COPY CAT

Newsday editors, Media Watch thinks you need to speak with your reporter out of Canada, Raynier Maharaj who seems not to understand that copying someone else's work wholesale has a very unpalatable word attached to it.

In the Saturday Newsday, Mr Maharaj wrote extensively about Bruce Poon Tip's doomed ship, the MS Explorer, which eventually sank in the Antarctic Ocean. Mr Poon Tip is originally from Trinidad, but has lived in Canada for many years.
Mr Maharaj goes into details about the ship's fate, then switches gear to Mr Poon Tip's business exploits since 1991. Well the last seven paragraphs of his story (http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,68556.html) have been copied almost word for word from the Economic Club of Toronto's web site, highlighting speakers for a conference to be held in Toronto on Monday November 26th(http://www.ecot.ca/speakers/speaker_bio.asp?Speaker_ID=67).
How did Media Watch figure this out? A simple Google search of Bruce Poon Tip.
At no point in his article does Mr Maharaj cite the source of his information, just a passing "In a recent interview...,", and that referred to just one sentence.

And is Mr Poon Tip a citizen of Canada? Mr Maharaj's report does not say, but the information he used says he was "...receiving an award as one of Canada’s top 40 Canadians under 40,...".

And if Mr Maharaj had done his homework, he would have been able to quote some interesting information about the vessel which was revealed by The Scotsman (http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1845242007):
"Five faults, some involving the watertight doors, which should have contained the water flooding in, were found in an inspection of the Explorer in Greenock in May. Gap Adventures...said that they had been repaired.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency inspection found five faults, missing search-and-rescue plans and lifeboat maintenance problems. Watertight doors were described as "not as required", and fire-safety measures also attracted criticism. The agency said the faults had been fixed before the vessel sailed.
It is understood that Chilean inspectors found six deficiencies during an inspection in Puerto Natales in March. These included two related to safety of navigation. However, a passenger safety certificate was issued for the vessel last month."

But in the Sunday Newsday edition, Mr Maharaj quotes Marie Anne McRae, spokesperson for GAP Adventures in Toronto as saying "Just on October 21 this year, (MS Explorer) came off dry dock after passing a rigid safety inspection process initiated by insurers Lloyds of London. It was fully certified and this was its first tour since the safety certification.” Not a word about the other safety concerns.