From the Jan. 17 Tyee:

Apology

Mair column contained errors.

By David Beers
Published: January 17, 2008

TheTyee.ca

Regarding Rafe Mair's column published in The Tyee on Dec. 24, 2007.

The Tyee unreservedly retracts the statements as to the treatment of Messrs. Krieger and Murphy by the Province and by the Asper family made in that column. The statements were in error. We apologize unreservedly for making those statements. We sincerely regret any damage or harm that has been suffered by any of the individuals involved, including the Asper family.

I don't expect this next sentence was meant to be funny, but I did find it amusing on a certain level:

We also wish to use this opportunity to rescind any suggestion or recommendation to Tyee and Province readers that they cancel their Province subscriptions and instead spend the money on the Tyee or the Tyee Fellowship Fund.

David Beers is founding editor of The Tyee.

This earlier apology and correction (from Dec. 27;  also written by Beers) puts the matter into better context:

An opinion column by Rafe Mair, published on this site Dec. 24, 2007, stated that political cartoonists Dan Murphy and Bob Krieger were to be "let go" by the The Province newspaper.

In fact, while Murphy and Krieger were told by Province management that their cartoons would no longer be regularly published on the editorial pages of The Province, they were offered other positions at the newspaper as well as the option of leaving the employ of The Province with buy-out payments.

As soon as these facts came to the attention of the editors of The Tyee over the holidays, we corrected the Mair column. The Tyee subsequently removed the column from the site on Wednesday afternoon.

We apologize for any confusion or distress the column may have caused members of The Province's staff, management or readership.