The Curious Tale of the Globe and Mail
A Whodunit
Ron MacInnis, Oceanstone Inn

As a frequent reader of the Globe and Mail, I am about to unfold what I think is a very curious story, and with respect to the credibility of the press in our day, a bit of an eye-opener.

I do so partly out of obligation to friends who have, since an article about our inn was published in the Globe and Mail, called to express concern for our welfare, partly because I tired of telling the story to the curious, and partly because I sometimes write for cathartic reasons, which you will understand more deeply as you read on. But most of all, I write this because I have a long history of railing against injustice wherever I find it, as many of you know.  (If you don’t know, I was editor of a small town paper for ten years, and have written extensively about social fabric and the importance of truth and integrity in the unfolding events of our modern world: see www.greatlegacy.ca for an example of the gleanings of my thoughts.)

What we are talking about in this case is truth; about integrity, trust…and the casual disregard of same…on someone’s part. We are, as we speak, all of us, in the midst of a massive societal comeuppance, caused, in the end, by a tacitly accepted social ethic of deceit, in which the press is sometimes, knowingly or otherwise, complicit. Hence, truth in reporting must be writ large on a banner held high, for the information which the press presents is the information on which we build our future. So, I believe, deviation from truth and trust should be challenged, wherever it is found.

The story of “the story” follows.

On a day some time before September 8, 2008, Carole, my wife and co-owner of Oceanstone Inn, received a call from a reporter who was writing an article for the Globe and Mail about tourism establishments in Nova Scotia. 

Heartened by that idea, and excited by the idea of exposure for the business, she agreed to be interviewed, and so a date was set and the interview took place.

On September 8, 2008, the article was published.  I was with Carole when, excited about seeing the information she shared with the reporter, she opened the Business section of the Globe and Mail.

Within moments, her sense of incredulity was apparent. While the slant of the article was not what she expected, (and she may have been able to live with that), her most frequent comments, with increasing emphasis were built on the foundational words, “I didn’t say that!”  “I wouldn’t say that!”

Curious, I thought.

This is The Globe and Mail.

What am I to think here?

While all husbands and wives have certain misunderstandings that rise between them, there remains the undeniable fact that after 32 years of marriage, one gets to know one’s partner very well.  So I pulled over the car and read the article myself.

Not only the discordant and inaccurate nature of the story struck me, but the words in quotation marks were simply not of the vocabulary of the woman I have lived with for thirty-two years. (Quotation marks do still mean what they used to, don’t they?)

Along with Carole, I was appalled.

This all looked to me, a veteran journalist and writer, like a fabrication: a “story,” much of which was pure fantasy. 

The story of “the story,” with explanatory notes follows.  It is interesting reading. 

But more interesting is the reaction of the Globe and Mail, which follows that.

Click HERE to read the original story with notes

Click HERE to read the Globe and Mail's reaction when challenged