By Brian Lee
When it’s prefaced by, "I heard... ," you know what comes next is suspect. It’s a rumour.
According to the Oxford, a rumour is "general talk or hearsay of doubtful accuracy." Gossip on the other hand is defined as "easy or unconstrained talk or writing, especially about persons or social incidents." Gossip is typically deliberate and personal in nature whereas rumours are started by those who prefer to jump to a conclusion before they’ve taken the time to read to the end.
Being on a monthly news cycle means I sometimes confirm facts on a story weeks before the publication is available to the public. Despite this unfortunate lag, it can provide me with a special vantage point to enjoy the absurd fiction that gets cooked up in the meantime.
This past summer, the rumour mill lit up with false information about recovery efforts for a man presumed drowned in Garden Bay Lake. Just days after he was reported missing, with kids splashing around the T-dock nearby, I was emphatically told by a frequent visitor to the lake that a dive team recovered the body and the search was over. Her proof?
"If the body hadn’t been found, they’d still be out here."
In this case, a lack of communication by the Sunshine Coast RCMP was partly to blame for creating a vacuum that was happily filled with false information until his body was recovered almost 10 days later. Reams have been written on the psychology of how we form absolute conclusions from dubious observations but even when a satisfactory explanation from a reliable source is available, there can be an outright refusal to accept it. Case in point:
The sudden closure of the Garden Bay Pub. I have every reason to believe GBP management when they tell me the closure that took effect Jan. 18 is a temporary one. It seems completely plausible that needed repairs to the septic system requires a temporary shutdown. But news of the closure discharged a flush of alternate explanations quickly accepted by those who fear a recent change in ownership spells doom for the historic pub’s future. A few samples from a Facebook discussion on the subject:
"I totally was told it was being shut down indefinitely."
"Gonna be condos innit..?"
"I was told the owner made an announcement on the last day of opening that the pub was done — it’s not being re-opened."
"Someone said that Ron and Marita are the proud owners again????!!!"
There is no evidence to support any of these claims but as they get repeated, their validity grows. I recall similar rumours about Irvines Landing Marina, elk poachers, Robin Williams, the Pender dock plan or any number of sinister agendas hidden by those schemers at the SCRD. Their common fuel is our unfortunate tendency to pass on the more sensational or conspiratorial bits of hearsay. We all thrive on the drama in a good story but when it starts with, "I heard...," we should remind ourselves that the other, more boring version of the event is probably more accurate.