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Toronto Star Durga Campaign Details

This was the gift to the Indian community from The Toronto Star, Canada's leading daily newspaper, on the auspicious day of Durga Puja. They published the following blasphemous and entirely misleading picture of the Goddess Durga in the October 4th issue. This picture prominently appeared on 1/3 of the printed page and was probably made bigger than the article itself.

Star selected and published this "Insulting" picture by ignoring three following "Dressed & Decent Durga" pictures available on Reuters that time:

On Oct 10, IndiaCause launched online protect. Toronto Star received about 1000 to 2000 protest emails in first few hours of this campaign.

On Oct 11, They published : "We're sorry if this representation of the goddess offended some readers. It was unintentional" complete report here

IndiaCause did NOT accept this half-hearted explanation and the action continued. The local Indian community strongly protested in Toronto. There were two major demonstrations outside Toronto Star building. Pictures of the Protest

At last, on November 15, The Toronto Star published an unconditional apology along with an appropriate Durga image (on right.) This apology was published in the same section where the initial Insulting Durga image was published. The apology reads:

"On Oct. 4. the Star published a photo of an unfinished depiction of the Hindu goddess Maa Durga. Members of Toronto's Hindu community took great exception to this goddess being presented in an undignified manner. The above picture shows the goddess in an appropriate manner. The Star regrets that publication of the original photo has caused anguish and apologizes to the Hindu community."

Toronto Star: Apology accepted by Hindu groups

IndiaCause Thanks our readers and members for their great support. We also thank the Indian community in Toronto for the show of strength and unity in getting the ultimate apology from Toronto Star.