Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Toronto Fun Guide, before and after (Photo: National Post)
City officials in Toronto, Canada, are so big on pushing diversity that they doctored the cover photo for their summer events guide, digitally adding the image of an African American man to what appears to be a Latino family. None of the people in the picture are Toronto residents, said John Gosgnach, communications director for the social development division, which grabbed two generic photos from a clip art file to create the cover shot of a happy, mixed race family on the front of “The Fun Guide.”
Kevin Sack, Toronto’s director of strategic communications, defended the action, saying the city has no criteria for what constitutes diversity. “The policy doesn’t say PhotoShop, the policy says ‘show diversity’ and that’s of course what we try and do because we want all of our publications to reflect the community that we serve.” Sack did not explain why the original photo, apparently of a Latino father, mother and two children, did not meet the diversity standard sought by officials.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
City Digitally Adds Black Guy to Fun Guide Cover to Make It More ‘Inclusive’ (by Allison Hanes, National Post)
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