Sun News recants linking Vancouver Observer to Tides Canada; second apology in a week

By Tamara Baluja

Screen shot of Sun News Network website

Sun News Network issued an apology for the second time in a week, this time for calling the Vancouver Observer an "in-house publication of Tides Foundation." 

By Tamara Baluja

Screen shot of Sun News Network website

Sun News Network issued an apology for the second time in a week, this time for calling the Vancouver Observer an "in-house publication of Tides Foundation." 

The B.C.-based charity, Tides Canada, was at the centre of a controversy last summer when the Harper government labelled it a foreign-financed radical organization that channels donations to advocacy groups opposed to the Northern Gateway pipeline. Sun News media personality Ezra Levant said the independently-owned newspaper was an affiliate of Tides Canada in the March 12 broadcast of The Source.

The on-air apology aired on Wednesday without Levant. The show was instead hosted by Jerry Agar.

“In a monologue on The Source broadcast on March 12, 2013 about a recent conference at the Manning Centre, Sun News said that the Vancouver Observer was associated with the Tides Foundation. This was incorrect and Sun News regrets the error. The Vancouver Observer is an independent media outlet, and we should not have suggested it is "in-house" to any other entity, captive, controlled or biased. Sun News regrets any inconvenience or embarrassment arising from this error.”

Vancouver Observer managing editor Jenny Uechi said in an e-mail to J-Source that the apology was initially meant to air on Tuesday, but “at the last minute, the apology was rescheduled to Wednesday.” 

“People may call Sun News Network "Fox News North", but even it has limits on what it can broadcast nationwide in Canada,” Uechi said.

Three days earlier, Levant personally apologized on-air for calling the Roma “gypsies” and “swindlers” who “have come here as false refugees.”

That apology aired on the same day that Sun News Network submitted their final application to the CRTC in a bid to gain mandatory carriage on basic cable.