There's two sides to every story. The Liberals were sending around a picture yesterday showing St. Catharines Tory MP Rick Dykstra on his BlackBerry during a Remembrance Day ceremony. Very, very disrespectful of Mr. Dykstra, suggested the Liberals.
But after a quick call to the MP's office, it seems Mr. Dykstra was live-blogging at the event. In fact, he used his BlackBerry to take a picture of the cenotaph and the wreaths around it. Then he sent out a message, which he posted on his website:
"It was a very calm and peaceful two minutes this morning at 11am. With a picture of Warrant Officer Dennis Brown at the foot of the cenotaph. He gave his life in Afghanistan. I took this picture this morning during our ceremony at the Cenotaph in downtown St. Catharines, now named Veteran's Way."
This morning, he fired back at the Liberals. "Mr. Dykstra's respect for both Remembrance Day and our soldiers is well known throughout our community," a statement from his office said."... It's disappointing and disrespectful when your Liberal opponent in the next election would have pictures taken at a Remembrance Day event in an attempt to score cheap political points."
The Remembrance Day message in question was sent at 11:38 a.m. yesterday. Lest we forget - to check the other side of the story.
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Update The Liberals are disputing Mr. Dykstra's version of events, pointing to an RSS feed that suggests the item was posted this morning at 11:06 a.m. - after the photo went out - and not on Remembrance Day at 11:38 a.m.
But Dave Schulz, who maintains Mr. Dykstra's website, stands by the MP's story. "The timing of these feeds is less than reliable and only meant as a notice to people who register that there is new information on the web site," Mr. Schulz says. "For instance, the RSS feed for this posting, as well as for a second article posted at the same time, went out from the server at 6:27 a.m. this morning."