denglish4, it was more than 'advocacy'. In the words of the Star's Public Editor, Kathy English:

"While there is some precedent at the Star for columnists – not news reporters – to take an advocacy stance in the community, the fact that a public meeting of a democratic municipal government committee discussing an important matter of public interest was brought to a halt as a result of Cole’s actions would seem to go beyond advocacy to an entirely different level of the journalist/activist becoming the story."

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/public_editor/2017/05/04/journalists-shouldnt-become-the-news-public-editor.html

All major newspapers have a political orientation engraved in their editorial approach and all columnists are advocates of sorts (in that they convey personal opinions staking a subjective - often provocative - position on a public issue).