I recently read the Globe and Mail article Vancity CEO becomes climate warrior and was frustrated by part of the article.

The article is about Dave Mowat, the CEO of Vancity (where I work) and his experience getting the Inconvenient Truth training from Al Gore in Tennessee. The article goes over the training and what’s involved. Fine and good. But then there’s this part…

Marlo Lewis, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington and a persistent critic of Mr. Gore’s environmental views, said he’s concerned that “misleading” information in the movie and lectures will be spread further by those taking the training program.

Mr. Gore’s ideas include “an enormous number of distortions,” Mr. Lewis said. The presentation is a “one-sided lawyers’ brief for a leftwing, very partisan agenda.” He said he thinks Mr. Gore’s real agenda is to soften up the U.S. public for another run at the presidency.

I was floored by this and wrote the following letter to the editor of the Globe:

I read your article “Vancity CEO becomes climate warrior” and enjoyed finding out more about the kinds of people taking the Inconvenient Truth training. I was, however, deeply disappointed by the inclusion of Marlo Lewis from the Competitive Enterprise Institute in the article. Nowhere in the article does it explain the views or policies of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, nor does it explain why Mr. Lewis is such a “persistent critic” of the former Vice President.

It always amazes me when the heavily researched and scientifically endorsed views of someone like Mr. Gore can be instantly discredited by someone who needs not present any facts nor competing scientific research. Simply presenting two opposing sides, especially when only one side is so rigourously documented and researched, does not make the cut as journalism.

William Azaroff

Vancouver, BC

PS: In the interest of full disclosure, I am a Vancity employee.

Not sure if they’ll print my letter, but this kind of shoddy journalism has always bugged me.