Heather Reisman; president and CEO of Indigo/Chapters
shes rich, shes powerful, she supports literacy…
40% of Canadian adults are functionally illiterate! Thats crazy. She’s helping to bring this to the government’s attention. However, why we would need a bookstore owner to bring this to the government’s attention says a lot about our government.
The Hour did a fantastic job of representing all of her positive qualities… so we don’t have too. In fact , the last quarter of the Reisman segment seemed just like a Chapters infomercial.
Even a small dose of critical questioning was missing from this interview.
Now, im not here to attack the woman (or The Hour), and anyone can question whether the activities of a CEO outside of her work are material to the conversation, but i think it was not only purposeful but boring to ignore the controversy that Reisman has faced in the past, and that is just plain bad journalism.
I also think that the activities of a CEO ARE material to the conversation. we’ve congratulated other CEOs on here before for their charity and green efforts, there should be equal opportunity to reflect the bad just the same. Even a brief mention in her bio about her controversial support of the Israeli military would have been sufficient.
I also am not here to pick sides within the Israel-Palestine conversation, but I don’t think it should be completely ignored either.
The following few sentences were completely copied from another site
Why should viewers care about this? Why should The Hour have asked about it? because people don’t necessarily know that when they spend money at Chapters it indirectly funds this foundation. Whether this foundation is right or wrong is another argument, but people should know where their money goes especially when the foundation in question deals with a conflict that affects so many Canadians deeply and emotionally. This is necessary information and thats what journalists are supposed to give us, information.
This interview also could have given her an opportunity to explain her position, give her side- maybe people are missing something in their critique of her foundation? The Hour is usually good at letting people explain their opinions.
Shes a powerful woman with alot of money, and we have said this before: CEOs must be responsible. What she does is relevant to us and the conversation when it is Chapter’s customer’s money that is giving her the ability to create a foundation like this.
I would not be so critical of this interview if Reisman had been there with something important to talk about, but the discussion on literacy was done after about 4 minutes, and much of the rest of the conversation was fluff. There was an opportunity to have a real discussion, and The Hour missed the boat.
Its funny that Reisman mentioned that her ”2009 Canada Reads” choice is “The Book of Negroes”- A book being defended by Avi Lewis. Why is it funny? Because throughout the interview i was thinking: ‘Avi Lewis would not have let her get off so easy here’
It is also interesting that she said that her stores would never offer books that could “incite society toward the annihilation of one group” (i.e. Mein Kampf) and i think that is honourable… but slightly hypocritical considering her support of the Israeli military.
Its also Israeli Apartheid Week:
6 Comments
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
The writer of the above comment has for some reason misrepresented Hesseg. For the record. Heseg neigher recruits or in any way supports the Israeli military. Rather, Heseg supports young people to attain an education who have no families and have made a decision to live in Israel. It is true that all of the Heseg scholars have served in the military. This is a requirement for Israeli citizens. Heseg has no influence over this.
It is the belief of Heseg however that education is the best route to develop robust minds and strong citizens who can best contribute to advancing society.
For a long time now those who participate in Israel Apartheid activites have sought to suggest that Heseg is other than an educational charity. This is grossly unfair and misleading.
Furthermore, in an environment where people wanted to listen and exchange ideas, I would always be happy to be engaged in a discussion about Heseg.
Heather Reisman
Thank you for your response Ms Reisman.
The purpose of the above post is to criticize the fact that there was NO conversation on Heseg, which clearly is a conversation that needed to be had- the suggested “misrepresentation” of Heseg is proof of that need.
The fact that it is Israel Apartheid week makes it even more unfortunate that there was no dialogue on this relevant issue.
We never suggested that Heseg recruits to the military, though the education and financial compensation it provides could be considered a draw for some individuals.
I realize that serving in the military is mandatory for Israeli citizens, but that does not negate the reward aspect that your foundation provides to non-israelis.
I feel that you are suggesting that the money supplied by the foundation is not also a “thank you” to these individuals for their work in the military, and it is my understanding that this is half the reason for the foundation, and education is the other half.
I appreciate and respect your work towards acheiveing literacy in Canada, and abroad.
I do hope that in the future a conversation regarding Heseg can be had on a larger platform than this website.
i know that you have been hesitatnt to have these conversations with activists in the past, which is incredibly disappointing.
A conversation like this is vital, especially if so many are being mislead on what Heseg stands for.
By simply disregarding the fact that there is controversy regarding Heseg, The Hour did a disservice to their viewers.
Part of education is discussion and subsequent understanding.
With this understanding could be the dissolution of the controversy, which is more productive then it being ignored.
Ms. Reisman
Thank you for your response. I appreciate that you are offering to have this conversation. I would like to point out that there are three contributors to this site who all care passionately about their political views. Although we encourage these beliefs, they are in fact unique to each individual. This is a complex issue and one worthy of discussion .
Thank you labeauvoir for showing another side to the story and thank you Ms. Reisman for contributing to the debate.
Hey All!
Wow, this is great! So, I’m going to jump in here.
Using The Hour as a starting point to inspire open communication, opportunities to learn and broaden our views is why we are all here.
Thanks so much to LaBeauvoir for offering her perspective on the interview and starting this conversation. Being a Chapters fan I also thank you Ms. Reisman for participating on our little site.
Think I’ll use this as my own jumping off point to learn more about this issue.
Beijos,
Cordie
[...] watching the interview with Heather Reisman and reading the article/comments here at The Red Chair, my curiosity regarding HESEG has been peaked. I had never heard of the [...]
Did Heather never get back to you after your response to her response?
If so what did she say? As an employee of Chapters Indigo I feel very strongly about this issue myself, and have been banging my head against the wall!
I am currently educating myself on the state of affairs between Israel and Palestine, and also the Bilderberg group activities. I believe the two have very strong ties, as the Bilderberg group was spearheaded by many of the same influences that formed the United Nations. Of course, it was the United Nations who handed half of Palestine over to “Israel” to begin with. I find such connections highly dubious.
The reason I am interested in if she had a response is because that way it would show that she had the character to continue with the discussion rather than just propogandizing us with her prepared statements.
Soon I will be attempting to get in touch with her myself about this issue, though I fear for my job by doing so. Though Chapters Indigo has what they consider to be an open door policy with management in the company, I approached several of my managers at the store I work with this issue. Being that they are all slightly opportunistic I was not surprised to see that the open door was slammed quite soundly in my face. Soon afterwards, when I came back from a small week long vacation, I was told my several of my coworkers that my managers had been attempting to “dig up dirt” on my political interests and the things I have been saying about Heather to them during work hours.
Needless to say, I am stirred to hear your opinion so closely match mine. Why is she so sensitive about the issue if there is nothing to be sensitive about? Why the secrecy?