War of words pits Barrhaven newspaper against local candidate

Ottawa police are refusing to talk about a case involving serious allegations of election smearing, leaving unanswered questions about the integrity of both a Barrhavenward municipal candidate and the localcommunity newspaper.

The Barrhaven Independent printed a story on Sept. 28 about a woman who allegedly complained to police aboutcandidate HadiWess.

According to the newspaper's story, the woman called police after Wessallegedly intimidated her on her doorstep and when she tried to close her door tried to get into her home.

The story did not identify the woman, but saiddetails of her complaint were confirmed by the Ottawa Police Service'smedia relations unit.

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Wess, however, says the story is completely fabricated and is "nothing but a smear campaign to spread propaganda and misinform residents."

In a statement, Wess said police told him there was no such police report and that there was no contact between the media relations department and the newspaper in connection to the story.

Police won't say whose story is true, however.

The forcewill only say it "does not confirm or deny ongoing investigations about named persons or organizations, unless a charge is laid."

There are some incorrect detailsin the Barrhaven Independent story, however, which did not include a byline.

For example, the newspaper reported that the woman complained to police on Sept. 15, "several days after the alleged incident,"adding that she couldn't contact police earlier because of thepower outage caused by last month's tornadoes.

The tornado that caused the multi-day power outage in Ottawa struck the cityon Sept. 21 six days later.

Newspaper 'offended'

The Barrhaven Independent defended itself in a statement on social media.

"As the newspaper and multi-platform media outlet in our community, our objective is to restore and protect integrity," wrote editor Jeff Morris.

"We are offended that ours has been attacked or even questioned."

Morris offered CBC the phone number of the woman who made the complaint and a police file number to independently verify the story.

However police have not offered any informationabout the file associated with that number.