CTV reports on secret documents left behind at news studio

After waiting six days, CTV News reported secret information found in a
binder Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt, or one of her aides, left
at its news studio after an on-air interview.

CTV’s Graham Richardson reported
that “sensitive government documents” about the financial details
surrounding Atomic Energy of Canada’s Chalk River nuclear reactor in
Ontario. The CTV report online states:

“The binder of documents was left nearly
a week ago at CTV’s Ottawa bureau by either Minister of Natural
Resources Lisa Raitt or one of her aides. Some of the papers are
clearly marked ‘secret.'”

Watch
Richardson’s original
report on the contents of the binder (from Tuesday, June 2).
He says:

“For six days it sat in CTV’s Ottawa bureau with most pages
numbered and marked secret….So far there have been no calls from the
government to CTV looking for the missing binder…For whatever reason,
binder 8 with all these documents numbered 0008, either they don’t know
it’s missing or they’re afraid to call around because then people will
be alerted that it’s missing. That, of course, is a news story in
itself, considering it comes from a minister’s
office.”

The binders contained government spending information not made available to the public before as well as strategic information related to the sale of the reactor.

After nearly a week, a
federal government employee went to CTV’s Ottawa bureau to pick up the
documents the following day, Wednesday, June3. CTV
reported:

“‘If they weren’t noticed missing, why is that? And if they
knew they were missing why didn’t they call around?’ Richardson
questioned.

‘Did they not call around because they didn’t want to alert
the media that they had lost some documents? Did they not know where
they’d lost them?'”

In a
follow-up segment on CTV News, Richardson explained the
decision to run the story:

“Our choice, editorially,
journalistically, was to not call the government for six days, we
waited, we did not hear anything. To us that demonstrates that either,
a) they didn’t know or b) they didn’t want to alert, and we felt that
was, again, as I say, the document left anywhere is newsworthy, so we
felt comfortable going with it last night. “