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rmarshall · 02-17-2005, 12:21 PM

From the Toronto Star's website:

Quote:

Gov. Gen. to student: I'm sorry
Clarkson telephones Whitby student to say she's sorry he was asked to leave Rideau Hall after asking question

LORRAYNE ANTHONY
CANADIAN PRESS

It’s not every day that the Governor General calls to apologize.
But that’s what happened to the 15-year-old high school student whose question about government spending resulted in his class’s tour being cut short.

“You can imagine ... I’m doubly embarrassed because someone asked a question — in my home — and doesn’t get the answer. So I really wanted to make that right,” Adrienne Clarkson told The Canadian Press minutes after she called Jeremy Patfield to apologize.

“I wanted to apologize and say this is the most, you know I really thought it was a most unfortunate — to say the least, I’m understating it — incident.”

Patfield, a Grade 8 student at John Dryden Public School in Whitby, was touring the Governor General’s official residence with about 60 students on Tuesday when he spotted Clarkson and asked: “Is that the woman that spends the money on the Queen when she comes?”

Clarkson didn’t hear the question. However, a tour guide who overheard the teen’s comment immediately ended the group’s visit.

Clarkson first heard about the incident last night and then, during her Thursday morning weight-lifting regime, she heard it on the radio. She decided to call the boy’s family to apologize but the home telephone was busy as media calls were constant. She then called the CBC radio talk show to discuss the incident.

Clarkson managed to get through to the Patfields early in the afternoon.

“I told them how sorry I am and to invite them to Rideau Hall anytime and have tea and finish up the tour,” she said.

She was told the tour had been cut short because a question had been asked that had been deemed “inappropriate.”

Clarkson defended the boy’s — and anybody’s — right to ask questions about how government money is spent.

“Of course in my opinion there is no inappropriate question, only inappropriate answers,” said the one-time journalist known for getting her questions answered.

“(The question) shows, at least, an interest in what’s happening in the office of the Governor General and I thought questions like that should be answered.”

Padfield was calm about receiving a call from Clarkson.

“I accept the Governor General’s apology and I apologize for saying what I said in her house,” Patfield told CFTO-TV today.

“I’m glad everything worked out for the best.”

Following the Ottawa incident, Patfield was told he was to receive a three-day suspension. The school reversed that decision today.

“I had a meeting with the school — the superintendent, the principal and the vice-principal,” said Dan Patfield, Jeremy’s father.

“After everything the media did ... the school has lifted the three-day suspension.”

Clarkson was relieved when Jeremy’s father told her the suspension had been lifted and that he could play in the school basketball tournament.

“The Governor General’s staff has apologized to the school,” said Patfield from his Whitby home where he, his wife and son were trying to get some rest after a couple of sleepless nights and a media storm.

“He was sorry for what he did say in the Governor General’s home and he did say it to a second party and he said he would pick a different form if he had to do it all over again.”

It had been Jeremy’s first visit to Ottawa, a school trip he financed by shovelling driveways.

Since she was appointed Governor General in 1999, Clarkson has been criticized for her spending, including a bill of more than $5 million in 2003 for a three-week trip to Russia, Iceland and Finland.

In answer to Patfield’s original question, she explained that actually the expenses of the Queen are paid by the Department of Canadian Heritage when she comes to the country. The Queen will be visiting Canada this year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Class goes to visit Ottawa, asks question on tour of Rideau Hall, get's entire busload of kids thrown out of building and gets suspended for three days. Today the school quashed the suspension and the Governor General calls to say she's sorry. What do you think? I guess the question of the Governor General's spending habits is a touchy subject!