The recent spate of open letters and protests from Canadian writers about the Giller Prize and its sponsorship by Scotiabank pushes us to ask a sad and pathetic question: who the hell cares what Canadian novelists say anymore?

It’s sad because not long ago many saw novelists as sources of wisdom — as purveyors of insight into the human condition. That’s why it’s pathetic to read these letters and discover that a large group of Canadian novelists are not much more than political sloganeers with no more perceptiveness than your average Toronto school kid forced to attend a political protest disguised as a school trip.