[UPDATES appended at end] Contrarian reader SL shares our ink-stained correspondent's distaste for the Saint John Telegraph-Journal's malodorous apology to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. She wonders why departing Harper Communications Director Kory Teneycke included the precise timing of his decision to resign so prominently in his resignation talking points. The second paragraph of the CBC story reads: Teneycke said he told Harper just after Canada Day and before the G8 meeting in Italy earlier this month that he was going to step down. That would be, uh, just before the Prime Minister did or did not consume the sacramental Host at Romeo LeBlanc's...

30 July, 2009
An ink-stained wretch (and contrarian reader) offers a few tart observations on the Telegraph-Journal's strangely unelaborated apology.
I find something stinking with the Telegraph-Journal's wafer story. They bent over backwards to apologize and apparently the editor and publisher paid the price. But I haven't seen any reporting that took this any further. Did the Catholic officials cited in the original stories who apparently were so mightily offended by Harper's alleged act change their tunes? Who got the quotes from the church people? What contact was there between the PMO and the TJ? Did higher ups in the church get involved? God (literally) knows.
29 July, 2009
SJ Tele-Journal logoThe Saint John paper that broke the Wafergate scandal now says there is "no credible basis" for its story. Moneyquote:
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.
28 July, 2009

Contrarian reader Jocelyne Marchand makes a nice distinction: The bishop should not be talking to the press about this; he should be talking to the priest who handed Harper the host, knowing full well  he was a Protestant heretic.  But then again, Catholic bishops seem to let their priests do any thing they want—even if they might get caught . When push comes to shove, does any of it really matter ? Are we that hard up for scandal ?...

08 July, 2009