It was a tough Monday for Toronto Star journalist Susan Delacourt. On Tuesday morning (June 18) she finally got to write about her dilemma, a dilemma that faced numerous media outlets contacted by the office of Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Since last week government ministers and MPs have been criticizing Liberal opposition leader Justin Trudeau for accepting fees during speaking engagements at charity events, and in particular one in the Atlantic coast province of New Brunswick.
Those criticisms were covered by the media for the past few days. Some reports included inferences that the source of the information for the reports was the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
But the story completely changed when journalist Laurie Watt of the city of Barrie paper Barrie Advance wrote on Monday, that a communications officer in the Prime Minister’s Office had emailed her information about a speaking engagement of Trudeau in Barrie, and that the information could not be credited to the PMO’s office, but to a “source”.
This article then became the centre of numerous media reports.
RCI’s Wojtek Gwiazda spoke to Susan Delacourt about the dilemma she faced when contacted by the Prime Minister’s Office.
More information:
Laurie Watt/ Barrie Advance article – PM’s office sends details of Trudeau’s talk at Georgian – here
Susan Delacourt / Toronto Star – The PMO, the journalists and the whole off-the-record thing – here
RCI – PM’s office behind leaked information on Liberal opposition leader – here
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