If you read the news, you no doubt heard about what is now being referred to as Wafergate.  In case not, the name refers to an incident at the state funeral of former Governor General Roméo LeBlanc in Memramcook, New Brunswick, in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper was said to have either placed a communion wafer he received into a program booklet he had in his hand or into the pocket on his suit jacket.

This of course prompted a media firestorm, as people cried foul over conduct that people were led to think was fact.  Prime Minister Harper responded by calling the reports “unsubstantiated” and “a low moment in journalism”.  Today, we found that, at least in part, to be the case.

On the front page of the Telegraph-Journal was an apology to the Prime Minister stating there was “no credible support” for the allegations at the time, nor is the T-J aware of any at present.  The part that raised many eyebrows was an admission that said allegations were not part of the original article submitted by reporters Rob Linke and Adam Huras and that they were instead inserted without the reporters’ knowledge.  Admission of such an insertion of course caused anger to flare towards T-J editorial staff and also brought about questions of whether the move was politically motivated (the Irving family, owners of the T-J are widely known to support the Liberal party).

Late Tuesday, CBC News confirmed that editor Shawna Richer had been fired and that Jamie Irving, owner of Brunswick News (which in turn owns the Telegraph-Journal) was no longer publisher of the paper, a move that comes hot on the heels of a number of other incidents that have caused public embarrassment to the paper.

In May, the paper fired St. Thomas University student Matt McCann over a story about unrest at the University of New Brunswick surrounding the awarding of an honorary degree to Premier Shawn Graham, citing an imbalance an errors in the reporting.  In June, Saint John mayor Ivan Court came out saying that he had been told in a private meeting with Mr. Irving and several editorial staff that unless taxes were lowered and now former City Manager Terry Totten was replaced that the tone of coverage of the affairs at city hall would not improve, which only aggravates an issue that came out in January when Mayor Court stopped issuing statements to the paper as a result of the negative tone of the coverage.

To me, this is all rather interesting to behold.  Never before did I think that a newspaper, or any media agency in this country for that matter, would have the gall to manipulate the information it relayed to the public to such an extent that they would even insert apparent falsehoods.  I also never expected to witness a scenario where both a senior editor and the publisher would leave the paper over the incident.  I do however commend Mr. Irving and his editorial staff for stepping up in this case and can only hope that the paper realizes that they have a long, hard road ahead to regain any public confidence.

I’ll be moving back to my hometown of Calgary, AB in about 2 weeks now and as I expected, the process of moving is an unparalelled pain in my arse.

It’s not entirely unexpected, but that doesn’t mean it’s any more enjoyable.  Just all the packing and arrangements that need to be made, mingled in amongst the long nights at work and trying to make time for social activities and volunteering (which I may be up in Fredericton doing all this weekend covering an event for Rogers TV).

I’m far from saying all my goodbyes to everyone, but with my schedule being such as it is, that’s also not entirely unexpected.

Just crazy busy right now.

PS. Waiting on some pics from my friend over at CEFM[dot]ca, will post them as soon as I get them.

I want to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day, and as promised earlier today to my tweeps, here is my All-Canadian playlist.

1. Gimme Sympathy-Metric
2. Jeudi, 17 Mai-Ariane Moffatt
3. Empty-Metric
4. What A Good Boy-Barenaked Ladies
5. Past In Present-Feist
6. Lovely Allen-Holy F**k
7. 1,2,3,4-Feist
8. Testing 1,2,3-Barenaked Ladies
9. I Make the Dough, You Get the Glory-Kathleen Edwards
10. Wrecking Ball-Mother Mother
11. Light Up My Room-Barenaked Ladies
12. Willow Tree-Chad VanGaalen
13. Combien-Karkwa
14. Mushaboom-Feist
15. Lovers In A Dangerous Time-Barenaked Ladies
16. Histoire de Pêche-Les Cowboys Fringants