The firing of Michael de Adder…

Not familiar with the above name?

Mr. De Adder is a political cartoonist whose work appears in Canadian newspapers and who, last week, was let go (ie fired) from four newspapers that presented his work.

He suspects this may have been the result of the following piece:

As Mr. de Adder puts it:

…in the past 2 weeks I drew 3 Trump cartoons. 2 went viral and the third went supernova and a day later I was let go. And not only let go, the cartoons they already had in the can were not used. Overnight it was like I never worked for the paper. Make your own conclusions.

I must admit, when I saw this piece, it was like receiving a gut punch. This piece, if you’re not aware of it, shows the two South American refugees, a father and his months’ old daughter, who drowned trying to cross into the United States.

The actual photograph of these two is heartbreaking and, frankly, I feel uncomfortable presenting it here, just as I find the above cartoon also very uncomfortable.

Here’s the thing: Mr. De Adder did his job.

Tremendously well.

He presented a scathing indictment of Donald Trump and his priorities as well as his lack of empathy for migrants -and active attempts to make their already difficult situation even more difficult- as well as the end results of many that do try to make this trek.

Granted, migrant deaths have occurred throughout many administrations, not just this one, but the animus shown by Trump and company to these people is on a league of its own.

And the fact that Mr. de Adder was fired so soon after presentation of this piece shows the intersection between businesses and politics. It would seem the owners of the four Canadian papers have other business interests, and it doesn’t pay to have an employee piss off a potential partner, or impediment, to their business world.

You can take hits at politicians, but sometimes the hits may land a little too hard.