Re Good News at PWS&D, News, November
The November issue of the Record had a number of excellent articles, and I’m not just saying that because of Nicole Reid’s article on The Year of the Bible! Thank you.
But I was a little nervous to read at the bottom of the article about PWS&D that material in it had come partly from the Prime Minister of Canada’s website. My favourite commentator on international issues is Robert Fisk of The Independent. He complains often about the tendency for news organizations to rely on government spokespeople as they provide “information” to the public about such events as wars. Fisk warns that governments have all sorts of agendas besides informing us of what’s really going on.
I appreciate that the Record is not in a position to send people very far in quest of the “real story” behind our government’s promises about foreign aid. It might be good to do (and maybe you have done) a bit of checking on, for example, how much of that promised $1.1 billion is “new money” and what assurances there are that the money will actually go where it has been promised.
Editor responds: Agreed, Mr. Ward. But in this case, since the details surrounding the announcement from CIDA had not yet been set in stone, neither the government or PWS&D would say anything other than what was found on the PMO’s website. Once the details are finalized and released, we will carry an update in our news section, with further information and comment.
