Media mis-report "showdown" between Richard Butts and Harold MacKay over Metallica show

There's no evidence that MacKay has paid any of the money lost on Common concerts.

Under the headline "Concert promoter agrees to pay HRM thousands," last week, CBC broadly implied that concert promoter Harold MacKay had paid back about $40,000 of the the $359,550 lost in the Common concert fiasco:

The city had been trying to recover approximately $359,550 — a portion of a $400,000 advance issued to MacKay's former company for the Black Eyed Peas and Alan Jackson concerts.
Tickets sales for the concerts were poor and the municipality ended up losing the money.
Sources told CBC News the city told MacKay that if he paid a settlement of $40,000, it would not withhold municipal services for the Metallica concert next month. The July 14 concert is being put on by MacKay Entertainment Inc., run by MacKay's wife.
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Although Halifax Regional Municipality officials declined to comment on the story on Wednesday, they confirmed there are ongoing discussions about how to recover the rest of the money.
[emphasis added]

Today, in his column in Metro, Stephen Kimber takes the ceeb's implied recovery of past due amounts from MacKay and runs with it:

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Tim Bousquet

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