World

New Brunswick newspaper apologizes PM Harper

by albertacowpoke | July 28, 2009 at 09:07 pm

146 views | 6 Recommendations | 4 comments

The Saint John Telegraph Journal issued an apology, today, for a story published on July 8th. The paper said that story did not have any evidence to support it.

While Stephen Harper was attending the G8 in Italy and preparing for the visit to the Pope, he attended a service and went forward to receive Holy Communion. A camera saw the Prime Minister taking the waver and then it moved away.

Saint John Telegraph-Journal publisher Jamie Irving and editor Shawna Richer were responsible for a story that accused Stephen Harper of slipping the waver in his pocket. This was not substantiated by the priest administering the Holy Communion or eye witnesses.

The story followed Harper for days. Stephen Harper called it shoddy journalism that did not tell the truth.

Harper accepted the apology published by the paper today.

The Telegraph Journal said Jamie Irving and Shawna Richer were no longer publishers or editors. It is not known if they were fired.

A New Brunswick newspaper that ran a front-page apology Tuesday for a story that claimed Prime Minister Stephen Harper had pocketed a communion wafer has also announced that its publisher and editor-in-chief are no longer with the paper.

Saint John Telegraph-Journal publisher Jamie Irving and editor Shawna Richer were no longer at their posts, effective immediately, said Annie Smith, a spokeswoman for the New Brunswick News Inc., the company that owns the daily paper.

"She is no longer editor, and (he) is no longer the publisher," she said. "I don't have any information other than that."

Smith would not comment on whether Irving or Richer had been fired or had resigned, nor whether either would take another position with the newspaper. No decision has been made on who will take over their roles, she said.