Here's a link to The Globe and Mail story on the CAJ release.

I'll add some commentary to the following excerpts:

Association president Paul Schneidereit said his organization does not wish to retract its original statement, but does want to clarify its position.

"The original release focused on a principle which we still believe is important," Mr. Schneidereit said, adding that the clarification took nearly a year because of legal concerns.

It didn't clarify anything. It restated the case and was a defensive action in case Ms. Cameron ever decided to sue.

The Globe wrote:

Ms. Cameron has been a centre of controversy since it emerged last year that she was characterized as a confidential informant by the RCMP during their investigation of allegations of improper payments in government aircraft deals.

That interpretation is somewhat simplistic and really doesn't cover off Cameron's side of the story. To see it go to her website, www.steviecameron.com.

Here's Schneidereit:

Last night, Mr. Schneidereit said he was concerned that if Ms. Cameron proceeds with a lawsuit it could bankrupt the CAJ.

And who's fault would that be? If you don't have the resources to withstand a lawsuit, don't write news releases that are defamatory. What's so hard about that?

Again, the CAJ could have made a point about the need for journalists to be seen as independent from the police without personally attacking Cameron.

Considering all they had to go on was a Globe and Mail story, one would have thought the board would have done a bit more research before launching such an unprecedented attack.

For more on my reaction to that news release, click here.