Wafergate-gate: Okay, round up the other usual suspects.

BREAKING! MUST CREDIT ITQ: KINSELLA DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN SO-FAR-UNSUPPORTED-BY-INDEPENDENT-EVIDENCE CLAIM OF DASTARDLY LIBERAL-WITH-A-CAPITAL-L INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNION HOST STORY!

ITQ: Did you, in any way, suggest to the paper — via its editors, or publisher — that they look into the question of what happened to the communion wafer?

WK: I did not, in any way, suggest that story to the Telegraph Journal or any other media person. I in fact do not know anyone at the T-J, at all, and I do not know the former publisher or editor in particular.

Okay, enough with the capslock: We have an official, on the record denial from Warren Kinsella, who, in a post that appeared late last night on LifeSite News, was just-this-side-of-explicitly-accused – by name – of being the perpetrator of the Great Wafer Caper of Aught Nine. Yes, I promise: I’m still taking this Very, Very Seriously — and will continue to pursue it like a mongoose after a cobra. But occasionally, one is struck by the epiphanette that, if aliens were to land outside your front door, knock politely, and ask you to sum up the deeper purpose behind human existence based on whatever you happened to be doing at that exact moment, it would result in a lot of confusedly furled antennae.

Anyway, just so you can all see exactly what was asked, and answered, here’s the rest of our exchange, which was conducted via email earlier this morning, because ITQ — like journalism and also evil — never sleeps:

ITQ:  If not, were you ever contacted by the paper while it was in the process of putting the story together?

WK: The last journalist to contact me from the T-J was my friend Jacques Poitras, years ago. He doesn’t work there anymore. I haven’t heard from any person at the newspaper since, nor have I contacted anyone there.

ITQ: Did you have any prior knowledge that the story would be coming out that day, whether directly — from someone at the paper itself — or indirectly — via second-hand rumours, etc?

WK: I heard a rumour that something was coming about Harper and the funeral, as did many others. I did not know what it was; I was standing some twenty feet from Harper, and did not see what happened. From my perspective,  in fact, Harper deserved some credit for just being there to pay his respects to a great, great man and – on my web site on that day – I gave him some credit for being there.

ITQ: Is there anything else that you would like to get on the record here as far as the apology from the Telegraph Journal, the comments made by Bob Fife that suggested “Liberal” involvement in “passing the story” to Jamie Irving, or the LifeSite News post alleging that you posted the video before the paper had come out?

WK: This whole affair is symptomatic with what is wrong with this “government.” In a week where StatsCan is showing unemployment levels exploding, their preoccupation is something else entirely – themselves. It is always just about them.

I realize they are terrified about losing whatever headway they have made with the so-called Catholic vote. But this is not how to go about doing it, in my opinion.

I publicized this story because of their insane overreaction. Had they not overreacted, it would not have been as interesting to me or anyone else.

My lawyers have sent a letter to Lifesite News this morning demanding that they correct the record (as you have sought to do), and apologize. If they do not, they will profoundly regret it. And that, too, is the truth.

Just a quick note on the third question — the one about whether he had any prior knowledge that a story would be coming out — to (I hope) preempt any new conspiracy theorizing, ITQ should probably add that it’s not unusual at all for rumours of imminent stories to hit the Hill berryvine. Journalists — and politicians, and staffers, and everyone else — are human, and as such, we talk. We don’t usually trade specifics, for obvious reasons — don’t want to get scooped by the competition — but the idea that Kinsella would have heard something in advance does not, by itself, imply any sort of involvement in planting the story in the first place.

And as mentioned above, ITQ isn’t going to let this go just yet. She’ll keep you posted if she’s able to uncover anything else.

UPDATE: Courtesy of Commenter Harbles, a link to a response from Kinsella in his comment thread to the timestamp question.