Talisman Energy, the Canadian Foreign Ministry, and the “Pinocchio problem” [or, “Overtime for Hill & Knowlton!”]

[February 9, 2000]

For some time now, Talisman Energy officials have been denying that they had obtained a copy of the Harker report, delivered to Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy on January 26, 2000. And yet a February 7 Reuters newswire report, picked up by a number of Canadian newspapers, directly contradicts this claim.

Reuters cites a government official as saying Talisman had indeed been given a copy of the 120-page confidential document on January 27, 2000---the day after it was received by the Foreign Minister!

Somebody has got a Pinocchio problem: who is an investor to believe???

And leaving the world of bumbling lies, every Canadian with a moral conscience must ask just how far “the problem” extends in the representation of human destruction and suffering in Sudan---

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excerpts from report by REUTERS on February 07, 2000 at 20:26:00:

Canada oil firm said in talks on key Sudan report

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Calgary-based oil firm Talisman
Energy Inc. (TLM.TO) has held talks with several powerful
Canadian government ministries about a potentially damaging
report into its operations in Sudan, officials said on Monday.

***************

"Talisman has been raising the Harker report with several
departments around town," a ***government official*** told Reuters,
***saying the company had been given a confidential copy of the
120-page document on January 27.***