprinted the cover of the fake Sun in its May 6 print edition and last week posted a PDF of the four-page publication on its Web site, available by subscription.

“I thought it was something we should do,” said Frank editor Michael Bate, who went to high school in B.C. and still has family in the province. The parody was heavy-handed and not particularly amusing, he said, but he defended its producers' right to make and distribute the paper. “It's standing up for their right to try to be satirical.”

A CanWest spokesperson, Tammy Bender, said the company was unlikely to talk about a matter that is before the courts but that she would try to find someone to comment. Nobody was available by the Straight's deadline.