Talk:Mike Lake (politician)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons. Controversial material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted or if there are other concerns relative to this policy, report it on the living persons biographies noticeboard.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
	This article is supported by the Politics and government work group.

This article has been automatically assessed as Stub-Class by WikiProject Biography because it uses a stub template. If you agree with the assessment, please remove {{WPBiography}}'s auto=yes parameter from this talk page. If you disagree with the assessment, please change it by editing the class parameter of the {{WPBiography}} template, removing {{WPBiography}}'s auto=yes parameter from this talk page, and removing the stub template from the article.

[edit] Bigfoot petition

Here is the current version of this section.

• Lake was petitioned by constituents who at the call of Bigfoot profiteer, Todd Standing has called for Bigfoot to be protected under the Species at Risk Act. Lake served the petition to the House of Commons. In Lake's defense, he offered the petition to the House of Commons because ethically he must serve petitions to the House including those petitions signed by a minority of his constituency. The media has omitted Lakes actual involvement in supporting of the Species at Risk Act, see Media Bias.

According to AFP, Mike Lake has called for Bigfoot to be recognized as an endangered species.

A user has turned this section into a rant against the media, claiming that AFP is biased, but without any sources. The link given is broken and appears to link to a blog rather than a reliable source in keeping with WP:RS. The editor even says "in Lake's defence", even though in his/her version any mention of something to be defended against is gone. This argument is not sourced to any source, let alone a reliable one. Then he/she refers readers to Media bias. Overall, the section is now sanitized and one-sided.

Information about this has been carried in newspapers around the world. Here is what AFP writes:

• Bigfoot, the legendary hairy man-like beast said to roam the wildernesses of North America, is not shy, merely so rare it risks extinction and should be protected as an endangered species.

  So says Canadian MP Mike Lake who has called for Bigfoot to be protected under Canada's species at risk act, alongside Whooping Cranes, Blue Whales, and Red Mulberry trees.

Unless the editor can provide reliable sources contradicting this statement, it should be reported as is. Joeldl 17:48, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

AFP and Sean Hannity are wrong; see RefDesk discussion. In particular, see the House of Commons Journals for the date when the petition was filed and the House of Commons Debates for the same day; note that Lake did not speak in support of the petition. Also see House of Commons Procedure and Practice stating that just because an MP presents a petition does not mean he/she agrees with its content. --Mathew5000 09:31, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Are we certain that the news sources were basing their story solely on the fact that the petition was submitted? Joeldl 10:02, 9 May 2007 (UTC)