On behalf of the Library, I extend our apologies to Birdy Markert, one of the speakers who so bravely and generously shared her personal life story with all of us who gathered at the library on June 10 to learn more about Truth &Reconciliation in our community.
The stories shared that day were chosen for that specific audience within that specific setting, and not intended to be recorded and quoted in the media. Birdy’s quotations that appeared in the June 14 edition of The Interior News were plucked from her story that lasted half an hour with a complete narrative arc and need to be placed within that arc to be fully appreciated.
Before the event, Birdy expressed her feelings around her story being recorded and we assured her that her wishes would be honoured. Unfortunately, we were unaware that a reporter was present. Discovering her words, including a misquote, in the newspaper caused her understandable distress. Birdy, we apologize for failing to protect your stories when you have given so much of yourself to help us grow. In the future, when a library event contains sensitive content we will be more proactive in making the media aware of our speakers’ wishes.
Wendy Wright
Director
Smithers Public Library
Editor’s note: The misquotation referred to is a paraphrasing that did not directly quote the speaker, but used the word ‘that’ instead of ‘this’ to unfortunately give the impression the speaker meant the Wet’suwet’en community rather than Smithers. We apologize to Ms. Markert for the mistake.