Crystal Clear

I was asked to comment by a newspaper reporter yesterday as I left a seminar for my work. I thought “How cool! I could be in an article!”.

So today I looked online to see what became of my few words and his unintelligible scribbles on his notepad.

“Many end up in homeless shelters,” said Crystle Nyman, of Hamilton’s Micah House, which has fewer than a dozen beds while the number of refugees is rising.

So, he spelled my name wrong, but that’s no big deal. But my work comes across pretty negative. My quote is correct, I guess. But I recall talking about how wonderful the day was and how it was great to see groups working together to help those in need.

Unfortunately, when I read the rest of the article, I noticed other things that are incorrect. Which makes me wonder about newspapers and other articles in general. Most of the time, I’m not familiar enough with a topic to spot a small error. And many, many people will read it and also believe that it is factually true, especially when you are ‘quoting’ someone.

For instance, the article mentions:

Casipullai said the refugees are not eligible for social assistance or government jobs and their children have to pay foreign student tuition.

I know that refugees, even refugee claimants, are eligible for social assistance. And only refugee claimants have to pay foreign student tuition–once you are accepted as a refugee you pay domestic rates. So, many will read this and get their facts wrong, but believe it is correct because it was quoted by someone who obviously knows.

So how many other times does this happen? Do you ever notice this, or is this one just an aberration? It is the Toronto Sun…

But, hey you probably want to read the article in all its glory.

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