FAQ 7b. What is the 'suicide note' and what does it have to do with the release of the tapes?

Grewal first revealed that he had taped his conversations with Dosanjh and Murphy on May 18th, and the Conservatives released what they described as a full set of recordings at mid-day on May 31st.

Within a day of the release of those tapes, however, questions began to be raised about their integrity (note my entry of 6 pm on June 1st: here) and over the next day there was a flurry of stories (e.g. here or here [archived here]).

Late on June 2, the Conservatives publicly admitted that there were problems. A Conservative staffer distributed a press-release to reporters at an Ottawa. the conservative staffer who distributed it is said to have called it a 'suicide note'. This press release admits that the original tapes had been in conservative hands since May 18th, suggests that the problems found in the tapes were caused by technical problems, claims that only a few seconds was missing, and points out two places where the transcript needs revision. Here is a scan:

The press release raises as many questions as it solves: it was more than a few seconds than had fallen out of the tapes. (It was almost 15 minutes in one recordin alone.) And it places responsibility for the tapes squarely in Harper's office.

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