Ian Brackenbury Channell has served as the official Wizard of Christchurch, New Zealand since 1998, earning an average salary of about $11,000 USD paid for by the city council in exchange for his services. According to his contract, the wizard's duties are "to provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services — as part of promotional work for the city of Christchurch."
After 23 years, however, the city council has decided to terminate the relationship. Council Assistant Chief Executive Lynn McClelland told Stuff NZ that "The council has met with The Wizard and sent him a letter thanking him for his services to Christchurch over the past decades, and informing him that we are bringing our formal contractual arrangement to a close."
In response, the Wizard has invoked the specter of cancel culture, saying of the Christchurch City Council:
They are a bunch of bureaucrats who have no imagination. They are not thinking of ways to promote Christchurch overseas. They are just projecting an image of bureaucrats drinking lattes on the boulevard. Their image of Christchurch is nothing to do with the authentic heritage of the city.
Gandalf the White could not be reached for comment as of press time.
