We’re told to write when we’re angry aren’t we? That way we don’t say anything we don’t really mean? I don’t remember them saying if it mattered if you had a food blog or not.

Let’s talk about what being Canadian means. It means a lot of things to a lot of people.

To me, every day I am grateful to be a Canadian. I don’t rant and rave about it, but I’m grateful. I feel secure, safe, and am happy that in Canada, I have the right to be anybody I want to be, and to say anything I want to say.

Now, I write a little food blog that I get a great deal of pleasure from. I am further pleased when I hear that others enjoy a post that I write. I generally write in a way that is positive and lighthearted and always try to keep a sense of humour. I understand my humour or style of writing isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but I would hope those people would just ignore me and move on. No hard feelings.

You wouldn’t think that writing a little food blog would cause anyone problems.

But apparently it is.

Businessman #1 writes and asks me to remove or modify a positive little review of a restaurant I wrote about a few years ago. I chose to modify it to clarify a fact. A compromise. I’m reasonable. Then patronizing Businessman #2 writes and asks me to remove it.

Well, Mr. Businessmen #1 and #2, let me remind you of:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:

(a) freedom of conscience and religion;

(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and

(d) freedom of association.

And if you want the whole text, please click this link: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/Const/page-15.html

Because Remembrance Day is a few days away, it is timely to say I have had two grandfathers who fought in WWII.  All of you reading this probably are related to someone or knew someone or loved someone who either fought for our served for our country, and we have our rights and freedoms because of these people.

Businessmen and women have the right to run a business. But if your F-ing business model is getting messed up because of a truthful, well-meaning blog post, maybe you need to rethink how you do your business.

Writing to me and demanding that I remove a blog post because it isn’t making you any money is NOT the correct approach, nor is it demonstrative of professional behaviour.

Gentlemen, there are 100 ways you could have handled this better and had a more positive result. Writing to me and trying to push me to serve your own self-serving purpose isn’t the way to do it.