It started with a tiny classified listing in the May 12 CJN: “To Howard Rosen,” the three-line advertisement read, “sorry I punched you at Runnymede Public School in the early 1960s. Tom Caldwell.”
Within days, one man’s unique apology had gone viral.
The first outlet to pick up the story was 12:36, a Toronto tabloid newsletter distributed daily by email, under the cheeky headline “New business model for newspaper classifieds.” “The founder of Caldwell Securities could set off a new repentance trend with the ad he placed in The Canadian Jewish News to apologize for an elementary school incident dating back about 65 years,” the story read.
actual classified ad from latest @TheCJN from a guy apologizing for being a bully 65ish years ago pic.twitter.com/Z3Z6oSZJGO
— Twelve Thirty Six (@1236) May 12, 2016
Caldwell’s mea culpa gained steam quickly. Soon after the 12:36 article, BuzzFeed Canada managed to get in touch with the Order of Canada recipient, who explained, “I didn’t have any grand design here, it was just a little ad in a paper and if the guy happened to see it, fine… Maybe it’s an encouragement for people who have been subjected to that [kind of treatment] at whatever age that sometimes people can change.”
Some of BuzzFeed’s mostly millennial commenters were suspicious of Caldwell’s motivations, speculating that the ad was a clever ruse to drum up some publicity for his business properties. But one commenter offered a particularly bright – and wholly Canadian – assessment: “I sometimes get annoyed about Canadian stereotypes,” she wrote, “but then I remember that time a guy took out an ad in a newspaper to say sorry about something that happened over 50 yrs ago. LOL Oooh Canada.”
By the end of the week, the story of Caldwell’s apology was being picked up by even more media outlets. Caldwell made an appearance on CBC Radio’s Metro Morning in Toronto, and the public broadcaster later published a story online under the headline, “A man with regrets: Torontonian says sorry for anti-Semitic act in 1950s.”
According to the Toronto Star’s version of story, “There was no reason for the punch, Caldwell admitted, though Rosen being a Jewish kid probably had something to do with it, which Caldwell said adds to his guilt now.” Le Journal de Montréal opted for the headline, “Il s’excuse 65 ans plus tard pour un coup de poing.” The news spread beyond Canada, too, with Minnesota Public Radio, the Irish Sun and U.K. Mirror, among others, getting in on the action.
One question still remained: where was Howard Rosen, and was he aware of his newfound fame?
As it turned out, he was.
“My niece was browsing through The CJN… and saw [the ad],” Rosen told CJN reporter Paul Lungen. And while he only had a hazy memory of being punched all those years ago, and seems to have had little trouble moving on after the event, – “It was one day in my life. Nothing out of the ordinary. There was a certain level of persecution in those days,” he told Lungen – the retired teacher decided to call Caldwell.
They’ve now spoken several times, and even met face-to-face.
The moral of the story: it’s never too late to say you’re sorry. You never know who is going to be listening.
