By Ryan Stacy
The recent decision by the city council of Christchurch, New Zealand to drop Ian Brackenbury Channell from its payroll is reportedly getting attention for the controversy it's causing. Better known as the Wizard of Christchurch, Brackenbury Channell is a local personality, popular with tourists and residents, who's become a fixture at the city's Arts Centre, public events, and even political demonstrations. Instantly recognizable for his long beard, robe, pointed hat, and ornately carved stave, the Wizard's been getting payments from Christchurch for over twenty years as a kind of living work of art with promotional value for the city.
All that's set to change at the end of this year, however. Citing a different direction in the image the City wants to project, a spokesperson explained that the new plan soon won't include the $16,000 it's been paying Brackenbury Channell annually to "provide acts of wizardry and other wizard-like-services."
So far, the Wizard's reaction to the bad news hasn't involved any vengeful spells or sorcery—but he's had plenty to say about the decision. He'll continue to appear in public at his usual hangouts, he stated, despite falling out of favor with the "bureaucrats who have no imagination" who declined to renew his contract.
"They will have to kill me to stop me," Brackenbury Channell vowed.