CAITI responds to 'Trust Treat' by Terence Corcoran in October 27th National Post.

October 27, 2007

Letter to the Editor

Mr. Doug Kelly
Editor in Chief
National Post

Evidently my efforts of the last 12 months have struck a nerve. The truth has a habit of doing that. Especially when there are so many who are attempting to suppress it.

Meanwhile Terry Corcoran lives in a world of his own vindictive and narrow minded creation. Back in December he had this falsehood to say in your paper;

“Before our seniors rush off with the thought that the income trust issue is a call to re-fight the Second World War, they should know that Fullard is employed by the Canadian Association of the 50 Plus (CARP). CARP in
recent years got into bed with investment firms selling income trust products to its members. If I were running CARP, I'd be fighting mad, too -- at somebody.”

That was an outright falsehood and which had no basis in fact and that, once Mr. Corcoran learned was untrue, lost total interest in correcting as well as his total sense of journalistic zeal and was not man enough to retract the statement

Now we are to learn in today’s ranting tirade by Mr Corcoran that:

“One source familiar with the Fullardmort operation says CAITI now receives no money from his original deep-pocketed backers and is just spending his own dime and time cranking out ugly political commentary.”

Yet another falsehood perpetrated by Terry Corcoran that has no basis in fact. There are others, such as the time he promised to publish an opposing view of mine in response to an article in your paper that was centered around the views of CAITI, and then reneged after we had agreed to a word count and a deadline. He claimed that the original opinion article was “more right” than my rebuttal. Subsequent events have proven how correct indeed I was as evidenced by the foreign takeovers of all the income trusts such as Prime West by Abu Dhabi and TransAlta Power by Li Ka-Shing.

Mr. Corcoran has failed in his fundamental duty as a reporter, in that he did not speak with myself or anyone at CAITI before printing these two falsehoods. Meanwhile who is doing the fact checking at your newspaper before the printing of such slanderous articles?

I expect a full retraction and apology on the part of your paper for the falsehoods that Mr Corcoran is perpetrating about myself and our association and for reasons known only to himself, and perhaps his friends in the PMO.

Thank you,

Brent Fullard
President and CEO
Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors
www.caiti.info

---

Dear Sirs

Terence Corcoran's personal attack on Brent Fullard in his column today is in extremely poor taste, unbefitting a national newspaper. From the schoolyard name-calling to the expression that he would like to see Mr Fullard "vaporized" -- surely this is not journalism. Clearly the man has some deep-seated personal issues with Mr Fullard, and is using his position at the National Post to wage a personal vendetta.

As to the rest of his column, I find it ironic that the accusations hurled Brent's way, of fulminating, of being overly partisan, can all be applied equally to Mr Corcoran himself, whose froth and fury spew from his column on a regular basis.

And what on earth does he mean by an "alleged" organization? There is nothing "alleged" about the Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors. It is as real as the National Post, and its membership is composed of many thousands of individual trust investors who were betrayed, even set up, by Stephen Harper's broken promise to "never raid seniors' nest eggs".

Yes, the anniversary of that stunning reversal is approaching. And, as Mr Corcoran laments in his opening paragraphs, there are sure to be many column inches devoted to the issue. Including, seemingly his own. Clearly the standards he applies to others do not hold when it comes to himself.

And what of the standards of the National Post? Highly opinionated columnists spark interest and fuel debate, but when they call for the vaporization of those they disagree with, they are getting dangerously close to uttering death threats.

Mr Corcoran owes Brent Fullard an immediate and sincere apology.

Sincerely,

Val Fullard
Communications Director
Canadian Association of Income Trust Investors
www.caiti.info

visit our new blog at: C A I T I - O N L I N E