The Department of National Defence is pushing back against claims Irving Shipbuilding’s president made in testimony to a parliamentary committee that the company was forced to threaten a journalist with legal action to protect the reputation of the government’s shipbuilding strategy.
But DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier denies the department told Irving that Postmedia was making “wild accusations” — and, in an unusual move, DND has provided Postmedia with the correspondence in which it notified Irving of the reporter’s inquiry. The documents DND provided to Postmedia outline how, after receiving an inquiry from a journalist on March 6, one of the department’s officials immediately alerted an Irving representative that “the reporter has been told that there are problems with welds on the Harry DeWolf-class ships”
DND did not provide Postmedia with the name of the Irving representative to whom it sent the email to so as not to violate privacy laws. Irving declined a request to comment for this story. McCoy said he phoned the reporter who “immediately hung up on me” after complaining Irving had no right to have his personal information.
Within an hour of that phone call, David Henley, Irving Shipbuilding’s vice-president and general counsel, emailed Postmedia saying he understood the news organization was “preparing a story which suggests there are substantial problems with welds” on the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships, and that the Harry DeWolf would be coming out of the water so the issue could be fixed.
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