Wikipedia and the Toronto Port Authority

Wikipedia wars

Some months ago I was researching information on the free, on-line encyclopedia, Wikipedia. I happened to stray into the entry for the Toronto Port Authority, expecting to find the usual dry as dust recitation of how many terminals, how much tonnage, number of flights from the island airport, etc. But what to my wondering eyes should appear but a political diatribe practically equating TPA with Satan. It was obviously the work of the socialist, money-sucking parasites on Wards and Algonquin Island or their fellow travelers around Bishop Tutu Boulevard.

I alerted the TPA to my discovery.

What ensued over the next several months was an editorial war fought in the pages of Wikipedia between the port authority and its detractors. The TPA would correct the account only to have the distortions re-entered by the malicious busybodies, who then got annoyed that their authorship was being challenged and tipped off a local weekly newspaper to the story of the scandalous time wasted by a public employee correcting the public record. Huh??

The upshot of it is that Wikipedia now posts a notice on the page that warns viewers that the contents are in dispute and not to be trusted. This is unfortunate. I believe that Wikipedia is a good idea, but if its entries are not reliable it is a useless research authority.

If you are tempted to go into the TPA site for a peek, here are my corrections to the text.

2. The TPA is not a federal "crown agency". A "crown agency" is one for whom the debt is guaranteed by the government of Canada. The Canada Marine Act, the enabling legislation for port authorities, specifically excludes liability for the debt of port authorities.

3. The TPA does not control large areas of "Government of Canada owned lands." Such lands as the TPA controls are those it owns outright and uses for its own purposes. Its land holdings are considerably smaller than those owned by its predecessor, the Toronto Harbour Commission, prior to 1995.

4. Former Liberal MP, Dennis Mills, did not "add the TPA" to the list of port authorities. As an ordinary backbencher, how could he? It is the Parliament of Canada that voted to add Toronto. Dennis merely introduced the motion.

5. The Toronto Port Authority was not created to make it more "independent" than its predecessor, the THC. It was created to make it clear that it was accountable solely to government of Canada, as recommended by former Waterfront Royal Commissioner, David Crombie, in his report to Ottawa and Queens Park.

6. Harold Perry was never a member of the board, nor was Gary Reid a CEO, of the TPA.

7. The tonnage through the port of Toronto may be low compared to other ports in Canada, but it is high value tonnage. Some of the large tonnage ports are merely transit facilities serving no local market. Toronto is an import port, serving a regional market. Additionally, its marine traffic ensures that GTA roads are not subject to 60,000 truck trips per annum.

8. There is no battle over zoning controls. The city of Toronto controls zoning, and has always done so.

9. There is no dispute regarding lands under the control of the TPA relative to the waterfront revitalization plan; the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation so stated. The city of Toronto signed off on land transactions with the TPA in full consideration of the revitalization plan.

10. The bridge to the airport is a dead issue. Why write about it as if it were a current topic?

11. It is unlikely that Blue 22, the direct rail link to Pearson airport, will ever be built and even if it is, it will suffer the fate of the cross-lake ferry--a couple of years of staggering operational losses, and then bye-bye. Those who think this link makes the island airport irrelevant are dreaming. If anything, it would do just as much to enhance the business of Torontos airport as it will Mississaugas.

12. The cross-lake ferry terminal was built without debt. Therefore, why should a contract with the city of Rochester require a guarantee for a debt that does not exist?

13. Finally, it is a lie to claim that the TPA does not provide the government of Canada with current information that could be inserted by the government into its own websites if it saw fit to do so.

The editors of Wikipedia need to take a hard look at their standards of "verifiability" in the face of such an outlandish falsehood.

Gary Reid is a freelance writer and a public affairs consultant. Gary Reid, Opinion 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002