CASE CLOSED: Copenhagen-anigans: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ...
- December 14, 2009 9:24 AM |
- By Kady O'Malley
The catch? The whole thing was a hoax -- a "childish prank," according to PMO, as reported by Colleague McDiarmid soon after the Prentice pretender first tweeted about it earlier this morning.
As yet, the prankster is unknown, although the similarly sharp-eyed satire-spotters at Climate Justice suggest that it could be the work of the folk legendary hinjinksters known as the Yes Men. But although the faux Environment Canada website is, for the most part, a faithful replica of the original, it doesn't seem to have fooled too many journalists for long, either: CanWest's David Akin and the Globe's Steve Wicary and the Ottawa Citizen Gargoyle were among those playing armchair detective on twitter earlier this morning. So far, the only media outlet to pick up the story appears to be this one -- ostensibly the European edition of the Wall Street Journal -- which itself appears to be of questionable legitimacy.
So, who's to blame? Or, depending on how you feel about parody as a tool of political protest, who gets the credit? Share your theories in the comments, and I'll update this post when and if we find out.
Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice just finished his press conference and he dismissed the hoax press releases, saying "I am here to negotiate." The Minister's press people distributed a release for a photo-op of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Prentice to occur shortly after the press conference, outside of the offices of the U.S. delegation.
I showed up there and noticed Steve Kelly, Prentice's chief of staff, having a raised voice exchange with a member from the U.S. delegation. The problem was the U.S. delegation hadn't given the green light for a photo-op, just for closed bilateral meeting between the two.
Over the course of 10 minutes, Kelly repeatedly asked the U.S. delegation official to reconsider, to which the U.S. delegation official replied, negative. When Kelly asked for this to be taken up the chain of command, the U.S. delegation official replied "it came from pretty high up. It's not going to happen."
The U.S. official said he didn't understand why the photograph was so important, to which Kelly replied "we were carpetbagged this morning by (environmental non-governmental organizations) with a false press release, I gotta change the story."
Equiterre's Guilbeault had this to say in response:Dear media,
You may have received a release entitled:
"CANADA ANNOUNCES REVISED FIGURES FOR EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS, RELIEF FUNDS"
This is not a government of Canada press release.
We're told it may have been issued by mr. Guilbault from equiterre.
If that's the case, time would be better used by supporting Canada's efforts to reach an agreement instead of sending out hoax press releases.
More time should be dedicated to playing a constructive role instead of childish pranks.
"Mr. Guilbeault clearly indicated that he is not the source of this spoof. Neither is Equiterre. It is shameful that Office of the Prime Minister is making such accusations without any proof.
Mr. Guilbeault and Equiterre are asking Dimitri Soudas to retract his accusations and to present his excuses. We also deeply regret that Canada's position on cilmate change is nowhere near the one presented on Environment Canada's fake website.
Equiterre suggests that the Associate Director, Communication/Press Secretary, Dimitri Soudas, from the Prime Minister office, should stop throwing baseless accusations. A better way to use his time would probably be to advise the Canadian government to change its deeply flawed position on climate."
QUASI-HEATED-EXCHANGE-IN-FRONT-OF-REPORTERS-CAPTURED-ON-VIDEO UPDATE: Watch the video of a confrontation between Soudas and Guilbeault in Copenhagen. Not too much of a donnybrook as far as scrum scraps go, but they do accuse each other of playing games with a serious issue, as well as point at each other a couple of times before Guilbeault demands an apology and Soudas, not obliging, leaves.
Meanwhile, the Star is reporting that the "main source" for the spoof is the Canadian Youth Delegation, although notes that, at least for the moment, they don't want to take credit for it.
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