Thank you for writing to us. We appreciate the time and effort put in to your letter, and recognize many of the points you have made. We apologize for letting our readers down. This response is not an excuse, and we will do our best to address our mistakes.
We want to acknowledge and make amends for the fact that our retraction read as an apology to Ahmed Fekry Ibrahim. Our intention was to apologize to our readers for making an inaccurate statement. For the sake of our readers (not just our own legal safety), we regret publishing something which was not factual. Nevertheless, we should have been more mindful of how our use of standard retraction language in the context of sexual abuse was insensitive. We recognize that in this case the apologetic language of the retraction was harmful. The original statement of retraction has been changed accordingly.
Our retraction followed an email from Ibrahim which stated that a sentence in the article “‘Survivor-centric Approach’ Must Come First” constituted libel. The sentence published was libellous insofar as no one has legally accused Ibrahim, despite allegations of sexual misconduct. We retracted the statement to acknowledge that reality. Nevertheless, removing Ibrahim’s name from the article was a mistake on our part, caused by insufficient consideration and the worry of rewriting something libellous. A new sentence has been reintegrated into the article to correct that.
We do not support abusers. We do not support those who take advantage of their position of power to sexually abuse other people. We do not support those who intimidate survivors. We believe survivors.
We recognize the criticism raised concerning our recent content. We work to uphold The McGill Daily’s statement of principles, which reflects our commitment to help correct social and economic injustices. That said, we realize that anti-oppressive politics require constant vigilance and we want to do better. Accountability is integral to our work. We apologize for the harm our statement caused and we welcome further criticism.
If you wish to send us a letter, please consult our letters policy at www.mcgilldaily.com/policies/.