Anatomy Of A Leak

Click on the video above before you read the rest of this BLOG. [NOTE. It is the video that you should focus on, not listening to the audio] It will give you an indication about how I get an idea when I write a BLOG and how I try to draw facts together to come up with a different way of looking at an incident to gain some insight for you.

The video an excerpt from a recent A-Channel news broadcast. To be honest, it is not the news story itself that interests me but what is behind the story that I think is the real news. Considering that the letter was written in September, 2007, obviously there have been ongoing conversations over the last 4 months to resolve outstanding issues. It is all part of the EA process anyway. So what's the big deal anyway right? However, answering a few questions about why the story was leaked at this time and by whom will give us some indication of what is going on in the border wars.

The first interesting point is that it is A-Channel and Daryl Newcombe that has the story and not the Windsor Star and Dave Battagello. Daryl has been doing some excellent reporting on the border file by doing some digging to go behind some of the stories to explain what is going on to viewers. He beat the Star on the recent bridge story too by a few days.

But if you think that is the reason why he got the story, I would tend to disagree. In my view, someone wanted to slap the Star and especially Dave and let them both know that they are not necessarily the only show in town. It was a very strong message to the Star about who gets the scoops.

Remember the leaks given to Today's Trucking magazine although I don't think it is the same person who is responsible for the leaks. I speculated that the leaks were done there for a reason ie how to get a story out without causing a major media incident. In this case though, I believe that someone is trying to teach the Star a lesson.

Clearly it is an anti-Ambassador Bridge story. The timing is very interesting given the negative Editorial from the Star that came out right out of the blue teh otehr week. The scare story of the Ambassador Gateway project which I guess was designed to send people to the Tunnel if they want to cross the river did not accomplish its purpose. Go to the Star Forum http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/features/soundoff/story.html?id=e06e9782-ffa5-4ce1-a074-91f2f374bbe6&k=54154

The negative comments about the Mayor and the strong support about what is going on in Michigan demonstrate to me that Windsorites are not buying any longer the stalling from City Hall. In passing, I found it very interesting that in one day, there were three Letters to the Editor in support of Greenlink and not one negative letter. That doesn't seem to make sense to me given what is written on the Star Forums.

The most important part of the story however is the fact that an "original" letter or at least "an original copy" of a letter was shown in the news broadcast. It was sent to Dan Stamper. I doubt he gave it out. How then did Daryl get it? As he said, "A-Channel News has learned..." How did he learn that? If he'd gone out and obtained the letter on his own, I'm sure that he would have told us. Due to the process of elementary deductive reasoning, someone must have given it to him so that A-channel could run an anti-Bridge Company story suggesting that their Enhancement Project is in trouble. Who could that person be?

Those of you who are thinking that someone from the media got the letter and gave out the story so suspicion would not be focused on them are bigger theorists than I am! Don't be silly, the news media are competitive since they need readers or viewers or listeners to get ad dollars. You do not give away scoops to competitors!

The obvious people to point to would be someone from Transport Canada. It would be in their interest to leak the story now wouldn't it since they are in favour of a DRIC bridge. Nothing would please them more than to see problems for the Bridge Company. Since the issue in the story is the Plaza and the Bridge Company has attacked DRIC on how they kicked them out of the process by suggesting that there was a need for a huge Plaza in Sandwich, it would seem a natural that Transport Canada would want a negative story out or perhaps the DRIC people themselves as payback.

What makes the story even more appealing is that the letter was not written by Transport Canada but rather by the Canada Border Services Agency, Canada Customs. Why that could show how sneaky Transport Canada is by using another government branch as their proxy to put pressure on the Bridge Company.

Transport Canada people, and DRIC consultants too, are not fools however. I'm sure that they like keeping their jobs as a Civil Servant and like lucrative Government contracts. A bureaucrat gets paid well and the benefits are good too. As for the pension... The risk that they run is that the Bridge Company gets very angry about the leak and demands that the Leakor be identified within the Government Department. It's not worth the personal risk of getting caught. Therefore, I think the likelihood of it coming from the Feds is very remote.

If you were writing this BLOG, what you would doing now is reducing the number of potential Leakors and speculating about which parties and/or individuals have an interest in harming the Bridge Company. You would speculate that the letter was part of the EA process and that is why it was revealed. The simple issue now is to find out who requested the letter and then follow the path until was disclosed to Daryl Newcombe.

Once that is discovered that tells us everything we need to know about who is involved and why and what this is all about. And that, dear reader, is how I get an idea for a BLOG, how I write it and why I take the appoach I do.

You finish the BLOG. Get your creative juices flowing and let me know who you think the responsible party is and why.