“I feel very uncomfortable” about your March/April cover

Our cover story in our March/April issue featured husband-and-wife contracting team David and Jeanne McGregor, Con-Tech Restorations, Toronto. The article was about how one married couple “Make It Work,” being together 24 hours a day in a very stressful business. As a joke, the cover photo showed Jeanne raising her fist at David, while grabbing him by the shirt collar. Inside, we showed the clearly loving couple arm in arm. We had several emails objecting to our attempt at humour on our cover, reminding us that domestic violence is never something to joke about. This one, from Don Neufeld, deserved publication…

I do appreciate your magazine. However, I feel very uncomfortable and question the wisdom of identifying two individuals feigning violence towards each other. Would my concerns be easier to understand if the man had his fist clenched, threatening to strike the woman??? Either way, not appropriate. Obviously in any business relationship,  from time to time partners get exasperated with each other. But violence is NEVER an acceptable solution. I’d appreciate your well thought through response on an upcoming issue.

Don Neufeld
Executive Chair
J&H Builders Warehouse
2505 Ave. C North
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
S7L 6A6

Don, in answer to your email, we agree that violence is never an acceptable solution for domestic or business conflicts. In further emails back and forth with you, we agreed that Canadian Contractor obviously had no such intent as to make fun of the entire domestic violence issue which has damaged so many lives in Canada. You replied to the effect that you knew that. But you pointed out that one has to be “crystal clear” in any communication to a mass audience. We agree with you that we were not necessarily the smartest trade magazine in the world to put a cover out there that some people might take the wrong way. Irony and humour is a tough thing to convey. Some people will view things pretty literally.

Anyone please free to comment, below, if you were offended by our cover, or if you thought the joke was within the bounds of decency.