Blatchford dogged by protesters at Hamilton book signing

Christie Blatchford has lashed out at protesters who came to an event for her book on the OPP handling of the Caledonia land claims dispute, calling them “idiots” for labelling her racist for her take on the affair. About a dozen protesters from a group called Six Nations Solidarity stood outside her appearance Tuesday night at Chedoke Presbyterian Church in Hamilton. They handed out bookmarks which claimed Blatchford's book Helpless! Caledonia's Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy and How the Law Failed All of Us did not present a true picture of the dispute because it did not provide context for the land claim and only focused on “violence and lawlessness” that grew out the dispute.
Two carried a sign calling the Globe and Mail reporter “Bad News” and all wore white lapel pins that said “Bad News.” Devon Ridge, a spokesperson for the protesters, said the views Blatchford is presented encourage racism “and are racist.”
“I'm not a racist,” said Blatchford, who also called the protest crazy. “My book is not racist and they are idiots.”
She also said if their intention is to intimidate her into halting speaking engagements to promote her book, “they are not going to do that. I am mystified a bit ... I am not a writer of inflammatory screeds. I am a newspaper reporter.”