Capitalist Piglet

''Capitalist Piglet'' was a comic strip that appeared briefly in ''The Sheaf'' during 2005–2006, and is best known for a controversial installment depicting Jesus Christ performing fellatio on a cartoon pig.

Creation

The strip was a collaboration between cartoonist Mark Watson (aka Marq) and Jeff MacDonald (aka Y!ph) and appeared infrequently in The Sheaf, the University of Saskatchewan students' newspaper.

Controversy

Background

In the February 22, 2006, issue of ''The Sheaf'', pages B1-B4 of the issue were devoted to several lengthy opinion articles and letters addressing the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. ''The Sheaf'' editor-in-chief, Will Robbins, wrote a 1,000-word editorial prefacing the other opinions outlining the reasons behind ''The Sheafs editorial decision not to publish any of the controversial cartoons. Robbins also indicated that the decision not to publish any of the cartoons was not unanimous among the editorial staff. Indeed, in response to this decision ''The Sheaf'' news editor, Jeremy Warren, resigned from the paper. The nuanced journalistic position Robbins staked for ''The Sheaf'' was brought into question just one week later by the appearance of a controversial instalment of the Capitalist Piglet cartoon.

The March 2 issue

In the March 2, 2006, issue of ''The Sheaf'', a two-panel installment of the comic strip appeared in the paper's "Comics and Humour" section depicting a caricature of Jesus performing fellatio on a top-hatted, monocle-wearing "Capitalist Piglet". The second panel includes the pig saying "It's Kosher if you don't swallow."

The comic had been scanned and laid-out into the newspaper's publication software by the graphics editor. The editor-in-chief reviewed the first draft of the paper and marked the Capitalist Piglet comic for deletion from the issue. It is in dispute whether or not he also verbally instructed the graphics editor to remove it or not; regardless the comic was not removed. The issue went through several more revisions before going to print without the offending comic being withdrawn. The editor-in-chief later claimed this was a mistake and due in part to a staff shortage (ostensibly aggravated by the above-mentioned resignation of the news editor).Jason Warick
"Sheaf cartoonist not sorry for uproar"
, ''The StarPhoenix'', 10 March 2006Chloé Fedi

''The Gateway/University of Alberta, 10 March 2006

In a retraction posted on page A2 of the March 9, 2006, issue, ''The Sheaf'' stated that Mark Watson was not an author of the March 2, 2006, Capitalist Piglet cartoon. In a letter appearing in that same issue, Mark Watson explained that his colleague, Y!ph, added his name to the installment "because he was using my character". In the same issue, Jeff MacDonald accepted full responsibility for authoring the comic.

Public reaction

On March 3, 2006, University of Saskatchewan President Peter MacKinnon distributed an e-mail to all university staff and students calling on ''The Sheaf'' to apologize.

The Saskatoon daily newspaper, ''The StarPhoenix'', published several stories about the incident, beginning on March 11, 2006.

Several Rawlco radio stations also picked up the story, in particular its Saskatchewan AM Radio Talk News stations CKOM and CJME. Morning talk-show personality, and former Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament, John Gormley, called on listeners to file a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission

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