Debbie Gyapong corrects Joan Bryden's mistake

Most bloggers merely comment on the news that others report; but Debbie Gyapong does shoe leather reporting herself. She has this important scoop about Keith Martin's private member's motion to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to remove the "hate messages" section:

I interviewed Keith Martin again today. He said support within the Liberal caucus for his motion is "huge."

Stephane Dion has not talked to him about it, or asked him to withdraw it. Only a couple of Liberal members raised concerns, but no one has asked him to remove the motion.

"There is enormous support within caucus and across party lines," he said.

This is an important scoop because it directly contradicts the spin coming from Warren Kinsella, and his one remaining contact on Parliament Hill, Joan Bryden.

Two weeks ago, Bryden wrote that:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's office disavowed the motion and suggested Martin will be asked to withdraw it.

That sentence struck me as odd at the time, because unlike other comments from Dion's office, this one wasn't an actual quote, though it was the most bellicose. I might have been more trusting of Bryden, had it not been for the over-the-top cheering her "report" received, in advance of publication, from Warren Kinsella.

Bryden's "news report" was appalling for other reasons, mainly that it was really an editorial, using bizarre guilt by association to smear Martin as a white supremacist.

I know that Bryden's hit piece was demoralizing to those who support Martin's motion. Now we know the truth: Dion, like most Liberals, ignored Kinsella's hyperventilations about Martin, and let the MP use a private member's motion the way it was meant to be used, to put forward an idea that wasn't on the party's official agenda.

It's a shame that Gyapong's correction won't get a drop of ink in the MSM to counteract the misleading spin in Kinsella's Bryden's CP story. And I won't hold my breath that Bryden herself will correct the record. Ten years ago, that would be the end of it. But today, the blogosphere can correct the record by linking en masse to Debbie's post.