I’m sure it sounded like a good idea when Boston Globe columnist, Joanna Weiss, wrote it up. Her theme was about “tantrums”, beginning with airline steward Steven Slater’s dramatic resignation down an inflatable-slide, and going on to discuss Howard Dean, Anthony Weiner, and Canadian independent politician, Helena Guergis. But it’s reasonably clear to conclude that Ms.Weiss had her American ducks in a row up before doing a google search on “tantrum”, resulting in the infamous “Charlottetown airport incident.”

Here is what Ms.Weiss came up with:

And I’m certainly not talking about the outbursts we’ve all seen from entitled air travelers. It’s a good thing Slater never met Helena Guergis, the Canadian MP who arrived late for a flight on Prince Edward Island last February, refused to take off her boots, swore at airport workers, and loudly referred to the security line as “this hellhole.’’

If only she had channeled her rage into something more productive; there must be something to rant about in the whole of Canadian government. But these days, politics is one of the rarer places to see people lose their cool. Outbursts, such as they are, tend to be scripted, calculated, and preplanned, with lines carefully vetted to make certain they don’t overly offend.

Google never forgets, but that doesn’t mean it’s telling the truth. Can you blame people for getting it wrong though? The Canadian media was all too happy to trot out hearsay evidence that Ms.Guergis’ “tantrum” was among the worst that one airport worker had ever seen.

The Toronto Star splashed it across its pages: “Cabinet minister throws airport tantrum.” This, from the same paper that would later indict Ms.Guergis’ husband, Rahim Jaffer, for offences pertaining to shadowy business partners and “busty hookers”, filed in the court of public opinion.

But while the RCMP has cleared the embattled duo of all allegations related to parliamentary impropriety, the Helena Guergis airport “tantrum” continues to exist as fact, when in reality it may have been nothing more than mild annoyance.

As the Collingwood Enterprise-Bulletin reported in July, the manufactured scandal that began with an anonymous letter from a Charlottetown airport employee to P.E.I. Liberal MP Wayne Easter, may have been greatly exaggerated.

The Enterprise-Bulletin was granted access to view the airport security footage from the day in question, February 19, and though the video does not contain audio, the visual offers few signs that any “tantrum” took place.

The letter sent to Mr.Easter alleges she refused to remove her footwear, and slammed her boots into a bin when she finally complied. It also alleges that she shouted at her ministerial aide and demanded she retrieve her boots for her. But the security footage tends to contradict those allegations.

According to the Enterprise-Bulletin, Ms.Guergis appears to sit calmly while removing her boots, before placing them carefully in the bin. At no point does she appear angry or rude, or to be yelling at anyone, despite the lack of audio. Though her aide does bring Ms.Guergis’ boots to her, it would seem to be unprompted.

Of the latter allegations of her repeated attempts to get through a locked door while screaming and banging on the soundproof glass, there is no video evidence. All she does admit to of the allegations is to using the term “hellhole”, but she says that was in reference to the security procedures of airports, and not Charlottetown or the tiny provincial island.

Though this information is available on the internet for anybody to find for themselves, it isn’t surprising to see the erroneous version being propagated by the google-indexed archives of the mighty Globe and Mail and Toronto Star, both of whom have yet to do the kind of journalistic diligence of the tiny Collingwood newspaper.

It is difficult, then, to blame Joanna Weiss for misinforming millions of American readers that a Canadian MP, Helena Guergis, threw an epic fit in an airport. We can instead chalk it up to the infotainment that passes for Canadian news.