Thierry Haroun's article titled Coffin Affair: Author Holding Key Documents published in THE GASPÉ SPEC on the 13th of August last, aroused criticisms from readers. Here is Haroun's reply to one of them that was published in the 18th September issue.
L’entrevue que j’ai accordée au journaliste Thierry Haroun et qui a paru dans THE GASPÉ SPEC du 13 août dernier a suscité des réactions. Voici la réponse de Thierry Haroun à l’une d’elles qui a été publiée dans THE GASPÉ SPEC du 18 septembre dernier.
Thierry Haroun replies to Andy Patterson (Gaspé) I was saddened to see, in our last week’s edition, that you were disappointed by my article «Coffin Affair :author holding key documents» (Spec, August 13,2008). In that text, I gave an interview to retired lawyer Clément Fortin, author of «The Coffin Affair : A Hoax?», a book based on 2,250 pages of transcripts pertaining to Wilbert Coffin’s trial in Percé in 1954. This said, you wrote in your letter the following statement «Too bad you couldn’t include the other side of the story». Sorry to ask, but what other side of the story? In fact there are many sides and angles of the Coffin Affair over the past 50 years. Because your seem to be questioning my objectivity, I must point out that it was a one-on-one interview regarding the extensive research and discoveries of the author. His fight against the authorities to get a hold on thousands of pages never made public is a story by itself, it’s of public interest and thus worth being followed very closely. It is also important for our readers to know Mr. Fortin’s point of view and to bring about his discoveries. Many other medias are also following his reasearch by well respected journalists, Yves Boisvert of La Presse, and Bryan Miles of Le Devoir to name but a few. Coming back to the «other side of the story», which frankly I don’t think it was relevant in this perspective, I can only add that over the years I have covered this Affair for Le Devoir (with Marie Coffin), CHNC radio and Le Soleil (in this case my collegue Gilles Gagné has extensively written interesting papers). I have read the books of Jacques Hébert and Alton Price, the Gazette’s investigation, spoken to James Coffin and his family, AIDWICK, Department of Justice, and so on. As for Lew Stoddard who you are mentioning in your letter, we spoke following my text with Mr. Fortin and I invite readers to log on GoGaspé (www.gogaspe.com/en/comnews/) to read his point of view on this story. Thanks for reading SPEC. Thierry Haroun(Spec’s journalist in Percé)
Thierry Haroun replies to Andy Patterson (Gaspé) I was saddened to see, in our last week’s edition, that you were disappointed by my article «Coffin Affair :author holding key documents» (Spec, August 13,2008). In that text, I gave an interview to retired lawyer Clément Fortin, author of «The Coffin Affair : A Hoax?», a book based on 2,250 pages of transcripts pertaining to Wilbert Coffin’s trial in Percé in 1954. This said, you wrote in your letter the following statement «Too bad you couldn’t include the other side of the story». Sorry to ask, but what other side of the story? In fact there are many sides and angles of the Coffin Affair over the past 50 years. Because your seem to be questioning my objectivity, I must point out that it was a one-on-one interview regarding the extensive research and discoveries of the author. His fight against the authorities to get a hold on thousands of pages never made public is a story by itself, it’s of public interest and thus worth being followed very closely. It is also important for our readers to know Mr. Fortin’s point of view and to bring about his discoveries. Many other medias are also following his reasearch by well respected journalists, Yves Boisvert of La Presse, and Bryan Miles of Le Devoir to name but a few. Coming back to the «other side of the story», which frankly I don’t think it was relevant in this perspective, I can only add that over the years I have covered this Affair for Le Devoir (with Marie Coffin), CHNC radio and Le Soleil (in this case my collegue Gilles Gagné has extensively written interesting papers). I have read the books of Jacques Hébert and Alton Price, the Gazette’s investigation, spoken to James Coffin and his family, AIDWICK, Department of Justice, and so on. As for Lew Stoddard who you are mentioning in your letter, we spoke following my text with Mr. Fortin and I invite readers to log on GoGaspé (www.gogaspe.com/en/comnews/) to read his point of view on this story. Thanks for reading SPEC. Thierry Haroun(Spec’s journalist in Percé)
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