Canadian Cartoonist Fired for Viral Trump Comic: I Am ‘Not a Victim’

A Canadian cartoonist was let go from his position with New Brunswick News Inc. on Friday after his cartoon of President Donald Trump went viral.

Michael de Adder told his Twitter followers about the event by stating, “The highs and lows of cartooning. Today I was just let go from all newspapers in New Brunswick.”

Cartoon for June 26, 2019 on #trump #BorderCrisis #BORDER #TrumpCamps #TrumpConcentrationCamps pic.twitter.com/Gui8DHsebl

— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) June 26, 2019

The viral cartoon depicts President Trump at a golf course, standing over the dead bodies of El Salvador native Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his baby daughter after they drowned in an attempt to cross the Rio Grande into the United States earlier this week.

The cartoon’s caption reads “Do you mind if I play through?”

However, de Adder, who is a staunch Trump critic, later tweeted that he was not “technically” fired, since he was under contract.

“The hardest part in all of this, I have a mother with dimentia in NB who has a hard time remembering her family at times. But she knows her son draws cartoons. Part of her daily routine is to open the @TimesTranscript and see her son’s cartoon. A cartoon that won’t be there anymore,” he wrote:

The hardest part in all of this,I have a mother with dimentia in NB who has a hard time remembering her family at times.But she knows her son draws cartoons. Part of her daily routine is to open the @TimesTranscript and see her son's cartoon.A cartoon that won't be there anymore.

— Michael de Adder (@deAdder) June 30, 2019

However, Brunswick News Inc. said in a statement on Sunday that the allegations were wrong and that they did not cancel de Adder’s contract because of the cartoon.

The company stated:

It is entirely incorrect to suggest Brunswick News Inc. cancelled its freelance contract with cartoonist Michael de Adder due to a cartoon depicting Donald Trump currently circulating on social media. This is a false narrative which has emerged carelessly and recklessly on social media. In fact, BNI was not even offered this cartoon by Mr. de Adder. The decision to bring back reader favourite Greg Perry was made long before this cartoon, and negotiations had been ongoing for weeks.

De Adder tweeted Saturday that he will have to “get used to the idea I no longer have a voice in my home province.”