Margaret Wente

Margaret Wente (born 15 February 1950) is a Canadian journalist and was a long-time columnist for The Globe and Mail until August 2019. She received the National Newspaper Award for column-writing in 2000 and 2001. In 2012, Wente was found to have plagiarized on a number of occasions. She was suspended from writing her column, but later reinstated. However, in 2016, she was found to have failed to meet her newspaper's attribution standards in two more columns.

Early life and education Wente was born in Evanston, Illinois and moved to Toronto, Ontario in 1964 when her mother married a Canadian. She has since become a naturalized Canadian citizen. She holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan and an MA in English from the University of Toronto. she chose to live and work in Canada.

Career Wente was "hired right out of university to be a book publicist" (p 20). Her first assignment was a book on the Summit Series, a confrontation in 1972 of national ice hockey teams from Canada and Russia. She did her job and spent time with the coach, but in her own memoir shows her opinion: [Hockey] is a sport where they send their big star out to play after he's had his seventh concussion. He says he's fine, but how would he know? His brain has turned to scrambled eggs. (p 23) She claims "Hockey does not promote civic engagement. It destroys it" (p 24).

Wente was hired by The Globe and Mail in 1986. For a time, she was editor of the paper's business section, the ROB (Report on Business), and managing editor of the paper. Her last column with the newspaper was published on 31 August 2019.

Incidents of plagiarism In September 2012, Wente was found to have committed plagiarism by Carol Wainio, a blogger and artist who accused Wente of lifting quotes and rewording passages from published sources without credit. Wainio documents on her blog, Media Culpa, a series of columns and articles published from 2009 to 2012, which plagiarize sources including the Ottawa Citizen, the New York Times and Foreign Affairs. On 21 September 2012, the Globe and Mails public editor addressed the allegations, conceding that "there appears to be some truth to the accusations but not on every charge".

The Globe and Mail subsequently took unspecified punitive actions against Wente for a column written in 2009. Editor John Stackhouse acknowledged that "the journalism in this instance did not meet the standards of The Globe and Mail", noting that the work in question was "unacceptable". However, Wente continued to write for the Globe and Mail. Wente herself wrote a column to defend herself against accusations of being a "serial plagiarist" but acknowledged she was "extremely careless". She took a break from writing her column for a week. On 11 October she resumed with a column explaining her actions and offered an apology.

She was also suspended from CBC Radio where she appeared as a biweekly media panelist on the program Q due to her not meeting the CBC's journalistic standards as a result of the 2009 incident.

In 2016, the Globe and Mail confirmed two additional incidents of plagiarism by Wente. Editor-in-chief David Walmsley stated: "This work fell short of our standards, something that we apologize for. It shouldn't have happened and the Opinion team will be working with Peggy to ensure this cannot happen again."

Rape culture denial controversy In her Globe and Mail column, on Saturday, 1 March 2014, Wente criticized Canadian universities for their response to the Saint Mary's rape chant controversy, in particular their view that all drunken sex is rape. She went on to argue that rape culture is a fiction and that the concept of affirmative consent is part of the "war on men". Wente's column was subsequently referred to as "irresponsible nonsense" by fellow journalists Toula Drimonis and Ethan Cox.

Massey College appointment Wente was appointed as a 2020–2021 senior fellow and member of the Quadrangle Society at Massey College, in June 2020. Her appointment caused an uproar among faculty and students, both because of past allegations against her of plagiarism, and due to her writings on issues of race and gender. referring to Wente as "someone who has demonstrated consistent and outright hostility to questions of equity, women and gender studies and anti-racism, and moreover someone who has demonstrated such a glaring lack of professional integrity." One day after the appointment was made, the college announced that it was reviewing the appointment and Wente's "writings and conduct to assess whether they are consistent with the college’s values". On 22 June 2020, Wente wrote the college's governing council to inform them of her resignation from the position, stating "I do not wish to be a member of the Quadrangle Society. The accusations against me are false and outrageous. My record speaks for itself".

Publications 1975: "I Never Say Anything Provocative:" Witticisms, Anecdotes, and Reflections by Canada's Most Outspoken Politician, John G. Diefenbaker, Peter Martin Associates. (Compiler and Editor) 2004: An Accidental Canadian: Reflections on My Home and (Not) Native Land, HarperCollins. 2009: You Can't Say That in Canada, HarperCollins.