Photo ‘disrespectful to our athletes’
Dear Editors,
Re: “Are student-athletes using drugs?” (Journal, Feb. 5, 2008)
I am writing with respect to the article published in the Journal on Feb. 5, 2008 regarding the use of performance enhancing drugs within CIS sport programs. I can appreciate the interest in covering the issue of drug use in sport given the attention this topic is currently receiving in the U.S. with respect to professional baseball and with the revelation of three positive tests that have occurred during random screening procedures carried out by Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) on CIS athletes this year.
However, I was extremely disappointed that you chose to associate this story with a staged photograph of a drug needle against the background of a Queen’s Golden Gaels uniform. This leaves one with the false impression that the story associates the use of illegal substances with Queen’s athletes and that’s simply not the case. Queen’s athletes have participated in excess of 150 random anti-doping tests and there has never been a positive result. To make this inference was inappropriate and extremely disrespectful to our athletes.
Our athletes take great pride in representing our institution. They play hard, but also fairly and cleanly. It would be unfortunate if anyone was left with an impression to the contrary. I urge you to use better judgment in the future.
Leslie Dal Cin, Athletics and Recreation director
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.