NEWSLETTER: Regarding the article “Did An NDP Leadership Candidate BUST His Own Workers’ Union?”
Friends,
On February 29th, we published an article examining a labour dispute involving NDP leadership candidate Avi Lewis and his former organization, The Leap. The article was headlined: “Did An NDP Leadership Candidate Bust His Own Workers’ Union?”
We have since updated that headline. The original version did not meet the standards of precision and restraint that we demand of our journalism.
The story in question reported on a verified sequence of events: a union certification at The Leap in 2020, the absence of a first contract, the organization's closure nine months later, and the subsequent launch of a non-union outlet, The Breach, with Mr. Lewis as a contributor. These are facts supported by labour board records and public documents. The story also noted that Mr. Lewis did not respond to requests for comment, and that labour experts said the timeline bore the hallmarks of “union avoidance.”
The original headline, however, framed those facts as a binary accusation. The use of the word “bust” implied a definitive finding of unlawful or intentionally destructive conduct—a conclusion that the article itself, which presented a circumstantial case and acknowledged gaps in the public record, did not conclusively establish.
Headlines are statements of editorial judgment. In this case, the judgment was overly aggressive given the evidence presented. It risked misleading readers by suggesting certainty that the reporting could not fully support, and it departed from the measured inquiry that should characterize our coverage of political contests.
The article has been republished under a headline that more accurately reflects its contents. We remain committed to rigorous reporting on matters of public accountability, including the records of those seeking high office. We also remain committed to doing so with fairness and without rhetorical overreach.
We apologize to readers for this lapse.
— Will Adams
Editor, The Provincial Times
