On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, the Telegraph-Journal published a story about the funeral mass celebrating the life of former Governor-General Romeo Leblanc that was inaccurate and should not have been published. We pride ourselves in maintaining high standards of journalism and ethical reporting, and regret this was not followed in this case.
The story stated that a senior Roman Catholic priest in New Brunswick had demanded that the Prime Minister’s Office explain what happened to the communion wafer which was handed to Prime Minister Harper during the celebration of communion at the funeral mass. The story also said that during the communion celebration, the Prime Minister “slipped the thin wafer that Catholics call ‘the host’ into his jacket pocket”.
There was no credible support for these statements of fact at the time this article was published, nor is the Telegraph-Journal aware of any credible support for these statements now. Our reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras, who wrote the story reporting on the funeral, did not include these statements in the version of the story that they wrote. In the editing process, these statements were added without the knowledge of the reporters and without any credible support for them.
The Telegraph-Journal sincerely apologizes to the Prime Minister for the harm that this inaccurate story has caused. We also apologize to reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras and to our readers for our failure to meet our own standards of responsible journalism and accuracy in reporting.
Telegraph-Journal The paper is owned by the Irvings, chief editor Shawna Richer was fired and publisher Jamie Irving was given a suspension. The paper is facing a commenting boycott from New Brunswick professors angry at the firing of a summer intern. Jamie Irving is the nephew of Michael Ignatieff’s chief of staff Paul Zed.
Warren Kinsella wonders if the apology timing has anything to do with the Irvings possibly getting their ship building back. The archbishop who administered communion during the funeral of former Governor-General Romeo LeBlanc said that Harper (a protestant) did nothing wrong by consuming the wafer. Some people chose to believe the Prime Minister slipped it into his pocket, a Liberal senator stated he saw the PM consume the wafer.
An apology to the reporters for such opinionated editing and an apology to the Prime Minister is not a daily event. I thought Dr. John Stackhouse took a balanced approach to the story when it initially broke.
