The Canadian Association of Journalists will soon be weighing in on the Vivian Smith affair, Public Eye has learned. In an interview, president Paul Schneidereit confirmed the association will be releasing a statement - perhaps within the next hour - "on the larger issue of editorial independence." But that statement will specifically reference the axing of Ms. Smith by the Times Colonist. That controversial decision was made after Ms. Smith wrote a column criticizing the high cost of Victoria's tourist attractions. Tourism representatives subsequently met with the newspaper's publisher Bob McKenzie. And, according to one account of that meeting, Mr. McKenzie told those representatives he agreed Ms. Smith's column "should have never run" and that her contract would "probably" be cut short.

This morning, the newspaper's editor-in-chief Lucinda Chodan continued to decline comment on the reason Ms. Smith is no longer writing for the broadsheet. When asked about the recent decision by two freelancers to pull their columns for the newspaper in protest, Ms. Chodan responded "What I would like to say is that I have a great deal of respect for Lynne Van Luven and Janis Ringuette. And I'm sorry to loose their contribution to the newspaper. They're terrific people."