DND & IRVING SHIPBUILDING NOT BESTIES ANYMORE

   In testimony before the Senate Finance Committee two weeks ago, Kevin McCoy said federal officials at DND had called the firm to warn it that a Postmedia reporter was making “very wild accusations” about workmanship and other issues on the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships that Irving Shipbuilding is constructing for the Royal Canadian Navy.
  The company threatened the news organization with legal action because “we were concerned about our reputation and the (government’s) shipbuilding strategy’s reputation,” McCoy told the senators on the committee.
   But DND spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier denies the department told Irving that Postmedia was making “wild accusations” — and, in an unusual move, DND has provided Postmedia with the correspondence in which it notified Irving of the reporter’s inquiry.