Authors can do dumb things. Ezra Pound made radio broadcasts in support of Mussolini. Norman Mailer fought for the release of an imprisoned murderer, who once set free, murdered again. Alice Munro rejected her daughter’s proven claim of abuse at the hands of her stepfather.

So we should not be surprised that at last count, 40 Canadian authors — none as esteemed as those mentioned above — have signed on to a letter protesting the Giller Prize. The letter is from a group that calls itself CanLit Responds, which formed to support protesters who were charged after disrupting last year’s Giller Prize ceremony.