What do you do when a story that purports to say something actually says nothing? If you’re like me, you choose not to run the story and toss it in the dumpster where it belongs. Unfortunately the Winnipeg Free Press (via the Canadian Press) didn’t make that decision:

MONTREAL – The Harper government says it will introduce a plan this week to ensure a tragedy like the 1985 Air India bombing never happens again.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made the announcement today at a ceremony in Montreal, where ground was broken on a memorial dedicated to the victims of the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history.

An inquiry report released this summer catalogued a litany of federal failures before and after the attack, which killed 329 people, most of them Canadians.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has apologized on behalf of the federal government but hasn’t acted on other recommendations made in the report.

The recommendations include a one-time payment to family members of victims.

Kenney said the memorial will serve as a place for quiet contemplation to remember the victims.

Let’s break this story down into a single focal point. What is it saying? Well, if we’re believe the text, it’s saying that the government will introduce a plan to ensure that airplanes can’t be blown up ever again. And how does the government plan to accomplish this goal?

No idea. The story won’t tell us. Or it doesn’t know. It’s likely both.

I’m also struggling to figure out how the headline, which screams “Harper government to introduce plan that would prevent another Air India bombing”, is related to the story. All the story has is two sentences related to the headline, the substance of which is based entirely on something the immigration minister said at an Air India memorial. The rest of the story could be found on Wikipedia.

Preposterous claims in a headline deserve some factual evidence in the story. ‘Nuff said.