Angry in the Great White North

Liberal MP Garth Turner was quoted in the Milton Champion as saying that the Canadian military buys weapons (artillery in this case) expressly designed to kill civilians in Afghanistan:

"These are contradictory times," said Turner at the conclusion of the meeting. "We don't have funding for youth centres but we do have $150,000 for every shell bought for the sole purpose of destroying a village in Afghanistan. We could buy each Afghan a condominium with that money," he added.

You can read my post on the question of the Excalibur artillery pieces, but in response to this, Garth Turner suggested that he was misquoted:

Two weeks ago I held a Roundtable on Moral Issues in Halton with twenty-four faith leaders – Christian, Muslim and others – to get their opinion on challenges facing me as a Parliamentarian. One of those, of course, was the war in Afghanistan, which they opposed with conviction. I invited the local paper to sit in, and the young reporter covering the event wrote this:

“These are contradictory times,” said Turner at the conclusion of the meeting. “We don’t have funding for youth centres but we do have $150,000 for every shell bought for the sole purpose of destroying a village in Afghanistan. We could buy each Afghan a condominium with that money.”

Actually, my words were a little different, and the village part was suspect, but the reporter was close enough in his coverage that I didn’t bother correcting him.

John Turley-Ewart, who has been writing about this issue for the National Post, was not impressed with this attempt to shift the problem to the reporter:

Now he is implying the Milton reporter was incompetent and he is using his blog to impugn the local reporter's credibility, noting: "Actually, my words were a little different, and the village part was suspect, but the reporter was close enough in his coverage that I didn’t bother correcting him." Yet this explanation stretches the bounds of credulity. Such a comment is hardly something one would allow to get out if it were wrong — if not to protect one's own reputation, at least to protect the reputation of our soldiers. Apparently that never occurred to the Liberal MP from Halton. If Mr. Turner's words were a little different, let us see them so we can put this issue to bed and feel confident Mr. Turner isn't spreading mischief about our troops at local church hall meetings.

In an attempt to put this issue to bed, I went ahead and got in touch with the managing editor of the Milton Champion, Karen Miceli:

The comment is in the reporter's notes as being made at the end of the meeting and I stand behind the accuracy of her reporting.

Thanks for writing, and reading.

Indeed, she followed up to say that the paper stands behind the story as printed, in its entirety.

Curiously, Ms Miceli confirms that the reporter is a woman by referring to "her reporting".  The byline to the story named Melanie Cummings as the reporter.  The reason it is odd is that Garth Turner invited her to the meeting, had noticed that the reporter was "young", but didn't notice that the reporter was a woman, stating instead that this "young reporter" was "close enough in his coverage" so that Garth Turner decided against "correcting him".

This is a picture of the reporter, Melanie Cummings, the person who Garth Turner characterized as a young man.

Gee, a more suspicious person might wonder whether Garth Turner had actually known that there was a reporter present, even though he states that he invited the press to cover his meeting.  The reason it matters is that some politicians choose their words differently when they think they aren't being watched by the press.  It's been known to happen.

I hope that's not the case here, since it would mean that Garth Turner chooses his words to pander to an audience, and that he is happy enough to say whatever it takes (even suggesting that the Canadian military buys weapons that are only good for flattening villages) to please potential voters as long as the press isn't watching.

Nah, it's more likely that Melanie Cummings was wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a trench coat.  And a fake moustache.

And now read about what the real quote was, and how an apology is offered.