RADAR ALERT: McGill University Student Newspaper Smears RADAR

In December, The McGill Tribune, published by the McGill University Students' Society, printed an article (found here) that made false statements about RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting). A few days later, the Tribune's editor promised to retract the most offensive claim. But even with that claim retracted, the article still paints a misleading portrait of RADAR. So he also said he might consider publishing an op-ed by RADAR to correct the other misinformation about the reasons RADAR exists.

RADAR did submit a response, but of necessity it was much longer than the Tribune's length limit for an op-ed. That's because the information RADAR knows about is not common knowledge, so for us to simply state a position without backing it up with facts would not make a credible case. After weeks of inquiries as to whether or not the Tribune will be publishing our response, we learned just recently that they will not.

This is the article the Tribune will not be printing. Excerpt:

'The 12/1/2009 article "OFF THE BOARD: The fight for men's rights" by Carolyn Gregoire repeated claims about RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting) from an article in Slate.com's DoubleX. Although the DoubleX article contained more misrepresentation than fact, at least that author interviewed her subjects. Ms. Gregiore not only failed to do that, but also added embellishments of her own, which caused the Tribune's editor to append an apology. This article was composed to counter the misrepresentation and enlighten the Tribune's readers about what RADAR is really all about, but the Tribune has declined to publish it.

First of all, we are not a Men's Rights group, as those working against us like to claim. As our mission statement says, RADAR is dedicated to improving the effectiveness of solutions to the problem of domestic violence. RADAR has always been as concerned about women abused by the system as about men. If we seem to be advocating more for men than for women, that's a reflection of the ways that DV policies are badly broken, not a reflection of our underlying philosophy.

On a personal note, I must object to the statement, "RADAR chooses to undermine the prevalence of rape and domestic violence against women." Far from wishing to deny women protection, one of my primary motivations is to see to it that no other children suffer the fate that befell my sister – a matter I've touched on in many of my compositions, most notably "Don't Put Your Trust In Movements".

Due to decades of one-sided reporting on domestic violence, explaining the issues RADAR is concerned about often feels like telling someone, "Everything you know is wrong!" In fact, DV policy in the U.S. (and Canada too) is not the solution its supporters claim. All too often, it causes harm even as it fails to help those it purports to help.'